The book is a biography about Dan Thornton, a highly successful and well known purebred beef cattle producer (1937-1953) and an effective, flamboyant but controversial Colorado Governor (1951-1955). From humble beginnings as the son of sharecroppers in West Texas, to president of the Texas 4-H Clubs at age 16, to the sale of two Hereford bulls for a world record price ($50,000 each) at the 1945 National Western Stock Show in Denver, CO, to a record Hereford sale in 1947, to winning the Governorship of Colorado as a last minute replacement candidate at 39 years of age, to being largely responsible for the location of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, Dan Thornton's story is an interesting and exciting adventure. He was a friend with unknowns and celebrities alike, including Dwight Eisenhower, Bob Hope, Randolph Scott, Lauritz Melchior and Ben Hogan. He campaigned early for Eisenhower for U.S. President. He was Colorado's super salesman from cherries, beef, uranium, and coal to interstate highways and tourism. His grave marker in Gunnison, CO is inscribed with the tribute, "A Man Who Matched Our Mountains."

Copublished with History Colorado Colorado Day by Day is an engaging, this-day-in-history approach to the key figures and forces that have shaped Colorado from ancient times to the present. Historian Derek R. Everett presents a vignette for each day of the calendar year, exploring Colorado’s many facets through distilled tales of people, places, events, and trends. Entries incorporate tales from each of the state’s sixty-four counties and feature both well-known and obscure cultural moments, including events in Native American, African American, Asian American, Hispano, and women’s history. Allowing the reader to explore the state’s heritage as individual threads or as part of the greater tapestry, Colorado Day by Day recovers much lost history and will be an entertaining and useful source of lore for anyone who enjoys or is curious about Colorado history.

“Amusing and little-known anecdotes” about the hotel’s female guests including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Joan Baez, Helen Keller, and others (The Denver Post). Since the day it opened in 1892, Denver’s Brown Palace Hotel has been the Mile High City’s foremost destination for high-powered business travelers, celebrities, royalty and politicians. In Ladies of the Brown, hotel historian and archivist Debra B. Faulkner introduces readers to some of the hotel’s most fascinating and famous female visitors, residents and employees. From Denver’s “Unsinkable” Molly Brown and Romania’s Queen Marie to Zsa Zsa Gabor, Mamie Eisenhower and many, many more, these intriguing characters play leading roles in true tales of romance, scandal, humor and heartbreak. This collection of stories is integral to the history of the Brown Palace and Denver, offering a glimpse into the lives of generations of women from all walks of life. “Crafted by Brown Palace historian and archivist Debra Faulkner, this well written, well-researched and thoroughly entertaining book presents amazing stories one can hardly believe are true.” —Colorado Country Life, “The Year’s Best Books” “What fun we had learning about this amazing assortment of characters, all real, and this building so well-appointed and enduring.” —Mountain States Collector

How the Chicago International Livestock Exposition leveraged the eugenics movement to transform animals into machines and industrialize American agriculture. In 1900, the Chicago International Livestock Exposition became the epicenter of agricultural reform that focused on reinventing animals' bodies to fit a modern, industrial design. Chicago meatpackers partnered with land-grant university professors to create the International—a spectacle on the scale of a world's fair—with the intention of setting the standard for animal quality and, in doing so, transformed American agriculture. In Making Machines of Animals, Neal A. Knapp explains the motivations of both the meatpackers and the professors, describing how they deployed the International to redefine animality itself. Both professors and packers hoped to replace so-called scrub livestock with "improved" animals and created a new taxonomy of animal quality based on the burgeoning eugenics movement. The International created novel definitions of animal superiority and codified new norms, resulting in a dramatic shift in animal weight, body size, and market age. These changes transformed the animals from multipurpose to single-purpose products. These standardized animals and their dependence on off-the-farm inputs and exchanges limited farmers' choices regarding husbandry and marketing, ultimately undermining any goals for balanced farming or the maintenance and regeneration of soil fertility. Drawing on land-grant university research and publications, meatpacker records and propaganda, and newspaper and agricultural journal articles, Knapp critiques the supposed market-oriented, efficiency-driven industrial reforms proffered by the International, which were underpinned by irrational, racist ideologies. The livestock reform movement not only resulted in cruel and violent outcomes for animals but also led to twentieth-century crops and animal husbandry that were rife with inefficiencies and agricultural vulnerabilities.

“Always a better way” was WD Farr’s motto. As a Colorado rancher, banker, cattle feeder, and expert in irrigation, Farr (1910–2007) had a unique talent for building consensus and instigating change in an industry known for its conservatism. With his persistent optimism and gregarious personality, Farr’s influence extended from next-door neighbors and business colleagues to U.S. presidents and foreign dignitaries. In this biography, Daniel Tyler chronicles Farr’s singular life and career. At the same time, he tells a broader story of sweeping changes in agricultural production and irrigated agriculture in Colorado and across the West during the twentieth century. WD was a third-generation descendant of western farming pioneers, who specialized in sheep feeding. While learning all he could from his father and grandfather, WD developed a new vision: to make cattle profitable. He sought out experienced livestock experts to help him devise ways to produce beef year-round. When World War II ended, and the troops came home tired of wartime mutton, the beef industry took off. With his new innovations in place, WD was ready. Tyler also reveals WD’s influence in securing water supplies for farmers and ranchers and in establishing water conservation policies. Early in his career, WD helped sell the Colorado–Big Thompson Project to skeptical, debt-ridden farmers. In 1955, he became a board member for the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, a post he held for forty years. Tyler bases his portrait of WD Farr on extensive archival research and dozens of interviews with people who knew him personally or by reputation. In the end, Tyler shows that although not everybody agreed, or will agree, with Farr’s stands on particular issues, this “cowboy in the boardroom” led by his own example. By embracing change and seeking consensus rather than forcing his will on others, his greatest legacy—as revealed in this book—may be the model of leadership he provided.

An exploration of the fast food industry in the United States, from its roots to its long-term consequences.

National parks are different from other federal lands in the United States. Beginning in 1872 with the establishment of Yellowstone, they were largely set aside to preserve for future generations the most spectacular and inspirational features of the country, seeking the best representative examples of major ecosystems such as Yosemite, geologic forms such as the Grand Canyon, archaeological sites such as Mesa Verde, and scenes of human events such as Gettysburg. But one type of habitat--the desert--fell short of that goal in American eyes until travel writers and the Automobile Age began to change that perception. As the Park Service began to explore the better-known Mojave and Colorado deserts of southern California during the 1920s for a possible desert park, many agency leaders still carried the same negative image of arid lands shared by many Americans--that they are hostile and largely useless. But one wealthy woman--Minerva Hamilton Hoyt, from Pasadena--came forward, believing in the value of the desert, and convinced President Franklin D. Roosevelt to establish a national monument that would protect the unique and iconic Joshua trees and other desert flora and fauna. Thus was Joshua Tree National Monument officially established in 1936, with the area later expanded in 1994 when it became Joshua Tree National Park. Since 1936, the National Park Service and a growing cadre of environmentalists and recreationalists have fought to block ongoing proposals from miners, ranchers, private landowners, and real estate developers who historically have refused to accept the idea that any desert is suitable for anything other than their consumptive activities. To their dismay, Joshua Tree National Park, even with its often-conflicting land uses, is more popular today than ever, serving more than one million visitors per year who find the desert to be a place worthy of respect and preservation. Distributed for George Thompson Publishing

All England cheered this modest American. He acquired his scouting lore warring against Apaches in Arizona. After hunting gold in the Northwest and the Klondike he rode deep into the savage territory of Africa to slay the M’Limo, treacherous Matabele high priest. During the Boer War he performed many thrilling exploits as chief of Scouts. He was honored in the friendship of Lord Roberts, Theodore Roosevelt, Cecil Rhodes, and Dr. Jameson and received the highest honors of the British Empire. In this book he tells in full detail the fascinating story of his thrilling and varied career. “In real life he is more interesting than any of my heroes of romance”—SIR RIDER HAGGARD “I have seldom been as much taken with a narrative”—REAR ADMIRAL WM. S. SIMS, U.S.N. “I have read it all with enthralled interest”—THEODORE ROOSEVELT “England was never made by her statesmen; England was made by her adventurers.”—GENERAL GORDON.