Mile High Tourism: Denver’s Convention & Visitor History, by Thomas J. Noel and Debra B. Faulkner, $39.95
Denver was only 9 years old when its chamber of commerce was founded, not just to aid business but also to attract visitors. Tourism has always been critical to the state. From the beginning, visitors flocked here to hunt and to climb the mountains. They were followed by health seekers, primarily tuberculosis victims, hoping for a cure in Colorado’s sunshine and fresh air.
Thomas J. Noel and Debra B. Faulkner trace Denver’s tourist industry in “Mile High Tourism, “beginning with the early days when rubberneckers came on stagecoaches and then railroad cars to visit the city.
Tourism grew steadily in the first half of the 20th century, really taking off with auto travel following World War II. (Traffic congestion west out of Denver is nothing new. The book has a wonderful picture of bumper-to-bumper traffic on U.S. 40 near Mount Vernon Canyon.)
Then came Denver’s home-grown airline, Frontier, and eventually Denver International Airport.
In a well-illustrated book, the authors include historical pictures, as well as photographs of Denver’s major attractions. Beware that the book is underwritten by the Denver Convention & Visitors Bureau and contains a number of ads. Still, anything written by Tom Noel is a good story and worth reading.
Weird Colorado, by Charmaine Ortega Getz, $19.95. If Noel & Co. presents the best of Colorado, “Weird Colorado” gives us the worst, or at least the strangest.
Colorado was weird before the white man arrived, what with fossil beds and petroglyphs. But it was “civilization” that brought the strangest people, attractions and events.
There were the oddballs, including Francis Schlatter, who had magical healing powers, and Tom Monaco, who dowsed for graves.
Of course, there are ghosts. Even the University of Denver’s old Mary Reed Library has a ghost, and author Charmaine Ortega Getz, who works at the Denver Botanic Gardens, claims there are whispers and screams, strange noises and other abnormalities there coming from Cheesman Park, which was once a cemetery.
Best of all are all those wonderful man-made things, such as the the John May bug museum in Colorado Springs; Movie Manor in Buena Vista where you can watch a drive-in movie from your motel room; and Tarado, the “Gone With the Wind” replica near Arriba. (Tara plus Colorado equals Tarado. Get it?)
Wild Boulder County, by Carol Cushman & Stephen Jones, $27.95. While much of Boulder County’s wildlife viewing takes place on Pearl Street in Boulder, there is a huge county out there that teems with more picturesque sightings. Ruth Carol Cushman and Stephen Jones tell where to find wild eagles and burrowing owls, fox pups and prairie dogs, butterflies and dragonflies and vanishing amphibians.
This well-illustrated guide to the wild things in Boulder County is divided by the months, listing the wildlife and growing things you’re liable to see with the changing of the seasons.
Legacy of the Frontier: Day Trips to Historic Sites That Shaped the West, by Deborah Erickson, $13.95. Those who prefer man-made attractions should check out this guide with its informative suggestions for trips to Bent’s Old Fort, Georgetown, Scotts Bluff National Monument and Fort Laramie.
The author gives the history of each site, directions and highlights, as well as suggests side trips. A trip to Fort Laramie, for instance, ought to include quick stops at the nearby Oregon Trail ruts and at Register Cliff, where early pioneers carved their names in the stone.
Sisters on the Fly, by Irene Rawlings, $14.99. Sometimes those who hit the trail are as colorful as the trails themselves. “Sisters on the Fly” is a group of 1,300 would-be cowgirls in the U.S. and Canada who tour the country in vintage trailers painted with colorful Western images.
Denver author Irene Rawlings camped out with these adventurers and writes about their lives, their trips and their rigs decked out in cowboy memorabilia. She has even included recipes. Photos are by her husband, David Foxhoven.
Round Boys Great Adventures, by James W. White, $24.95. For some 50 years, James W. White and his buddies have been fishing friends. They’ve caught a lot of fish and told a lot of stories, and now White, a retired Colorado Springs minister, puts it all down in this adventure book. These are tales not only of the fish they caught and the ones that got away, but also about the friendships that develop.
Sandra Dallas is a Denver novelist who writes regularly about new regional nonfiction.
