Colorado History

This page is for me a place to collect all of my facts, stories, and information on the topic of Colorado history. I have put it on the Internet in the hopes that others interested in this topic will be able to use this information and/or get in touch with me regarding Colorado history. Of course, there's nothing like sitting in the Village Inn in Monument, Colorado eating a Reeses Peanut Butter pie, talking with Joe Redner about Horace and Baby Doe Taylor and the Colorado railroad days, but I would also like to get in touch with others on the Internet who research Colorado history as their hobby and would like to discuss and learn together with me.

I've given a couple talks to high schools students in the Berlin area on the topic of Colorado history and through this have collected some of the basic stories and facts. In addition, during my trips back to Colorado, I have collected quite an extensive library of Colorado books and have read a few of them so far. Here is an overview of my library. If anyone would like to read any of the books I haven't read yet with me, please send me a message.

Colorado Books I Have Read:
Title	Author	Notes
Horace Tabor	Duane A. Smith	A full biography of Horace Tabor's life, with a heavy concentration on the Baby Doe love triangle. I enjoyed the ambiguous description of Mrs. Tabor: she wasn't to be pitied nor loved nor hated. A nice writing style, very readable.
Denver: Mining Camp to Metropolis	Stephen Leonard, Thomas Noel	Nice textbook overview of Denver history. Good for the basic facts.
Colorado	Jon Klusmire	Excellent pictures. Guided toward the Colorado tourist. Basic information and excellent pictures.
A Colorado History	Carl Ubbelohde, Maxine Benson, Duane Smith	Apparently acknowledged as "the best general history of the Centennial State available." Leaves nothing out but a bit chopped up into theme chapters. Good information.

Colorado books in my library: (in order of those I want to read first)
Title	Author	Notes
Whiteout: Lost in Aspen	Ted Conover	Seems to be a story about the glitzy life in Aspen from the point of view of a taxi driver (?). I opened it up to a section which explained "what was wrong with John Denver". Funny. Should be a good book.
The Turner Thesis: Concerning the Role of the Frontier in American History	Edited by George Rogers Taylor	Not directly a Colorado book, but deals with the issue how much the frontier, the existence of an area of free land, played a part in forming American society. Opponents argue that is was instead capitalism and imperialism which were the more formative factors.
A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains	Isabella L. Bird	The diary of an English woman traveling around the Rockies in 1873 (!). "Women were scarce enough in the West of the late nineteeenth century, and a middle-aged English lady traveling alone, by horseback, was a real phenomenon." "In its simple and disarming style, it is a great piece of reporting on a rugged frontier."
Newport in the Rockies: The Life and Good Times of Colorado Springs	Marshall Sprague	A popular book on the history of Colorado Springs, "revised for the 90s.".
Colorado: A Summer Trip	Bayard Taylor	"First published in 1867, consists of letters written by Bayard Taylor for Horae Greeley's New York Tribune while touring the colorado Territory on horseback."
The Search	Tom Brown, Jr.	I picked up this gem in some mountain town during my last Rocky Mountain trip. It's not a book specifically about Colorado, but one about living in nature. Raised by an Apache, Tom Brown knows nature. "After being featured in PEOPLE magazine, he slipped into the wilderness for an entire year with only a knife and his famous survival skills. He has come back with a vision to share.
The Legend of Baby Doe	John Burke	The Tabor triangle from view #2.
Agusta Tabor: A Pioneering Woman	Betty Moynihan	The Tabor triangle from view #3.
Massacre: The Tragedy at White River	Marshall Sprague	"On a September morning in 1879, a band of Ute warriors ambushed a file of troops under gallant Maj. Thornburg below yellowjacket Pass in northwestern Colorado. Before the day was over they had killed their Indian agent at White River, murdered his staff and carried three white women to their camps. This was the Massacre at White River. As a result, the ute tribe was moved to barren lands in Utah and the glorious western slope of Colorado was thrown open to white settlement." Marshall Sprague analyzes the event by telling the stories of Nathan Meeker and Chief Ouray, showing the good and evil sides of both. Good reviews.