Colorado Books

Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers

Ralph Moody

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Bison Books Amazon Marketplace: 69 new & used starting at $4.79

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Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Regional U.S. -> West
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 60 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A wonderful biography 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a wonderful look into how life was... I found myself thinking about the work load on children back then and thinking "and I worry that unloading the dishwasher and keeping their bath clean is too much to ask?!?" Well not any more. A great "classic"

Speechless 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Oh I am speechless. This is a book full of grace, character, This is the writers real life boyhood and apparently thought he could make a good book out of it. Boy was he right! I could read this book about three hundred times and then maybe think about putting it down! This man had such a life as a kid! man you would think it was fictional but when you know its not it makes you well... Speechless!

Editorial Review:

Ralph Moody was eight years old in 1906 when his family moved from New Hampshire to a Colorado ranch. Through his eyes we experience the pleasures and perils of ranching there early in the twentieth century. Auctions and roundups, family picnics, irrigation wars, tornadoes and wind storms give authentic color to Little Britches. So do adventures, wonderfully told, that equip Ralph to take his father's place when it becomes necessary.

Little Britches was the literary debut of Ralph Moody, who wrote about the adventures of his family in eight glorious books, all available as Bison Books.

Man of the Family

Ralph Moody

Amazon Price: $10.36 List Price: $12.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Bison Books Amazon Marketplace: 55 new & used starting at $3.73

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Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Memoirs
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Ralph Moody Collection 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 13 people found this review helpful.

A reviewer asked for help regarding the names and volumes in this series. Here it is...

1. Little Britches
2. Man of the Family
3. The Home Ranch
4. Mary Emma & Company
5. The Fields of Home
6. Shaking the Nickel
7. The Dry Divide
8. Horse of a Different Color

Mr. Moody shares adventures of his life in this series. It's wonderful, but there is some foul language. Therefore, I would recommend reading the books aloud with older children (not for the preschool/early elementary crowd).

Editorial Review:

Fortified with Yankee ingenuity and western can-do energy, the Moody family, transplanted from New England, builds a new life on a Colorado ranch early in the twentieth century. Father has died and Little Britches shoulders the responsibilities of a man at age eleven. Man of the Family continues true pioneering adventures as unforgettable as those in Little Britches and The Fields of Home, also available as Bison Books.

Oddball Colorado: A Guide to Some Really Strange Places (Oddball series)

Jerome Pohlen

Amazon Price: $11.16 List Price: $13.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Chicago Review Press Amazon Marketplace: 27 new & used starting at $8.38

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Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> Colorado
Subjects -> Reference -> Fun Facts -> Curiosities & Wonders
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The best travel guide - period! 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 12 people found this review helpful.

We recently moved to Colorado and purchased about a dozen travel guides to help us get oriented. Oddball Colorado was one we just sort of grabbed in the melee. My wife and I would burst out in spontaneous laughter as we read it. Rather than read it cover to cover, I found myself bouncing around from page to page. Just when I thought I had finished it I would discover another golden nugget I had overlooked. It was a sad day when I realized I had finally finished it!

Now all other travel guides seem inconsequential. Pohlen identifies the natural wonders that really matter (to me!). The cheesy roadside attractions that seemed to capture my father's big station wagon with their tractor beams. Reading the book is like taking a ride with my dad all over again.

Now I've moved onto Oddball Illinois. And I thought nothing could make me want to visit Illinois!

Editorial Review:

A high-altitude alligator farm. A UFO watchtower. A monument to a headless chicken. While other travel guides tell you about tackling Pike's Peak, skiing the back bowls, or rafting down the Arkansas River, this quirky regional resource offers unusual travel destinations and little-known historical titbits. Imagine regaling co-workers with unique Rocky Mountain adventures, like spending an evening at a drive-in movie...in a queen-sized bed, or visiting a vapour cave clad only in a towel. How about seeing a two-headed dragon made of car parts, or watching cliff divers while eating Mexican food?

Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire

John N. Maclean

Amazon Price: $11.20 List Price: $14.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Washington Square Press Amazon Marketplace: 83 new & used starting at $1.43

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Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> Colorado
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 41 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Colorado and its neighboring states battle thousands of wildfires every year, scrub and sagebrush blazes often ignited by lightning strikes in the dry, hot days of summer. A vast, intertwined firefighting infrastructure combining local resources with agencies like the Forest Service and the BLM, reacts to these flare-ups as if going to war--and in theory, the coordination and communication ensures that fires are fought in the most efficient and safe manner possible. But while most wildfires in Colorado end up costing just over $60,000 on average with no loss of life, the catastrophic South Canyon fire of 1994 burned for 10 days, at the ultimate cost of $4.5 million and the lives of 14 firefighters. OSHA would later describe the coordinated action flatly as a "management failure," and concurrent investigations would reveal a tangled web of jealous rivalries, bureaucratic bungling, and severe morale problems. (One of the early on-scene supervisors would later tell investigators, "Leadership in this state sucks.")

John Maclean (son of Norman Maclean, who wrote both A River Runs Through It and an award-winning account of Montana's deadly 1949 Mann Gulch fire) skillfully unfolds that summer's foreboding blow-by-blow. Fire on the Mountain weaves together a tense narrative of almost cinematic action, starring ballsy cowboy smokejumpers, frustrated federal middle managers, seasoned "hotshots" flown in like commandos, pissed-off tanker pilots, and well-intentioned but spin-wary politicians. Maclean's well-sketched personalities bring the action on the ground convincingly to life--and knowing up front that many of his main characters won't survive South Canyon makes this tragic tale that much more compelling. --Paul Hughes

Killing for Coal: America's Deadliest Labor War

Thomas G. Andrews

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Economics -> Labor & Industrial Relations
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Industries & Professions -> Industrial Relations
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Industries & Professions -> Oil & Energy

Editorial Review:

On a spring morning in 1914, in the stark foothills of southern Colorado, members of the United Mine Workers of America clashed with guards employed by the Rockefeller family, and a state militia beholden to Colorado’s industrial barons. When the dust settled, nineteen men, women, and children among the miners’ families lay dead. The strikers had killed at least thirty men, destroyed six mines, and laid waste to two company towns.

Killing for Coal offers a bold and original perspective on the 1914 Ludlow Massacre and the “Great Coalfield War.” In a sweeping story of transformation that begins in the coal beds and culminates with the deadliest strike in American history, Thomas Andrews illuminates the causes and consequences of the militancy that erupted in colliers’ strikes over the course of nearly half a century. He reveals a complex world shaped by the connected forces of land, labor, corporate industrialization, and workers’ resistance.

Brilliantly conceived and written, this book takes the organic world as its starting point. The resulting elucidation of the coalfield wars goes far beyond traditional labor history. Considering issues of social and environmental justice in the context of an economy dependent on fossil fuel, Andrews makes a powerful case for rethinking the relationships that unite and divide workers, consumers, capitalists, and the natural world.

John Fielder's Best of Colorado

John Fielder

Amazon Price: $26.95 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Westcliffe Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 37 new & used starting at $3.46

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Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Photo Essays
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Travel -> United States -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> Colorado

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Imagine what it would be like to take a trip through Colorado with John Fielder as your tour guide, or to be on location at a Fielder photo shoot. Now is your chance to do both! The celebrated photographer who has traveled the state for more than 20 years in search of its most beautiful vistas shares his love for Colorado's rugged beauty, as well as his knowledge of Colorado's historical, recreational, and cultural richness, in this extraordinary guidebook. Through lively text and spectacular images, John reveals more than 160 of his most treasured Colorado locations to photograph so you can work magic with your own camera. You can enjoy some of the state's prime offerings while you travel, as John profiles his favorite restaurants, hotels, hiking and biking trails, and area attractions. Local lore and cameos of influential Coloradans through the ages highlight the state's fascinating heritage. Whether you're a longtime local, a new resident, or an out-of-state visitor, John Fielder's Best of Colorado guarantees the ultimate insider experience!

With Picks, Shovels, & Hope: The CCC and Its Legacy on the Colorado Plateau

Wayne K. Hinton, Elizabeth A. Green

Amazon Price: $19.80 List Price: $30.00 Usually ships in 7 to 13 days By: Mountain Press Publishing Company Amazon Marketplace: 10 new & used starting at $18.00

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Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> Depression
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A survey replete with fine color photos of Colorado natural landscapes 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

While WITH PICKS, SHOVELS AND HOPE: THE CCC AND ITS LEGACY ON THE COLORADO PLATEAU will likely be a top pick for Colorado libraries, any interested in public lands management, Depression-era history, or the Civilian Conservation Corps will find this a key historical guide. It tells the story of a group of young men who worked to restore forests, farmlands and more in America's national public lands, and it provides a survey replete with fine color photos of Colorado natural landscapes, throughout. A fine achievement.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Editorial Review:

In 1933, only days after his inauguration, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt launched a new program, the Civilian Conservation Corps, which put three-quarters of a million young men to work restoring forests and farmland, building infrastructure, and fighting fi res in America s national parks, monuments, and forests. Many workers were sent far from home, including thousands who came west to the Colorado Plateau. In this high, dry, and lonesome setting, they encountered natural beauty unlike anything they had ever seen as well as challenges they could
not have imagined. Incorporating the men s own reminiscences, With Picks, Shovels, and Hope tells their story.

To this day, visitors reap the rewards of the CCC s work. With Picks, Shovels, and Hope reveals how our public lands in the Colorado Plateau came to be the magnifi cent, visitor-friendly places they are. Dozens of beautiful color photographs and
historical black-and-whites illuminate this engaging history.

Canyon Wilderness of the Southwest (Deluxe Edition)

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Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Nature & Wildlife

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Straddling the borders of Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico lies a magnificent wilderness known as the Colorado Plateau. Encompassing over 130,000 square miles, it is a high, eroded tableland of rock, canyon, and desert, and within its boundaries are the greatest concentration of National Parks, National Monuments, State Parks, Wilderness areas, BLM holdings, and Native American tribal lands in America. There are thirteen geographical areas included in the book: Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness, Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion National Park, Cedar Breaks National Monument, Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument, Capitol Reef National Park, Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Grand Gulch, Petrified Forest National Park, Hopi Tribal Lands, Grand Canyon National Park, Navajo Tribal Lands.

Jon Ortner captures it all in this encompassing volume of full-color photographs. Packaged with a limited edition print signed by the photographer, this impressive collection features over 200 photographs accompanied by quotes from authors, travelers, and nature enthusiats who have fallen under the spell of this incredible region. Featuring the most extraordinary collection of multicolored landforms found anywhere on Earth, this remarkable assemblage of geological diversity and spectacular beauty attracts growing millions of U.S. and foreign tourists every year. These time-worn canyons, mesas, and vast wind-swept deserts form the greatest expanse of exposed rock in North America. Without cover of dense vegetation or topsoil, the jagged skeleton of the earth is revealed, providing a continuous geological record spanning over 300 million years. Nowhere else is the ancient history of the planet laid bare in such a clear and dramatic way. Mesas, buttes, towers, spires, hoodoos, arches, windows, fins, domes, bridges, and badlands, all are infused with incomparable colors, creating a surreal world of chromatic rocks, tinted soils,
and shimmering sand dunes. It is a luminous painting with hues that change with each hour of the day. These locations have long attracted photographers, but few have photographed with the unique 6x17cm Panorama Camera and modern fine-grain transparency films. The ruggedness of the land, the great distances to be traveled, and extreme weather conditions magnify the logistic difficulties of photographing in the deserts and narrow slot canyons of the Plateau. Transporting heavy photo equipment and film by backpack over long and difficult trails, presents both mental and physical challenges. And the desert is unforgiving of even the smallest errors, treating the unprepared harshly. But, for the few with passion, for those who are willing to begin their trek at the end of the road, the secret world of the high Southwest reveals its treasures.

These photographs reflect the power and stunning beauty of these incomparable monuments to time and the inexorable forces of nature. It is a portrait of a wonderland of colored stone that is the eternal soul of Mother Earth, the foundation of the planet, and a reminder of the ultimate insignificance of man and his creations.

The Quilt That Walked to Golden: Women and Quilts in the Mountain West-From the Overland Trail to Contemporary Colorado

Sandra Dallas, Nanette Simonds

Amazon Price: $13.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Breckling Press Amazon Marketplace: 30 new & used starting at $12.22

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Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Schools, Periods & Styles -> Folk Art
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Quilt That Walked to Golden:Women and Quilts in the Mountain West--From the Overland Trail to Contemporary Colorado 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Lovely looking book for your coffee table or your sewing library. The cover gets you 'in' and there it keeps you. Good quality illustrations and photos. Makes me feel all red, white and blue and I am an Australian. I love American history and this book did not disappoint me. It was a great thrill to see photos of quilts with their actual makers. As a fellow patchwork and quilter I enjoyed it from cover to cover.

Editorial Review:

Drawing its inspiration from letters, journals, and—most importantly—quilts, this engaging account chronicles the history of the women who settled the town of Golden, Colorado, over the course of two centuries. Laced with true stories drawn from American quilting history, the narrative follows the transformation of the shanty mining village into a thriving community, moving through the Depression and up to the present day. Throughout the decades, the art of quilting provides a window into the lives of these women, their successes, and their sorrows. With more than 70 photographs and four vintage quilt patterns, this unique saga is a treasure for historians and quilters alike.

Colorado, 1870-2000

William Henry Jackson, John Fielder, Ed Marston

Amazon Price: $59.85 List Price: $95.00 Usually ships in 10 to 14 days By: Westcliffe Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 29 new & used starting at $38.00

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Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Artists, A-Z -> ( J-L ) -> Jackson, William Henry
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Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Photo Essays

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The images of early west photographer William Henry Jackson capture a Colorado landscape both pristine and already dramatically affected by the onslaught on western civilization. Standing exactly where Jackson stood, and pointing his own camera in precisely the same direction, John Fielder has rephotographed Jackson's Colorado images to capture the often startling change that has occurred over the last century. The result is both breathtaking and stark, hopeful and disquieting. Jackson's and Fielder's photography is accompanied by thoughtful and provocative essays by respected experts in the environmental field: Roderick Nash, America's foremost wilderness historian and author of Wilderness and the American Mind; Ed Marston, journalist and publisher of High Country News; and Eric Paddock, Curator of Photography at the Colorado Historical Society. John Fielder describes the profound experience of traveling the state and seeing the landscape from Jackson's perspective, and reflects upon changes of the last 130 years.

The contrast between Jackson's and Fielder's photographs not only illuminates Colorado's past but will help us determine the course of land management as we move into the next century. Accompanied by an educational program that includes lectures, a traveling exhibit, newspaper serialization, and television series, this book is aimed at encouraging people to appreciate and reflect on nature, history, and photography as we move into the next century. Colorado: 1870-2000 stands not only as an important document of westward exploration, expansion, and urbanization, but helps define our past and future environmental values.