The Corpse on Boomerang Road: Telluride's War on Labor, 1899-1908 [Hardcover]

MaryJoy Martin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2004

On August 8, 1907, newspapers in Telluride, Colorado, declared that the bones of William J. Barney had been recovered from a shallow grave on Boomerang Hill, thus proving the Telluride Miners' Union had butchered him in 1901. Many mine owners, newspaper editors, and Pinkerton detectives claimed the union had inaugurated a reign of terror with Barney's slaying, a nightmare of brutality that would end only when the union men and their families were driven from the region and their leaders were hanging from the gallows.

The belief that the Miners' Union was a pack of assassins and its victims were numerous has endured for more than a hundred years. Yet meticulous research has revealed no reign actually existed, and the supposed victims were, in fact, alive long after their alleged murders.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 377 pages
• Publisher: Western Reflections Publishing Co.; First Edition edition (August 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932738029
• ISBN-13: 978-1932738025
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,315,454 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A native of Florida, MaryJoy Martin moved to Colorado in 1958 and was educated in Denver. As an investigative journalist with a background in history and the criminal sciences, she has been writing about the state's mysteries for thirty years. Her books include the popular "Twilight Dwellers: Ghosts, Gases, and Goblins of Colorado," and the recent award-winning, "The Corpse on Boomerang Road: Telluride's War on Labor 1899-1908". An extensive traveler, she has written articles on a wide range of subjects for state and national magazines and newspapers.

For 20 years she has written a humor column for the "San Juan Horseshoe," a parody periodical that also features her digital art. Her dozens of pseudonyms for that publication are an ongoing art-form in themselves, leaving readers guessing -- and Martin wondering -- who she is sometimes. "Just call me 'Empress of Aliases,'" she says from behind a frog mask.

Her serious and scholarly work has solved 100-year-old crimes, changing what was accepted as historical fact. Some reviewers have called her a "tenacious investigator" and a "dedicated researcher," but Martin says her determination to hunt down the last scrap of a story is "obsession." She seeks primary materials and documentable evidence with the focus of a bloodhound, spending weeks and months lost in dusty court record rooms, state archives, or special library collections. She has a deep affinity for archivists, extolling them as the "guardians of our heritage."

"Some archivists deserve monuments in their honor for their expertise and patience and willingness to always assist," Martin says, "especially William W. LeFevre at the Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; David M. Hays at the Archives of the Norlin Library, University of Colorado at Boulder; and Leslie C. Shores at the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming. "I have to say I absolutely love these people and admire the work they, and others like them, do in preserving our history. I have never met an archivist I didn't like."

Martin is a member of the Colorado Historical Society and has contributed to the preservation of the state's labor history, including having Ft. Peabody added to the National Register of Historic Places -- for further information go to this link: http://www.tellurideminersmemorial.coyotekiva.org/peabody.html

She is also an award-winning artist and photographer whose work is included in collections throughout the U.S.A., Scotland, England, and France. She created many of the portraits for "The Corpse on Boomerang Road," using scratched and blurred printouts from old microfilmed newspaper photos as her models.

Her heart belongs to the wilderness where she spends her free time relaxing on the edge of remote cliffs or singing with legions of coyotes and marmots.