Colorado Living with J.v.L Bell and Dori McCraw

J.v.L. Bell Enjoys this Colorado:

Today, when folks visit Colorado, they enjoy skiing in deep powder, climbing up a 14,000-foot peak, rafting through Glenwood Canyon, or backpacking the Colorado Trail. These are all wonderful things that shouldn’t be missed, but while visiting Colorado, don’t forget to learn a little about the state’s vibrant history, and more importantly, make sure you read at least one good Colorado yarn.

Colorado yarns started back when early mountain men roamed through the Rocky Mountains, now and then meeting around a campfire to share a story, a bottle, and a bit of human company. Yarns were tales filled with accurate details but, like the bigger-than-life lives of many of these men lived, truth was often stretched. Soon prairie schooners cut ruts over mountain passes—ignoring the Native American’s ownership of the land—and miners told tales of gold nuggets the size of watermelon seeds, grizzlies that hunted men for fun, and little people and tommyknockers who warned of trouble in mines. Colorado yarns can be found throughout Colorado’s turbulent history, including in some newspapers.

One such story happened on February 8, 1860, when the Rocky Mountain News published details of the “Turkey War” of 1860. In this war, never-do-gooders—nicknamed Bummers—made off with a wagonload of turkeys, proving as ‘59er Uncle Dick Wootton once said, “Stealing is the only occupation of a considerable proportion of the population.” During the Turkey War, excitement ran high as witnesses identified the criminals, including my personal favorite, “Chuck-a-luck” William Todd.

The war turned violent when the key witness, W.H. Middaugh, had a bullet graze his head as he exited the Vasquez House. “Noisy Tom” Pollock was attacked and struck his assailant “over the head with a heavy Hawken’s rifle, laying open his scalp and effectually rendering him hors du combat for the remainder of the campaign.” There were numerous skirmishes and the good townspeople worried the Bummers would try to fire the town—it was, after all, built mostly from wood. Fortunately, good prevailed over evil and by dawn the Bummers had fled to “parts unknown.” The war ended with the townspeople issuing a proclamation: Chuck-a-luck and his compatriots had five hours to leave the city or be hanged. 

Like any good story, romance and tragedy played a part in any good yarn. The tale of Clifford Griffin is a perfect example. Clifford, an English gentleman of good birth, arrived in Colorado in 1880 and moved into a cabin near the Seven Thirty mine, high above the mining town of Silver Plume. Clifford was a poet, a violinist, and by all accounts, he managed the Seven Thirty mine well, yet on June 19, 1887, his young life ended with a bullet. In his memory, his brother placed a ten-foot-high monument on the mountain near where he died. The monument still stands there today.[1]

Newspapers for the next hundred and thirty years would retell Clifford’s story, embellishing it until in 2017, it was published in the Loveland Reporter Herald with the romance of a good yarn. Clifford had become a tragic hero, his fiancée dying on the eve of their wedding, his haunting violin melodies heard every night by the miners in the town below. They listened on the night of June 19, 1887 when his exceptional performance ended with the sound of gunfire. Heartbroken, Clifford had dug his own grave, played his last concerto, and ended his young life.

It’s a lovely yarn, embellished at times with a suspected murder and other intriguing details, yet the truth, as researched by MaryJoy Martin in her book Suicide Legends, Homicide Rumors, is harder to read. Young Clifford suffered from depression and eventually got drunk and took his own life. His suicide was covered up by his wealthy brother.

Perhaps the yarn is the better way to remember Clifford.

One of my favorite historical stories involves nineteen-year-old Ada LaMont. At 17, she married the young minister of her church and two years later, in 1859, they headed to the Pikes Peak region, not to search for gold but to carry the gospel into the wilderness. Unfortunately, while crossing the Great Plains, Ada’s youthful clergyman husband disappeared. That same night, a young lady of doubtful reputation also vanished, leaving Ada heartbroken.

Poor Ada said nothing until she reached Indian Row in the Cherry Creek settlements. Then the beautiful young woman climbed onto a barrel and made an announcement: “As a God-fearing woman, you see me for the last time. As of tomorrow, I start the first brothel in this settlement. In the future my name will be Addie LaMont. Any of you men in need of a little fun will always find the flaps of my tent open.” Thus sin came to the Rocky Mountains, or so they say.[2] [3]

In a state where a mountain, Mount Silverheels, was named after a dance hall girl, and where an entire town, Independence, turned survival into a game—a ski race down from the high-altitude, snowbound town—it is often difficult to separate truth from a story. So next time you visit Colorado, put your feet up by a warm fire and pick up a good yarn. In the flickering firelight you’ll laugh, and you’ll cry, but as the firelight dies, you’ll still be reading. Because a good Colorado yarn is many things, but it is never, ever boring.

 

J.v. L Bell Bio: 

Author J.v.L. Bell was born and raised in Colorado and has spent her life hiking, biking, rafting, backpacking, and climbing throughout Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. At an early age, she fell in love with Colorado’s vibrant history, but it was the state’s lore and stories that captured her heart. She loves reading Colorado yarns that intertwine history and tall tales, leaving the reader delighted, yet wondering about fact versus fiction. Her novels, The Lucky Hat Mine and Denver City Justice, follow in this old tradition, although she did try and tell the truth, and nothing but the truth, in her biography Elizabeth Byers: Denver Pioneer.

Website: www.jvlbell.com

Email: Julie@JvLbell.com

The Lucky Hat Mine, 2018 Will Rogers award winner in Western Humor

Elizabeth Byers, Denver Pioneer, Filter Press

Denver City Justice, The Hansen Publishing Group

Doris McCraw Writing as Angela Raines:

Ah, Colorado. There is so much to love about the state. The mountains with skiing in winter, and hiking in summer. Lakes, National Forest and Parks along with fishing, hunting and sightseeing. I love them all, but its the history that inspires me and my writings.

This year, 2020, is the anniversary of women getting the right to vote nationwide. In honor, I thought it might be interesting to see where Colorado and the women who lived here were involved. Here is the story of the women in Colorado and their work on behalf of women’s suffrage.

Almost from the beginning Colorado and the Kansas Territory before that, was sympathetic to women’s suffrage. By 1874 Alida Avery, one of the early doctors in the state, arrived from Vassar, where she was on the staff as professor and doctor, to take up a practice and also work for women’s suffrage. She was followed by many other female doctors, most who were also active in the movement along with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.

By 1890 there was a concerted push to get the right to vote. One of those who help re-energize the fight was Dr. Mary Helen Barker Bates, who had arrived in the state before 1880. She along with Ellis Meredith, Minnie Reynolds, Patience Stapleton, Martha Pease and Elizabeth Ensley renamed the Colorado Equal Suffrage Association to the Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association. They began networking with other women’s and men’s groups to spearhead the move to add the amendment.

The work payed off. In 1893 Colorado voted to add an amendment to the state constitution which gave women in the state the right to vote. Once Colorado women had the right to vote they set their sights on  the national suffrage movement, working to secure the right to vote for all women.

These women, ones who followed their dreams, worked for causes they believed in, are not only inspirations to me but for my writing as well. As a writer of action oriented stories in both Medieval and Western Historical Romance, the stories of these amazing women can be found in pieces of my own works.

One lucky person who comments will get a copy of my latest novel, “The Outlaw’s Letter”. Here is the best to all of you as you traverse this year of 2020.

Doris McCraw, who writes fiction under the name Angela Raines is a historian who focuses on Colorado and Women’s History. She is a member of the National League of American Pen Women, Western Writers of America, Women Writing the West and Western Fictioneers. Her works can be found on Amazon under her author page: https://amzn.to/2QQ0rhT  Also, watch for her new website to go live in the next month or so. Www.angelaraines.net

---

[1] Photo of Monument from Denver Public Library.

[2] Zamonski, Stanley W. and Keller, Teddy, The ‘59ers: Roaring Denver in the Gold Rush Days, pp 14-15.

[3] Newspaper from Rocky Mountain News, May 15, 1861, pp 3, found at: https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=RMD18610515&e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA--------0--

(all info provided and released by authors)

It’s Colorful Colorado with Colorful Angela Raines

It is called colorful for a reason. From the colorful history, to the stunning vistas, and the amazing sunrises and sunsets, Colorado is a feast for the eyes and the heart. It is the place that inspired early women authors Helen (Hunt) Jackson author of “Ramona”, Isabella Bird author of “A Ladies life in the Rocky Mountains”, and the essays of Grace Greenwood, to immortalize its beauty in words.

For those who look at a map they will see that the state is divided East and West by Interstate 25 running along the front Range. Interstate 70 and US Highway 50 are the main east-west West thoroughfares that bisect the state North and South. But Colorado is more than just bisecting interstate roads. It is a state that, to paraphrase the states first film Commissioner Karol W Smith, a place where filmmakers can literally re-create anyplace on earth.

So what makes this state both unique and colorful? You could start with this colorful history, beginning with the volcanoes which created much of present-day Colorado, the dinosaurs, the native peoples, the early pathfinders/mountain men, prospectors, to present day technology.

In the northwest corner of the state you have the Dinosaur National Monument, and the southeast part of the state with its petroglyphs and dinosaur tracks in the Comanche National Grasslands. The southeast corner has the Pawnee National Grasslands with the Pawnee Buttes, while the southwest corner of the state has many early native peoples sites, including Mesa Verde. In between is areas full of so many possibilities for a writer to tap into.

Colorado in elevation is the highest state in the lower forty-eight The highest mountain peak is mount Elbert at 14,439 feet, to the lowest spot in the southeast portion of the state which is at an elevation of 3,315 feet. (Which is higher than eighteen states highest points.) Those same mountains brought the mountain men into the area in the 1820s. Those mountain men and the businesses they generated created many of the early fur trading forts, the most famous of which is Bent’s Fort along the Arkansas River.

Of course we cannot forget the ‘Fifty-Niners’, who braved the high elevation in search of the elusive gold, silver and other minerals. Those same gold seekers ended up creating the ‘World’s Greatest Gold Camp’ in 1891 when gold was found in the cripple Creek mining district. (As a side note there is still an active gold mine in that region, still extracting gold from that region.) It is probably because of all that early volcanic activity that Colorado has been such a rich area for the extraction of gold and silver. But one must not forget the gemstones that are also mind in the state of Colorado. For those who wonder, the area north and west of Pike's Peak, including Mount Antero are a treasure trove for those who wish to extract those precious colors from the mountains. And yes there are even those who find gemstones on Pike's Peak itself.

Even today Colorado is an exciting and colorful state. From the many wonderful places to visit such as the Royal Gorge Park and Bridge, Pike's Peak, Mount Evans, along with all of the preserved history sites to include Mesa Verde and Bent's Fort, Colorado offers so much. The eastern plains with its ranches and early railroad history, to the Western's slope with the towns like Fruita and Palisades and the amazing wines that are created from the orchards there, to the cattle ranches and farming communities on both the eastern and western slopes, a person will always find something to inspire their eyes and imaginations.

It is this rich history that I mine for the historical fiction I write. From the imaginary town of Agate Gulch in the mountains, which in this has inspired the Agate Gulch novellas, to the eastern plains and the fictional town of Kiowa Wells and the novels from that town, Colorado, ‘Colorful Colorado’, has been an inspiration.

Recently, the state looked at the uniqueness of the various areas across the state and created a colorful map to help people visualize how rich and beautiful state is. If you ever visit the state, just know not only will you be walking in the steps of those adventurous people who came before, but your eyes can feast on the beauty that is ‘Colorful Colorado’.

From those who comment here, I will be offering either the e-books set of my Agate Gulch stories or an e-book of choice from the two Kiowa Wells novels that are out, or if you wish to wait and e-book copy of the upcoming Kiowa Wells novel "The Outlaw's Letter" due this coming April.

You’re comment also enters you into the monthly grand prize contest so, leave a comment and an avenue of contact so we can find you if you’re the winner!

About Angela Raines

Angela Raines is the pen name for Doris McCraw. Doris is an author, historian, performer, speaker and poet. She moved from the historically rich region of West Central Illinois to the equally history rich Colorado. Many of her works focus on the history that has surrounded her all her life. An avid reader Doris also loves to spend time in history archives, either online, in history centers, or local libraries, looking for small, unknown pieces of history. Usually these found gems are in her books, short stories, blogs and non-fiction papers written for publications. She also has a continuing project of documenting the women doctors who lived, studied and worked in Colorado prior to 1900.

Doris writes in both the Medieval and Western Romance, along with the Western genre. All have a extraordinary histories that just beg to be told. Sometimes Doris thinks the 'muse' may be asking too much, but then smiles and digs right in.

Visit Dori McCraw writing as Angela Raines here https://www.amazon.com/Angela-Raines/e/B00N0HJOVG

Highlighting the Talent of Colorado

First Up: Doris McCraw’s Inspiration:

As a writer, I take my inspiration from many sources. One source that constantly brings me joy and ideas is where I live. I walk out my door and look upon Pikes Peak and Cheyenne Mountain. If the weather is cold, I can also see them from my window. There is something so comforting about their presence.  Helen (Hunt) Jackson adored Cheyenne Mountain.

Here is the beginning of her poem of the same name:

 By easy slope to west as if it had
No thought, when first its soaring was begun,
Except to look devoutly to the sun,
It rises, and has risen, until, glad,
With light as with a garment, it is clad,

The history of my adopted state is also high on the list. When they found gold in California, many headed that way, but went around what would become Colorado. Their reason, the mountains were impassable. As a result, Colorado was settled late compared to some places. Of course, there are always exceptions. The southeast section of the state had a portion of the Santa Fe Trail pass though. The Bent brothers had their trading post along the Arkansas River in the early 1820s.

In the 1830-40s, the eastern plains saw a number of trading post (forts) pop up to take advantage of the fur trading business. Those impassable mountains for wagons were the ‘gold mine’ for the trappers who plied their trade in those same high peaks.

When gold was found in the late 1850s, those same mountains saw an influx of adventurers that changed the face of the region. Railroad building became the second ‘gold mine’ for many. Again the Eastern Plains saw much of this activity as the railroad strove to access the gold and the western coast.

Many forget the early days and towns of those Eastern Plains, but they have stories to tell too. My first novel was sparked by the idea of a woman doctor moving to one of those early railroad/ranching towns. The second novel came into fruition by the story of a southeastern town that grew quickly, being near the border of Oklahoma and Texas, and died in a blast of flames.

Karol W. Smith, Colorado’s first film commissioner, the first in the nation, once said, and I paraphrase ‘Colorado offers locations that can be doubled for almost anywhere in the world. If you wanted the plains of Texas, go to the area around La Junta and Lamar. If you wanted desert, there was The Great Sand Dunes. Colorado has buildings that could pass for buildings of the future, mountains that could pass for the Alps, and the Great Plains was the area between Pueblo and La Junta.’. As you can see, my adopted state offers inspiration, no matter where I am.

For those who comment on this post, I will be giving away the two e-books, “Josie’s Dream”, and the January 30, 2018 release of “Chasing a Chance”.  May all find inspiration where you live, for life and the world around us is beautiful.

Doris McCraw writes under the pen name Angela Raines. She is a novelist, poet and historian specializing in Colorado and Women’s History. She is a member of the National League of Pen Women, Women Writing the West and publishes with Prairie Rose Publications along with self-publishing.

 

Angela Raines – author: Where Love & History Meet

For a list of Angela Raines Books: https://www.amazon.com/Angela-Raines/e/B00N0HJOVG/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1

Angela Raines FaceBook: http://bit.ly/2b7okij

Pamela Nowak’s Favorite Getaways:

One of the great things about living in Colorado is the endless number of fun get-away spots. Rather than sharing on the larger “things to see” in this gorgeous state, I thought I’d talk about just a few of the great places to spend a couple days.

On the Western slope of the Rockies, just eleven miles east of Grand Junction, lies a small community called Palisade. It’s a small town with basic amenities and a whole lot of fruit orchards and wineries.  Our favorite place to stay is the Wine Country Inn with its two restaurants, front-porch style rooms, pool, and late afternoon wine tastings. There are also B&B's, other hotel choices, and camp grounds.

Wine lovers can visit any of the eighteen vineyards and tasting rooms—just don’t plan on any more than a fraction of them on a single day. Fruit stands and markets abound, nearly all of them offering the area’s renowned peaches.


Nature and animal lovers can enjoy area trails, a wild horse area, and alpaca farms.

Small shops and galleries beckon shoppers. Bikes and scooters are available for rental and river trips can be arranged. Carriage rides can add romance. Big city Grand Junction is a ten minute drive away. Pick up a map of wineries and orchards at your hotel and create your own itinerary or take one of the many tours offered and avoid driving yourself. For a special treat, schedule a trip during a festival weekend but be sure to book early.

A totally different get-away can be found at Glenwood Springs.  This mountain community is home to multiple hot-springs and pools. Pool passes can be purchased at most hotels and many of them offer special packages with pool entrance included. The largest and best-known pool is the

Glenwood Hot Springs Pool which features a gigantic main pool, always 90-93 degrees, and a smaller hot therapy pool, plus a wading pool and slides. Play is encouraged with many bringing float toys. If you want a lounge chair, plan to arrive early in the day—there are a lot of them but they fill fast—and bring sunscreen. The pool is open year-round. We’ve stayed in several places but love the boutique Denver Hotel across the interstate from the pool and don’t mind the walk across the pedestrian bridge to get there. There are a host of great restaurants in town to wrap up the day.

Another favorite spot is Estes Park. Located at the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, the town has a delightful main street filled with good places to eat and tiny shops that merit exploration. In the fall, it is home to herds of elk. A visit into RMNP is a must, whether to hike or just to see the   We enjoy the atmosphere of the Appenzell Inn with its peaceful gardens but a stay at the Stanley Inn (The Shining ) should not be missed. For large family gatherings, try Solitude Cabins. On our list to try for a romantic trip is Della Terra Mountain Chateau.
views and wildlife. Motels abound as do condo rentals, cabins, and campgrounds. There are trail rides and an aerial tram; museums and tours, rafting and tubing and zip-lines. The Scottish-Irish Festival in September is fun-filled and a huge Christmas parade is held every Thanksgiving weekend. If you come for special events, or during elk season, reserve a room in advance.

If you have a favorite Colorado get-away, please chime in and comment. In celebration of Colorado, I will randomly gift a digital copy of Escaping Yesterday, set in 1905 in Denver’s original Elitch Gardens to one of you.  

Find me on my website/blog and Facebook at: www.pamelanowak.com or www.facebook.com/pamela.nowak.142.

You can find my books on Amazon.com Author Page- Pamela Nowak  or at your local bookstores. 

(Info provided by Authors and author sites and Helen Hunt Jackson )

Retired Teacher Turned Writer of Colorado-Nancy Oswald

I’m homegrown, a retired teacher from a rural Colorado school, and live on our family ranch south of Cotopaxi, Colorado.  Since I mostly write Colorado-set historical fiction and non-fiction for young readers you’re going to get a bit of an eclectic tour of Colorado starting with my immediate surrounding and then to a few of the settings for my books.  

First, let’s get Denver out of the way.  I grew up there, but none of my books are set there unless you’re a believer that nothing that is ever written escapes the filter of an author’s experiences and who that person is at the heart level.  With that said, the closest book to my growing up experiences was published before I began to focus on historical fiction. It has been re-written and is out today under the title, Insects in the Infield, and captures the feel of growing up in the 50’s and 60’s when motoring around the neighborhood (and beyond) on a bike was common, and the freedom that went along with it electrifying. 

I left Denver for good after college and after marriage and a 12 year detour to British Columbia, returned with my husband to take over the lease on a ranch that has been in my family since 1948.  My husband and I are now the third generation to ranch here, raising and selling beef naturally with a lifetime goal of continually improving soil and pastures and leaving the ranch whole for future generations to benefit from.  

We are situated at the north end of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.  This is a smaller mountain range that stretches from New Mexico northward to the middle of the Colorado. If you were a pioneer, traveling a southern route on your westward journey, your first mountain sighting might have been of the Spanish Peaks which Wikipedia wrongly names as part of the Rocky Mountains instead of this smaller, independent mountain range.   

The pioneers didn’t know the difference either.  In my biography of Edward Wynkoop, one of the founders of Denver, he describes the cheers from the seventeen (frozen) throats of the men in his party when “there before us, darting their snowcapped points into the blue outers were the three Spanish Peaks of the Rocky Mountains.”

We’re not always frozen here, but at 7500 feet, we catch our fair share of Colorado winter weather.  A storm can last a few days, but almost always clears quickly leaving the contrast of white against a crystal clear blue sky just as Wynkoop described it.  In contrast to Arizona, our predators and plants are a bit larger and less poisonous and prickly.  Our county has the largest population of Mountain Lions in Colorado and possibly the entire country.  Black bear, coyotes, deer, elk, wild turkeys, and big horn sheep along the Arkansas River are predominant.   

Our stretch of the Arkansas River is also the area planned for the controversial, 40 mile “Over the River” draping by the world famous artist, Christo.  There are some court cases pending in effort by to stop the project, but so far they have only been able to delay the “draping” until some future date.  It’s been nicknamed by locals as “rags over the river” or ROAR—Rags Over the Arkansas River. 

 Without getting too far from the home geographically,  let’s retro-leap to 1882.  In that year, a group of courageous Russian Jews immigrated to Cotopaxi to escape the latest pogroms of the Tsarist regime.  They planned to farm and eventually own land.  The remains of this colony are at about 8,500 feet on the southwest corner of our ranch and formed the basis for my first published historical fiction novel for young readers, 

Nothing Here but Stones. It was first published in hardback in 2004 and is now out in paperback. 

This is the book that lured me down the historical fiction trail.  Not only did I find it fun to write about an event that literally happened in my back yard, but it launched me into other parts of the state.  In 1864, while most of the rest of the country was focused on wrapping up the Civil War, the Sand Creek Massacre took place in eastern Colorado, roughly in the area of Eads.  During this massacre a group of friendly Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians who believed they were under the protection of the US military were attacked and brutally killed.  The events leading up to and beyond the massacre formed the basis for my second historical fiction book, Hard Face Moon, which tells the story of this event through the viewpoint of a mute 13 year old coming-of-age Cheyenne boy. 

To lighten things up a little, my final writing destination in Colorado to date is Cripple Creek,  Colorado where Ruby, an 11 year old girl, her donkey, and a cat find themselves in one predicament after the next.  There are three Ruby and Maude Adventures set in Cripple Creek, Rescue in Poverty Gulch, Trouble on the Tracks, and Trouble Returns.  I call these books my antidote to writing about the Sand Creek Massacre as they are light-hearted and fairly tame in comparison. The history of Cripple Creek began with a booming gold rush and stretches into the present times. Many of the original buildings have been converted into casinos, but the historic flavor of this elevated (10,000 plus feet) mountain town remains. 

This completes my tour.  If the idea of reading more about Colorado’s past has grabbed you, leave a comment for a chance to receive a copy of Massacre, Murder, and Mayhem in the Rocky Mountain West, a compilation of articles published in conjunction with the Pikes Peak Library yearly history symposium.  Make sure to include contact info. 

 I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief tour and learned a little bit along the way.  More about me, www.nancyoswald.com  More about our business and Grass finished beef:  www.oswaldgrassfedbeef.com

(all info author provided)