Robert Leaman Brown (1921–2005)

This is a very nice history of the San Juan mountains area of southwest Colorado, the people and places, mining and scenery. The book starts off with a geological history of the area and discusses the Utes, the native people who inhabited the region before the first mining rush. It then continues with the influx of miners and the other folk who follow them into an area. There are quite a lot of stories about the people there, the characters, the bad men, the builders and the folks who show more finally settled in the area after mining had petered out.

The book is a large format and is chock full of text. The author had an astonishing number of tales and anecdotes about the region. There are also many excellent photographs, a good number in color, many from the 19th century but quite a few from the second half of the twentieth. There are a number of times where the author located the exact point where an old photograph had been taken and took a new one to show the changes. Highly recommended. show less

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