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by Michael Rutter (Author)
In 1858 the Colorado Gold Rush drew more than 100,000 fortune seekers. Among them were enterprising women seeking their own motherlode--riches dug straight from the pockets of miners, merchants, railroad workers, and any other man with money to burn. The madams of early Colorado were complex-- and far more brazen--than conventional western lore might lead you to believe. In Colorado Madams, meet Ada Lamont, a preacher's widow turned prostitute, perhaps the first woman to advertise her wares on Cherry Creek, Verona Baldwin, scandalized by one of the wealthiest men in California, only to turn her shame into fame as the owner of the most exclusive parlor house in Denver, Laura Evens, who once attended a costume ball dressed as a nun, and Trinidad's savvy Mae Phelps, a leader in offering health care to working girls and a founder of a rest home for retired prostitutes. The stories of these women come alive with voluptuous detail, authentic photographs, and historical context.
