Colorado Mining Stories [Paperback]

Caroline Arlen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 18, 2002

Colorado Mining Stories is a collection of tales depicting the hazards, heroics and humor of hardrock mining in Colorado. While collecting the stories for her book, Caroline Arlen would hear the same type of contradictions. Most men and the few women who worked the mines would talk about how they loved mining and in their next breath would tell about horrific accidents that happened daily. These miners put their lives on the line, hoping they would not be the next one to die or be maimed in a cave-in, premature explosion or by a falling slab. But mining was a way of life that paid well and created a close community where folks found it necessary and important to look after each other.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Caroline Arlen spent two years traveling throughout the country interviewing people who worked in and around the mines. Glimpsing into their lives, Arlen found a breed of individuals who never thought of themselves as heroes or deserving of any special attention. But Arlen knows a good story when she hears it as a result of her experience working for such prestigious magazines as Time, Sports Illustrated and U.S. News & World Report.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Western Reflections Publishing Co. (September 18, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890437743
• ISBN-13: 978-1890437749
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #382,419 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Colorado Mining Stories, January 31, 2010

By 

mine reader "mine reader" (Kirkland Lake, ON, Canada) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Colorado Mining Stories (Paperback)

As a miner myself, I enjoyed the stories immensely. Obviously a mining virgin, the author did an excellent job with the jargon and edited the miners' stories only enough to make them interesting. The book was in excellent condition and arrived at my door a week after I placed the order. What more could I ask?

3.0 out of 5 stars Colorado Mining Stories, January 21, 2009

By 

Draven - See all my reviews

This review is from: Colorado Mining Stories (Paperback)

This is a good book for those who know little about mining in Colorado. It reads easily and renders some details not usually found in the study of Colorado history. I enjoyed it.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars trials of being a miner, July 7, 2007

By 

DRYWASHER-BILL (LAS VEGAS, NEVADA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Colorado Mining Stories (Paperback)

A good bathroom reader, though most of the narrative has to do with how it was, by some miner that cannot quite recall all of it.

The book was prepared from recordings by an intern, interviewing old miners that had a hand in Colorado Mining- mostly in the San Juans. A lot of anecdotal information, horseplay, and the drudgery of working in an ice cold, high-altitude, hole.

Of course, one that is not a miner, cannot fully grasp the experience, danger, lore, haunted galleries, and minerals as found underground, in mostly a dark, dank, noisy, stinking work environment. The narrative here would be the same if one were to have been sitting on a barstool in a tavern in Silverton or..., and listening in. interesting but not enough meat.