Stampede to Timberline: The Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of Colorado

Sage Books, 1974. 2nd Edition; Revised and Enlarge. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 10x7x1. Signed by Author. With gift inscription by and signed by author. A short tear and some edgewear to dustjacket. This book includes the story of 240 of Colorado’s mining camps, with emphasis on the human side. The men who swarmed to the mountains to find precious metal came in successive waves from the late 1850s on, combing the gulches, scrambling over the passes and climbing the peaks. Their story is full of adventurous chances, lucky strikes, boom conditions, reckless spending, banditry, claim jumping, railroad wars and labor troubles. The author searched the Colorado Rockies from the time she saw and sketched her first ghost town until she had rediscovered and painted the vanishing mining camps. Twenty-two maps give the location of each one and serve as a guide for those who want to reach them by car or jeep, by horseback or on foot. The hardships of the early prospectors, the strikes they made, the gold and silver mines they uncovered, the towns they established, and the rise and fall of their fortunes are vividly recorded. Muriel Sibell Wolle, (1898 – 1977) was an American artist best known for her drawings and paintings of mining communities in the western states. Sibell Wolle was active in numerous civic organizations, such as the Soroptomist Club, Delta Phi Delta, the Boulder Artist's Guild, and received many honors and prizes for her professional work. She was chosen in 1947 as a Faculty Research Lecturer for the University, the first woman to be so honored. She designed the original George Norlin Award medal for the university, and in 1957 received one herself. She was also awarded the University of Colorado's Robert Stearn's Award for outstanding faculty or staff in 1966, and in 1976 was honored as an Alumni of the Century. To the end of her life she remained active in her community and continued to keep her artistic record of America's mining past.