Wednesday Wonders: DISASTERS OF THE PIKES PEAK REGION

Today's Wednesday Wonders features  Disasters of the Pikes Peak Region
by a consortium of authors for Pikes Peak Library District Special Collections
Book description:
Disasters of the Pikes Peak Region serves as an intense summary of many of the major fires, floods, and other catastrophes of this area. Though thoroughly researched by the contributors, this book is not intended to be a comprehensive accounting, but rather a collection of some of the more significant calamities impacting the area—many of which were discussed at the 9th Annual Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium, also titled “Disasters of the Pikes Peak Region.”

Readers will learn that recent misfortunes experienced in the Pikes Peak region were unprecedented in their destruction, but were not unfamiliar, or even unpredictable, events. In fact, we should expect some natural disasters. For example, did you know that Colorado was designated the “hail capital of the U.S.”? Or did you know that Colorado is on the western borderline of Tornado Alley and that twisters have damaged property in both the El Paso County plains and Manitou Springs, where an estimated $1 million in tornado damage occurred in 1979?

In these pages you will learn how the devastating 19th century fires in Cripple Creek and Colorado Springs influenced how these communities developed and how waging battle against destructive flames evolved from making fire breaks by blasting buildings to sophisticated military missions involving satellites, GPS, and aerial firefighting methods. You will understand, from first-hand accounts, how the 1898 Antlers Hotel fire started and quickly burned an extensive area of Colorado Springs three blocks long and two blocks wide. And you will be shocked by the damaging 1935 Memorial Day Flood, and other floods, that swiftly overcame Colorado Springs’ parks, streets, and buildings.
 449 pp. Maps, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.
ISBN 978-1-56735-318-1 (print), $24.95; 978-1-56735-344-0 (Kindle), $5.99; 978-1-56735-345-7 (Smashwords ePub), $5.99 (available for free to your readers at Smashwords.com through 30 April with coupon code ZU66Q)
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Purchase Links for Disasters of the Pikes Peak Region:
Amazon(Kindle) | Smashwords| Clausen Books (Print)
(Clausen Books will eventually list the print version on Amazon and AbeBooks)

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CONTENTS
Defining Disaster: Death, Destruction, or Distress?Michael L. Olsen • 1
FIRE
Evolution of Fire: Our Changing Views of Fire in the Pikes Peak RegionErinn Barnes • 15
Colorado Springs Burns, 1876 • 52
Pikes Peak Timberland Reserve FiresJohn G. Jack • 62
The Antlers Burns:The 1898 Fire that Destroyed a Landmark • 64
The Antlers Hotel Fire of 1898Bill Crosby • 90
Help from on High: Space Assets & Military-Civil Cooperation during the Waldo Canyon & Black Forest FiresRick W. Sturdevant • 105
In Our Own Backyard: Excerpts from the Waldo Canyon Fire Oral History ProjectHeather Jordan • 129
Crossing the Denial Divide: Arid West Lessons from the Waldo Canyon & Black Forest FiresKatherine Scott Sturdevant • 166
FLOOD
Harbinger: The Fountain Valley Flood of 1864 • 187
When the Waters Rise: Recovering & Learning from Pikes Peak-Area FloodsJohn E. Putnam • 191
                                   The Memorial Day Flood of 1935                Preston & Lindsay Petermeier• 231
Hell & High Water: Natural Disasters at Glen EyrieSusan A. Fletcher • 245
Flash Flooding: A Legacy of the Waldo Canyon FireJohn E. Putnam • 282
OTHERCATASTROPHES
The Cripple Creek Volcano: A 35-million-year DisasterDoris A. McCraw • 319
Earth, Wind, Fire & Other Mini-disasters in the 1800sNancy K. Prince • 344
The Fountain Depot Explosion of 1888 • 357
“Worse Than Fire or Flood, Tornado or Earthquake”:The Collapse of the Building & Loan Industry inDepression-Era Colorado SpringsAlice Echols • 388
Selected Bibliography • 417
INDEX • 421



You may connect with the Pikes Peak Regional Library and their collection at the following:
Regional History Series Website| Facebook | Twitter

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Featured Author – Doris A. McCraw:
Author of “The Cripple Creek Volcano: A 35-million-year Disaster”

Doris McCraw is an actor, historian, poet, photographer, and (of course) writer. After she retired Doris decided to pursue her other dreams. She performs as Helen (Hunt) Jackson, Katharine Lee Bates, as stand alone historic characters. She researched and wrote on Karol W Smith, Colorado's first film commissioner, and currently is researching the early women doctors of Colorado prior to 1900.
She writes and post haiku with her photographs, five days a week on her fivesevenfive page.  http://fivesevenfivepage.blogspot.com 
Writing fiction under the pen name, Angela Raines, she contributes to the following blogs: http://sweetamericanasweethearts.blogspot.com, http://prairierosepublications.blogspot.com,
https://writingwranglersandwarriors.wordpress.com and yes, she finds time to write her Western and Medieval romances. She claims it keeps her young.

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Other books in the Regional History Series
The Colorado Labor Wars: Cripple Creek 1903–1904,A Centennial Commemoration
“To Spare No Pains”: Zebulon Montgomery Pike& His 1806–1807 Southwest Expedition
Doctor at Timberline: True Tales, Travails,& Triumphs of a Pioneer Colorado Physician
Legends, Labors & Loves:William Jackson Palmer, 1836–1909
Extraordinary Women of the Rocky Mountain West
Lightning in His Hand:The Life Story of Nikola Tesla
Enterprise & Innovation in the Pikes Peak Region
The Pioneer Photographer:Rocky Mountain Adventures with a Camera
A City Beautiful Dream: The 1912 Vision for Colorado Springs
Film & Photography on the Front Range
Doctors, Disease, and Dying in the Pikes Peak Region
Rush to the Rockies! The 1859 Pikes Peak or Bust Gold Rush
Candy Makers’ Manual for the Household
Massacre, Murder, & Mayhem in the Rocky Mountain West