Leadville explores the clash between a small mining town high up in Colorado's Rocky Mountains and the federal government, determined to clean up the toxic mess left from a hundred years of mining. Set amidst the historic streets and buildings reflecting the town's past glory as one of the richest nineteenth-century mining districts in North America-a history populated with characters such as Meyer Guggenheim and the Titanic's unsinkable Molly Brown-the Leadville Gillian Klucas portrays became a battleground in the 1980s and 1990s. The tale begins one morning in 1983 when a flood of toxic mining waste washes past the Smith Ranch and down the headwaters of the Arkansas River. The event presages a Superfund cleanup campaign that draws national attention, sparks local protest, and triggers the intervention of an antagonistic state representative. Just as the Environmental Protection Agency comes to town telling the community that their celebrated mining heritage is a public health and environmental hazard, the mining industry abandons Leadville, throwing the town into economic chaos. Klucas unveils the events that resulted from this volatile formula and the remarkable turnaround that followed. The author's well-grounded perspective, in-depth interviews with participants, and keen insights make Leadville a portrait vivid with characterizations that could fill the pages of a novel. But because this is a real story with real people, It shows the reality behind the Western mystique and explores the challenges to local autonomy and community identity brought by a struggle for economic survival, unyielding government policy, and long-term health consequences induced by extractive-industry practices. The proud Westerners of Leadville didn't realize they would be tangling with a young and vigorous Environmental Protection Agency in a modern-day version of an old Western standoff. In the process, Klucas shows, both sides would be forced to address hard questions about identity and the future with implications that reach far beyond Leadville and the beautiful high valley that nurtures it.

This title tells the story of Western Avenue, from the optimism of its construction in the 1920s, to the partial demolition 70 years later. It is a tale of the city and the traffic, of suburbia and the dreams of its inhabitants, and of the all-consuming love affair people have with the motor car.

The history of the Leadville Trail 100 Mile Running Race was a story waiting to be told. This legendary race, founded in 1983, has attracted Tarahumara runners from Copper Canyon, Mexico, world champion athletes such as Ann Trason and ultra-marathoners from around the world to run along rocky forest trails, through swiftly flowing streams as well as climbing a majestic 12,600 foot mountain pass in their quest to become a race champion or simply finish this grueling race. How did the creative genius of Jim Butera lead him to Leadville, a remote mining town in the Colorado Rockies, to create the Leadville Trail 100 mile running race? What transpired to make this 100-mile race the premier high altitude running event in North America? The history, stories and facts of the Leadville Trail 100 are contained in this book, as seen through the eyes of those who have been there and run upon those magical trails. Listen to stories by Frank Shorter, Marshall Ulrich, Ann Trason, Bill Finkbeiner, Tom Sobal, Tony Post, the two authors and many others who have run upon those magical trails. Learn about the history of the race with detailed descriptions about every race, championship runs, tales from the trail, training trips on how to finish the race or even win the race, detailed course descriptions, a running cult called Divine Madness Ultra Club, the legendary Tarahumara runners from Mexico, year by year finishing results and so much more. There is no other 100-mile race on the planet having a more storied legacy as rich and vivid as the Leadville Trail 100. Settle down into a comfortable chair while opening your mind to learn how reality and previously untold stories destroy myths and untruths about the Leadville Trail 100, along with thirty-six years of amazing race history, great antidotes and maybe a twinge or two of nostalgia in reliving glory days from the past and infinite hope for future races.