les the boom and bust cycles of Telluride, Placerville, Ames, Ophir, and Rico from the 1860s to the present. Every page brings to life the arival of the first prospectors, the tragic departure of the Utes, the booming mining era, Butch Cassidy's bank robbery, avalanches, miners' strikes, the rise and fall of the Rio Grande Southern Railroad, and the bare-bones beginning of the skiing industry. Meet fascinating residents like Lucien Nunn, who almost single-handedly saved Telluride's mining industry with the first commercial use of alternating-current electricity in the world.