Determined to find his nineteen-year-old uncle and best friend, Jesse, who left for Colorado to find enough gold to pay the mortgage and save the family's Iowa farm, twelve-year-old Early Whittcomb joins up with a barber, his wife, and his daughter on a wagon train heading for the gold fields near Pike's Peak in 1858.

"Determined to recover his family's mules, fifteen-year-old Owen is joined by his kid brother and Telluride's notorious marshal in pursuit of a rustler--all the way to Butch Cassidy's hideout"--

In 1895, ten-year old Mary Haskins and her family move to the mining town of Cripple Creek, Colorado. When her father loses the family savings to a dishonest man, Mary learns to pan for gold and saves the day.

In 1882, ten-year-old Emma and her family, along with other Russian Jewish immigrants, arrive in Cotopaxi, Colorado, where they face inhospitable conditions as they attempt to start an agricultural colony, and lonely Emma is comforted by the horse whose life she saved.

Four brief stories depict scientific concerns of early Colorado: the collecting of botanical specimens; the invention of a low-cost way to separate ores; the discovery of dinosaur bones; and the treatment of tuberculosis.

Four brief stories portray ranch and farming life in 19th century Colorado.

When they are left with relatives in Colorado, ten-year-old Hattie and her older brother depend on their friendship with a recluse who lives nearby to make their lives bearable.

Trouble on the Tracks, the second Ruby and Maude Adventure book, returns readers to the Cripple Creek mining town of 1896. Ruby May Oliver and her donkey and best friend, Maude, find a new friend when a cat named Trouble entwines itself around Maudes legs and Rubys heart. Trouble and the adventurous eleven-year-olds Ruby and Maude try to stay out of trouble during the chaos following two fires in one week that have nearly destroyed the town. Can...

Nine-year-old Raephy McDowell and the other inhabitants of the Santa Fe Railroad Station are moved in the dead of night to a brand new town in the middle of nowhere.