The geographic center of Colorado, Park County has long served as a recreational area for Denver and Colorado Springs residents looking to get away. The scene has not always been so idyllic. Marshal Cook was shot while investigating a loud party in Como in 1894, and rumors spread by the Michigan Creek School Board sent Benjamin Ratcliff on a killing spree in 1895. But the county's hardscrabble heritage includes triumphs as well as tragedies. In 1873, county seat Fairplay lost every business on Front Street to a horrific fire. But by 1878, they had rebuilt it all. It still stands today, a true testament to the strength of this old mining town. Journalist Laura Van Dusen shares these stories, outlining the many trials and successes of Park County's earliest settlers.

Visiting the redwoods in nineteenth-century California meant coming to Big Trees Grove, now part of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. This forest of giants in the Santa Cruz Mountains attained fame through the 1846 exploits of explorer John Charles Frémont, whose namesake tree still stands. Saved from the logger's axe by Joseph Warren Welch in 1867, these were the first coastal redwoods preserved for public recreation. As a world-renowned resort for sixty years, Big Trees Grove hosted thousands of visitors--from picnickers to presidents, including Theodore Roosevelt. Join author Deborah Osterberg as she recounts the stories of those first visitors and the awe-inspiring landscape they preserved for future generations.

Nineteen history stories about the South Park area of Park County, Colorado, ranging in time from 1.5 million years ago to 1979.

With sixteen thousand miles of streams and rivers, twenty-nine state parks and nine state and national forests spread out over twelve counties, the Pennsylvania Wilds is an immensely special place in the Commonwealth. Beyond the stunning scenery lies important history of early America. A young George Washington traversed the expanse, cutting his teeth as a military leader. Violence between Native Americans and colonists in the territory left its bloody mark, from the Penn's Creek Massacre to the Great Cove Massacre. After the American Revolution, early settler families forged roots, built communities and developed the region into a patchwork of frontier towns. Through a series of richly compelling narratives, author Kathy Myers reveals the early history of the Pennsylvania Wilds.

In The History of the Death Penalty in Colorado, noted death penalty scholar Michael Radelet chronicles the details of each capital punishment trial and execution that has taken place in Colorado since 1859. The book describes the debates and struggles that Coloradans have had over the use of the death penalty, placing the cases of the 103 men whose sentences were carried out and 100 more who were never executed into the context of a gradual worldwide trend away from this form of punishment. For more than 150 years, Coloradans have been deeply divided about the death penalty, with regular questions about whether it should be expanded, restricted, or eliminated. It has twice been abolished, but both times state lawmakers reinstated the contentious punitive measure. Prison administrators have contributed to this debate, with some refusing to participate in executions and some lending their voices to abolition efforts. Colorado has also had a rich history of experimenting with execution methods, first hanging prisoners in public and then, starting in 1890, using the "twitch-up gallows" for four decades. In 1933, Colorado began using a gas chamber and eventually moved to lethal injection in the 1990s. Based on meticulous archival research in official state archives, library records, and multimedia sources, The History of the Death Penalty in Colorado, will inform the conversation on both sides of the issue anywhere the future of the death penalty is under debate.

Wilbur Fisk Sanders has been mentioned considerably in many works on Montana history but has never been the subject of a comprehensive individual work. Order Without Law is the first and complete work devoted to Montana’s first U.S. Senator and introduces never before published aspects to his colorful and important history.

“I can’t imagine a better guide to the Old West and the contemporary Wild West than Ian Neligh. This book is a hoot.” —C.J. Box, #1 New York Times Best Selling Author of LONG RANGE A collection of true stories revealing the spellbinding world of the Old West’s greatest and most infamous characters past and present, including bullfighters, treasure seekers, bounty hunters, detectives, gunslingers, rustlers, even the legendary showman Buffalo Bill Cody, and many more. Just how wild was the "Wild West"—and what’s left of it? A time of legend, adventure, and unspeakable tragedy, America’s Western frontier in the latter half of the nineteenth century helped forge the United States into the country it would become and left an enduring legacy for its people. By the author of Gold! Madness, Murder, and Mayhem in the Colorado Rockies, Spurred West reveals the unusual history behind Colorado’s birth and the cultural formation of the Wild West of the Rocky Mountains. Written with historical accuracy and research in a compelling, gripping voice, this book examines Colorado’s state heritage while telling colorful stories of historic and modern-day figures, from the bondsmen and gunslingers of old to the buffalo wranglers today. Discover the incredible stories of America’s Wild West and the lasting spirit it has emboldened to carry in Colorado still to this day. Includes stories based in Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming and of interest to anyone who loves the West.