Customer Reviews

Ghost Towns of the Colorado Rockies

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After reading this material, I would strongly recommend the avid frontiersman to the novice to take advantage of Brown's testimony to lost and unseen towns that "once were." Brown's attention to detail is above no other; the exquisit portraits he provides makes you shiver in anticipation and almost to a point, turn back in time to actually see how we might have lived during this now lost and not too distant era.

I recommend this book highly.

I was a student of Robert L. Brown at Abraham Lincoln High School in Denver. He is without question the best teacher that I have ever had and I can attribute my love of Colorado History directly to him. A student of Colorado History must consider the writings of Brown or their exposure is incompete. There are stories and anecdotes in his books that are found no where else. He used the before and after photographic style that Fielder popularized long before Fielder did.

If you are looking for a book that gives the histories and anecdotes relating to the Rockies' old and ghost towns, I'd say this book is a 4 or 5 star offering. It is informative, interesting and written in an informal manner. It makes the places you visit more meaningful. You aren't just looking at a tomb oddly placed on the side of a hill; you are looking at the spot where an early settler dug his own grave and shot himself to death in such a manner that he fell into the grave. So, what's the problem? Well, if you are looking for a guidebook that identifies true ghost towns (which I define as abandoned and having at least the remanants of significant structures), this isn't the book. Time after time, after reading the author's well written histories, which I enjoyed, I learned that nothing remains of the subject "ghost town", or the current town was built over the old, leaving nothing of the original. The good thing is, for most of the towns addressed, the author included "then and now" pictures, taken from the same vantage points. So, you know what to expect before you go. Another disappointment of the book is that the author elected to omit ghost towns for which he was unable to uncover or verify historical information, regardless of what may remain from the town. Thus, it is likely (although I didn't verify this) that a ghost town with significant structures still standing is not mentioned in this book because the author was unable to find a verifiable historical anecdote to report. So, as a guidebook, I'd rate this book a 2. Thus, overall, it's a 3 star effort. To summarize: If you are looking for historical information, get it. If you are looking for a guidebook to sites worth visiting, don't get it. If you are looking for both, there's probably better works out there.

I like history, I love Colorado. This book combines both. One of my treasured books!! Descriptions are so well done, you are on the scene, too.