Colorado History Presentation

A History Presentation by Author Joyce B. Lohse:
“Mining for the Real Baby Doe Tabor”
at Historic Tattered Cover LoDo Bookstore
1628 16^th St. at Wynkoop in Denver
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 7:30 p.m.

A legendary pioneer woman, Baby Doe Tabor, provided us with one of the greatest rags-to-riches-to-rags stories in America’s western history. Award-winning biographer Joyce B. Lohse has written her biography set in Colorado’s days of boom and bust. The story appeals to a general audience and history buffs who appreciate the history of the West’s mining past. Her PowerPoint presentation includes historic photos, research stories, and Lizzie’s Cookies!

Baby Doe Tabor: Matchless Silver Queen, ISBN 978-0-86541-107-4, list price $9.95, is now available through your favorite bookseller, or from the publisher, www.FilterPressBooks.com . It is distributed for resale and libraries through BooksWest and Baker and Taylor.

See you there! — Joyce Lohse
www.LohseWorks.com

 

She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain

Waiting for a book in production conjures up a combination of excitement and drama. After concentrating and struggling with many edits, it is hard watch the little bird fly from the nest as it wings its way off to the print shop. As the author, it is hard to let it go after a couple of years of concentrated effort, and it seems too soon to watch it fly away, out of reach and beyond further guidance and tender nurturing. It is, however, time to take a few breaths, ponder what is at hand, and switch gears and concentration to marketing mode. Fly little bird, fly.

For me, the transition was helped along when I was presented with a tough question by a fellow member of Women Writing the West. I am grateful to author Carolyn Niethammer in Arizona for her insightful and thought-provoking question, which made me collect my thoughts and express what I had accomplished and produced. I will share the exchange with you here.

Carolyn Niethammer wrote:
>
> Joyce, I’m curious about your new book.  Several other books have been written about Baby Doe.  What led you to do another one? What new information or new take on her do you have?  Any book of this type is an enormous undertaking and I’m sure you have good reasons to think you could do better — and I’m so curious what they were.

Hello Carolyn –

My take on Baby Doe and other characters is to go beyond myths and legends to reveal the truth and the “voice” of my characters. They are succinct reads that appeal to history buffs of all ages and tourists looking for a solidly researched historical perspective.

To find Elizabeth Tabor’s voice, I went places never before revealed. Visualize personal notes written among recipes in a favorite cookbook. I found those, along with home remedies. It was much like snooping through her cupboards and medicine cabinet. Good stuff!

If you are familiar with the work of Caroline Bancroft, my niche is a modern version of her format, except my nonfiction work is reality based. My combination of journalism and genealogy background for biography is somewhat unique. I seek primary sources for facts and I do not make up dialogue. This is the real deal, skillfully edited and crafted by Filter Press.

Good questions — thanks for asking — Joyce

P.S. Denverites: Come see me next Sunday, April 17, at the Englewood Public Library Author Showcase. With luck, Baby Doe will be with me!

I just heard that several copies are in the mail and will be in my hands for Sunday’s event. Then the fun begins!

Joyce Lohse, 4/13/11
LohseWorks.com

 

Real Boom Town Treasures

mine ruins

Publication date of my latest book, Baby Doe Tabor: Matchless Silver Queen, is fast approaching. As we struggle through final edits in an attempt to provide the most interesting and correct factual information possible, I am enjoying revisiting Colorado’s mining history as I have throughout the process. Just as I learned about railroads and their impact on our country’s western expansion during my work on General William Palmer: Railroad Pioneer, I have experienced a similar learning curve about mining for Baby Doe Tabor’s story.

Research has taken me to Leadville, Colorado several times. I enjoy immersing myself in its rich history and breathtaking  landscape (literally, at an altitude of 10,200 feet,) while searching for my own nuggets of information and stories to preserve and share in biographies. My most recent trip took me to California Gulch, a stretch about three miles from Leadville, which was the site of the area’s earliest frantic mining activity.

Oro City Ruin

Nothing much is left of Oro City in California Gulch, where Horace Tabor first arrived in 1860. The Mineral Belt Trail through the mining camp reveals only a handful of partial building remains and mine ruins as a reminder of the frantic, fleeting days when Oro was a boom town. Nearby in Leadville, rich history has been preserved and restored at every turn, to be enjoyed, shared and absorbed by those who visit. After all, the stories of the lives of their pioneers are the real boom town treasures which have endured to the present.

Save the date:
Boom Days in Leadville, August 5-7, 2011

Joyce B. Lohse, 3/25/11
LohseWorks.com

 

 

Historic Shadows and Footsteps

Busy times and family fun have arrived with the onset of summer. As I push hard to finalize my latest biography, I cannot resist the lure of a mountain road on a sunny day in the name of history research.

Once again, my intrepid research pal Christie accompanied me on a field trip to the mining town of Leadville. With Christie driving her 4×4, we explored the routes of the Silver Kings through the Oro City mining district and California Gulch. Ruins cast shadows where prospectors once clamored through rocks in the 1800s in search of riches in the form of gold, then silver. Five taverns once lined up one next to the other along the narrow clearing. In an atmosphere of industry, noise, pollution, and debauchery, Horace and Augusta Tabor arrived to open a general store in 1860. They provided needed supplies for all who came in search of their fortunes. When prospectors could not pay, Horace was willing to “grubstake” them. They agreed to share their fortunes with him when they struck it rich.

Thus began the fabulous tale of Horace Tabor and the Matchless Mine which made him a Silver King. This was only the beginning of the story. After Horace Tabor became a silver king, he met a beautiful young divorced woman named Elizabeth Doe, fondly known as “Baby”. With his marriage to Augusta strained and crumbling, he sought a divorce. He wished to build a new life with Baby Doe, a woman who appreciated the finer things in life, including him.

Eventually, Horace and Baby Doe married and moved to a large home in Denver. However, it was in Leadville where the magic began when they met, and Tabor made millions from his Matchless Mine. Leadville has preserved the Tabor legacy as part of its local history. As you walk the streets of Leadville, you can absorb its culture as you walk in the shadows and footsteps of silver kings and their queens.

My next book, Baby Doe Tabor: Matchless Silver Queen, is due for publication by Filter Press later this year. It is an amazing story of a couple who found love and riches, then lost a fortune during an economic downturn. Baby Doe’s reaction to the situation was unexpected, unusual, and legendary. Progress reports will be forthcoming as the book nears publication.

Joyce B. Lohse, 6/5/10
www.lohseworks.com

 

Rockslides and Rummage Sales

Glenwood Canyon

Early spring brings new challenges to the Rocky Mountains. Avalanche danger is high, as is danger of rockslides. Fortunately, we did not have plans to visit the West Slope this past week when a giant boulder crashed onto the highway in Glenwood Canyon, closing the interstate highway in both directions. Nobody was hurt, and a long detour through Steamboat Springs diverted traffic for most of the week. In the meantime, Coloradans grow restless for the arrival of spring in the mountains.

Last weekend, the Colorado History Museum was the scene of an amazing indoor frenzy. As they undertake the mammoth task of moving to new facilities, the museum folks decided to offer a rummage sale open to the public. A few hundred people lined up for the opportunity of a lifetime, to enter the museum and take home a piece of history for a small price.

Frustration escalated as those in line watched the reappearance of the first wave allowed inside as they carried out poster size photos of historic Western scenes. A man walking past was heard to say, “Is there always a line like this at the history museum?” Cutout images of pioneers in Victorian clothing appeared as their new owners dealt with long walks to their cars carrying unwieldy objects. Fortunately for them, it was not a windy day.

Inside the museum doors, the scene was hot and noisy, as anxious history buffs nudged and budged their way toward quickly disappearing piles of historic momentos. Some people grabbed stacks of photos to buy without studying them, speculating they contained treasures. An hour into the chaos, the merchandise was gone. People in Colorado love their history, and they especially love it at a bargain price.

Later this year, my next title in the “Now You Know Bio” series will transport the reader to the wild days of the Leadville mining boom and the saga of the Matchless Mine. “Now You Know Bios”, which publishes Colorado and Western history at a great value, contains expertly researched and written text with relevant photographic images and documents contemporary to the subject. To learn more, go to www.lohseworks.com or www.filterpressbooks.com.

Joyce B. Lohse, 3/14/10
www.lohseworks.com