Hidden History of the Upper Rio Grande

Home to long-forgotten mining towns, defunct fisheries and neglected cabins, the turbulent headwaters of the Upper Rio Grande conceal a largely unknown history. Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys brought their legendary Texas swing to Crooked Creek Canyon's S Lazy U barn dance, while a comedy of errors unfolded around the ranch's secret still. Obstetrician Dr. MaryAnn Faunce, the daughter of an abolitionist and suffragette, made house calls as a real-life Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Rough-and-tumble miners drawn to Creede's silver boom found accommodations ranging from the primitive to the opulent, though none as enduring as the Creede Hotel. Upper Rio Grande native Carol Ann Wetherill and author Sandra Wagner preserve and celebrate the pioneering spirit that defined the early days in this obscure corner of southern Colorado.

Sandra Wagner grew up and attended college in northern Colorado, and retired in 2008 after many years as a chemist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. She now teaches chemistry part time at Adams State University. Sandra's mother-in-law, Carol Ann Wethrill, is a fourth-generation native of the Upper Rio Grande, and has been meticulously collecting local and family stories over her eighty-four years. They started jointly writing history articles back in 2006 for the Lake City, Colorado newspaper.