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by Jan Mackell Collins (Author)
Ferocity and Revelry on the Frontier
When Colorado Springs was founded next to the former territorial capital of Colorado City in 1871, the new town hoped that the old town would be absorbed or go away altogether. Yet Colorado City had survived since 1859 by offering what Colorado Springs would not: liquor, gambling, and wild women. Prairie Dog O'Byrne, Dusty McCarty, Laura Bell McDaniel, and a host of others added much color to more than two dozen saloons and a sizeable red-light district, while the enclave of Ramona was founded specifically for drinking and prizefights. Author Jan MacKell Collins recounts the personalities and persuasions that contributed to making Old Colorado City a raucous, albeit important, part of history in the American West.
Author Biography
Jan MacKell Collins is a historian whose work focuses on the more interesting aspects of the West. Author of many books and more than two thousand articles, her writing has appeared in such magazines as Colorado Central, Kiva, Frontier Gazette, True West and others. In 2010 and 2011, she was a nominee for the WILLA Award by Women Writing the West for her 2009 book Red Light Women of the Rocky Mountains and as a contributor for the 2010 anthology Extraordinary Women of the Rocky Mountain West.
