From the backside of Aspen Mountain five men forged a community. Grounded in commitments to local silver mines, their stories interweave three generations. These leaders believed in the future of Aspen and its natural treasures. Their pluck and optimism overcame devastating challenges. And their noble vision of the town's future invigorated the mining economy and guided it through a transition to skiing.

The history of Aspen as told through the stories of its people. Aspen has had five distinct eras in its history & each of these eras had its characters... the people who shaped their particular time. There were the prospectors & mining barons of the Silver Mining Years of the 1880s & 1890s. Next came the few hundred people who stayed & kept Aspen alive during the Silver Crash & the Great Depression. These people populated Aspen during the Ranching & Small Town Years of 1900 to 1940. The stories of the Early Years of Skiing & Culture of the 1940s & 1950s are told through the lives of ski bums, artists & writers & the people who established the cultural institutions of Aspen. All kinds of entrepreneurs & fun-loving people filled the Lighthearted Years of the 1960s & 1970s. The Glitz Years of the 1980s & the 1990s saw big money come into Aspen, creating a secure financial base for the skiing & the culture, but forever changing the real estate market as well as the lifestyles of Aspenites. As the stories of the people of each of these eras are told... the history comes alive. Writer Mary Eshbaugh Hayes, photographer Chris Cassatt, & printer Jeff Neumann worked together many years at The Aspen Times. They have put together the stories & the photographs of Aspen's five eras to create this history. The pieces were originally published in The Aspen Times; Aspen Magazine; Destination Magazine; Valley Magazine & Colorado Homes & Lifestyles Magazine. Available from Aspen Three Publishing, Box 497, Aspen, CO 81612. Phone: 970-925-7127.

Now a world-famous ski resort, Aspen, Colorado, began its life as a booming silver-mining town. This book tells the story of Aspen from its founding in 1879 to the collapse of the silver market in 1893. It is replete with colorful portraits of the pioneers who built and developed the town that became the richest silver-mining center in America.