The Wet Mountain Valley

Written in 1974, and continuously in print since then, this concise history of the stories of these four Colorado towns nestled in the Wet Mountain Valley is the only published book available. Still used as the sourcebook by virtually all residents and purchased by visitors to the lovely Valley, it is now for the first time digitized and widely available. 


Rich with stories of hidden Spanish gold, wily and sophisticated swindlers, hopeful miners, and labor agitators, this book is full of all the elements that make boom towns so alluring. 


You will get to know lovely Rosita (Little Rose,) with her miners who spent the winter dancing the Highland fling, watched excitedly as their smelter was built but never worked, and lost everything when robbers ran their bank. 


Querida (My Dear) was so different. Instead of an optimistic mining camp, it grew overnight into a company town. The dream-come-true for down-and-out swashbuckler, Edmund Bassick, it was soon sold to foreign investors and torn apart by labor agitation, lawsuits, and mismanagement. 


You will meet, also, rowdy Silver Cliff, once home to over 16,000 prospectors and known as one of Colorado's most promising new towns. For a brief period, Silver Cliff was so important that it almost became state capital, losing by only a few illegal votes, as "Denver won by voting Indians, tombstones, and prairie dogs!" 


And, when all the excitement died, Westcliffe emerged as the stable, prosperous, ranching center that today dominates the Wet Mountain Valley. 


Come enjoy stories of wonderful little towns and so many who had such dreams of wealth and glory.