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Cripple Creek Days | 
 enlarge | Author: Mabel Barbee Lee
Creator: Lowell Thomas
Publisher: Bison Books
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
Buy Used: $1.81
You Save: $17.14 (90%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 207742
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 286
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0803279124
Dewey Decimal Number: 978.858
EAN: 9780803279124
ASIN: 0803279124
Publication Date: September 1, 1984
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: used sticker on spine and a bit of general wear
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Product Description
Mabel Barbee Lee has written a rousing tale of early days in Cripple Creek, Colorado. She speaks with authority because she arrived there as a child in 1892, and with wide-eyed wonder saw the whole place turn to gold.
With his divining rod, Mabel's father tapped gold ore on Beacon Hill but missed becoming a millionaire by selling his claim short. Nonetheless, life was rich for young Mabel in a booming town with points of interest like Poverty Gulch, the Continental Hotel, and a fantastic house called Finn's Folly; with characters around like the promoter Windy Joe and (seen from a distance) the madam Pearl De Vere; with something always going on, whether a celebration or a disastrous fire or train wreck or a no-nonsense miners' strike.
Mabel Lee's book brings back a time and place with affection. The foreword is by Lowell Thomas, who was her pupil when she was a young schoolmarm in Cripple Creek.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
Cripple Creek Days by Mabel Barbe Lee July 7, 2008
A poigniant first-person memoire of life in the mining camps at the turn of the 20th Century. Excellent prose. Very clear, descriptive, and engrossing writing. The theme is a surprising brush with the notable politically, socially, and historically famous folks in a most unexpected place: an isolated, mostly poverty ridden mining camp at very high elevation in one of the richest gold mining areas. The author's father played an important role in the exploration and development of the gold and silver discoveries there. Chronicles her childhood and flowering as a woman of distinction who knew tradgedy and trauma, yet grew into a very wholesome adult.
Great Read!! May 26, 2008
A candid look into the hardships of life in a mining camp, through the eyes of a young girl growing up there. This book was an eye opening account of what it was really like in a rugged mining camp and how families coped with hardships. I also found this book extremely entertaining and full of historical accounts that I was unaware of. It definitely paints a vivid picture of Cripple Creek's hay day and makes it a place that is not to be forgotten.
 Review October 10, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
What I Liked: The author's love of her adopted hometown comes through very well. Her descriptions of people and places are vivid enough that one can almost see them when they close their eyes while reading, between passages. I also liked how a lot of cliches and stereotypes about the Colorado Gold Rush era are avoided. Yes, some characters do talk and act the way we've seen them act in Western films since many actually did, but this book doesn't act as though they made up the entirety of the region. We meet people in this book who are articulate, people who are more cynical and jaded than "frontiersman" like, who are religious, but don't proselytize. Another aspect of this book is the period correct dialogue. The languages and attitudes of the people of the day isn't toned down or made politically correct to avoid offending anyone. Yes, some of the people in the story, even the likeable ones, use words and phrases we of 21st century Colorado recognize as racist and/or stereotypical, but that is simply how people talked in that time. Overall, reading this book reminds me in some ways of how I enjoyed the film Little Big Man, another period piece set in roughly in the same timeframe.
What I Didn't Like: The author doesn't always do a good job of conveying time in the book. More than once, I actually got lost and couldn't figure out what year an event was occurring in, or how old she was. Transitions aren't always smooth, such as when her brother goes from newborn to whiny toddler in a matter of a few pages. It can be jarring, but is not uncommon for first time authors. Granted, I don't actually know if this was Mabel Barbee Lee's first book, but if it was, it shows. Another negative aspect is the description on the back of my copy of the book, which spoils the book somewhat by listing nearly every major event from the first half of the story except for the death of the author's younger sister, the incident involving bandits where she tried to hide a silver dollar in her mouth, and the boxing match described by her father as "the fight of the century."
My Favorite Book! August 8, 2001
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This book captivates a sense of innocence and honesty that is palpable on each page. Mable Lee Barby wrote the book I always wanted to read about the district that as a child I wandered and wondered endlessly. Mable is buried between "Jonce" and "Kate" overlooking the town. Cripple Creek has mostly disappeared from what I knew. There are no more "old timers" sitting on chairs in front of screen doors of dusty old shops holding so many individual memories of the characters that made Cripple Creek such an special place. The wheel house is almost gone from the surrounding hills but there is a spiritual core of a history that will never die.Frank Waters did a wonderful job with his two books and there have been others but when I see Bennett St. or even pass the front steps of the old stone building of Colorado College I think of Mable Lee Barbee. In this book she left a record of her and others lives that will never be equaled. There is a sweet fragrance!
Opens a window into the past September 23, 2000
This is a brilliant novel which engages the reader fully. The plot twists and turns as if this were a work of fiction rather than a biography. The characters are vivid, unique and unforgettable ... and they were real people. Ms. Barbee Lee was a keen observer and her descriptions are fascinating. Most of all, I liked how she tells us interesting gossip about some of the powerful people involved in the Cripple Creek gold rush and then, explains how things turned out and why. Some of these explanations needed enough time to pass in order to be told. While reading this page-turner, I felt like I was watching the events unfold through a window. I have recommended it to friends just because it is a really good book. The fact that it is true and will give the reader more insight into the past and into Colorado's mining history is just a bonus.
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