Around Gunnison and Crested Butte

by Duane Vandenbusche, Gunnison Pioneer Museum, Crested Butte Mountain Heritage Museum

Overview

The Western Slope towns of Gunnison and Crested Butte are defined by their placement in the Colorado Rockies. Both are located in alpine valleys surrounded by 14,000-foot-high peaks with sparkling mountain-fed streams, and both dominate the Gunnison country, a unique wilderness covering over 4,000 square miles. Beginning over 400 years ago, Native Americans, fur traders, explorers, miners, railroaders, and cattlemen all made a place for themselves in the area. Today Gunnison, Crested Butte, and the Gunnison country remain isolated and tranquil. Recreation, tourism, and cattle ranching now reign supreme as Gunnison and Crested Butte attempt to preserve their distinctly Western heritage.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781531629762
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing Library Editions
Publication date:	01/02/2008
Pages:	130
Sales rank:	815,085
Product dimensions:	6.69(w) x 9.61(h) x 0.38(d)

About the Author

Author Duane Vandenbusche has been a professor of history at Western State College in Gunnison since 1962 and is the author of five books on the Gunnison country and western Colorado. He has also doubled as cross-country coach at the college, where his men's and women's teams have won 12 national championships. In this volume, photographs from the Gunnison Pioneer Museum and the Crested Butte Mountain Heritage Museum—many of them previously unpublished—bring the history of Gunnison, Crested Butte, and the surrounding area alive.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     6
Introduction     7
The Hub of the Wheel     9
Jewel of the Elk Mountains     21
Silver, Hot Springs, and Gold     39
The Great North Country     51
Little Engines That Could     65
Ski Country     75
Of Mines and Men     85
Cattle Kings and Mining Men     95
The Black Canyon     105
Potpourri     117
Bibliography     127