Prostitution thrived in pioneer Colorado. Mining was the principal occupation and men outnumbered women more than twenty to one. Jan MacKell provides a detailed overview of the business between 1860 and 1930, focusing her research on the mining towns of Cripple Creek, Salida, Colorado City, and similar boomtown communities. She used census data, Sanborn maps, city directories, property records, marriage records, and court records to document and trace the movements of the women over the course of their careers, uncovering work histories, medical problems, and numerous relocations from town to town. She traces many to their graves, through years filled with abuse, disease, narcotics, and violence.

MacKell has unearthed numerous colorful and often touching stories, like that of the boy raised in a brothel who was invited to play with a neighbors children and replied, "No, my mother is a whore and says I am to stay at home."

"Delicacy, humor, respect, and compassion are among the merits of this book. Although other authors have flirted with Colorados commercial sex, Jan MacKell provides a detailed overview. She has been researching these elusive women for the last fifteen years. Such persistence allows her to offer rich detail on shady ladies who rarely used their real names or even stuck with the same professional name for long."--Thomas J. Noel, from the Introduction

". . . a godsend for screenwriters and novelists lookng for plots. . . MacKell has been an industrious researcher."--The Durango Herald

"Delicacy, humor, respect and compassion are among the merits of MacKells treatment of this touchy subject. Her 15 years of research unearthed revealing details."--Rocky Mountain News

"MacKell has unearthed numerous colorful and often touching stories."--Salida Book Review, Colorado

"The topic is interesting--or should one say, "titillating"--the author knowledgeable; the prsentation non-judgmental and the work, scholarly with end notes, a bibliography and index. . . well-written."--The Cortez Journal, CO

Jan MacKell is a historian in Cripple Creek, Colorado. Thomas J. Noel, also known as “Dr. Colorado,” is professor of history and director of public history, preservation, and Colorado studies at the University of Colorado, Denver.

6 x 9 320 pages 51 halftones
$24.95 ( hardcover )