Background
Smith, Duane Allan was born on April 20, 1937 in San Diego, California, United States. Son of Stanley W. and Ila B. (Bark) Smith.
(Harriet Fish Backus provided us with fascinating glimpses...)
Harriet Fish Backus provided us with fascinating glimpses into an era long gone in her classic book "Tomboy Bride." In "A Visit With the Tomboy Bride" the well-known Colorado historian Duane Smith gives us a further look into her adventurous life at the Tomboy Mine, high above Telluride, Colorado. Harriet wrote to Duane after he reviewed her book in 1970, starting a correspondence that continued until her death. The result was a potpourri of Harriet Backus' life and those of some of her friends at the Tomboy Mine. Smith's book is an exciting trip into a wonderful vista of times gone by, a story of an amazing woman, and the tale of an adventuresome life above timberline in the rugged San Juan Mountains of Southwestern Colorado.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1890437875/?tag=2022091-20
( Serving longer in the U.S. Senate than any other Colora...)
Serving longer in the U.S. Senate than any other Coloradan, Henry M. Teller was one of the Centennial State's greatest statesmen and political leaders. Now Duane A. Smith, author of Horace Tabor: His Life and the Legend, rescues this larger-than-life figure from obscurity in this new and definitive biography of the Central City lawyer turned Colorado senator. Teller was a prime example of what a politician should be in an era when elected officials left a great deal to be desired. As Colorado's representative, Teller stated his beliefs and stuck by them. Not all agreed with him, but all admired him for his honesty and integrity. His legal career in Colorado encompassed much of the early legislation in the territory, such as developing mining law and the organization of the Colorado Central Railroad, while his Washington career touched on nearly every important western economic development issue that occurred in Colorado between 1876 and 1909. Teller declared to the U.S. Congress that Colorado was a part of the nation, and that the West deserved a say in its decisions. Incorporating extensive primary and secondary sources, federal documents, the Teller papers, a wealth of newspaper articles, and a superb array of photographs, Smith's biography will be a wonderful source for anyone interested in Colorado history and the political past of the state and nation.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0870816667/?tag=2022091-20
(The history of Colorado is the story of its people, young...)
The history of Colorado is the story of its people, young and old, and of all nationalities. Together they form a rich mosaic of heroes and rascals--the lucky, unfortunate, known, unknown, rich and poor folks who fashioned Colorado's past, forged the present, and laid the groundwork for the future. We are what they were. As Abraham Lincoln observed a year after Colorado gained territorial status, "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history." In Colorado: Our Colorful State, a fourth grade textbook perfectly adaptable for people of all ages, many of these people take a bow upon the stage. Supplemented by drawings, maps, and photographs, the text transports young and older readers from the appearance of the dinosaurs to the coming of the first hunters and gatherers and on to the late twentieth century. The builders of Mesa Verde and the Spanish explorers cross the pages. So, too, do the Utes, railroad builders, ranchers, miners, and farmers who, each in their own way, left a heritage. The women--who fought to gain the vote, saved Mesa Verde National Park, homesteaded, and "tamed" the frontier--take their place as well. Finally, the great changes of the twentieth century, and the people who helped bring them about, come into focus as the book closes in on the present. Filling a gap in grade school coverage, Colorado: Our Colorful State opens a wide window on all aspects of Colorado's saga, focusing in particular on those various peoples who called Colorado home. It is their story, it is our story.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0870815059/?tag=2022091-20
( Co-Winner of the 2004 Colorado Endowment for the Humani...)
Co-Winner of the 2004 Colorado Endowment for the Humanities Publication Prize From burying scurvy victims up to their necks in the earth to drinking kerosene mixed with sugar to treat influenza, mid-nineteenth century medicine in the mining communities of the West usually consisted of home remedies that were often remarkable for their inventiveness but tragically random in their effectiveness. Only as a desperate last resort would people turn to the medical community, which had developed a deplorable reputation for quackery and charlatanism because of its lack of licensing regulations and uniform educational standards. No One Ailing Except a Physician takes readers back to those free-wheeling days in the mining towns and the dark recesses of the mines themselves, a time when illness or injury was usually survived more due to sheer luck than the interventions of medicine. In this important new contribution to both mining and medical history, historians Duane A. Smith and Ronald C. Brown present a detailed analysis of the ailments that confronted the miners and the methods with which they and their doctors attempted to "cure" them. The occupational hazards of mining, with its strenuous labor and exposure to the elements, contributed to the miners' vulnerability to disease and injury, which was further worsened by the typical miner's refusal to heed prevailing medical wisdom and common sense, often leading to easily preventable diseases such as scurvy. And because medical science of the era had not progressed much beyond that of the ancient Greeks, such debilitating diseases such as cholera, influenza, dysentery, and malaria proved to be virtual death sentences, to say nothing of occupational accidents with fires and explosions, mine collapses, and safety cage mishaps.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/087081611X/?tag=2022091-20
( This is a lively history of three Rocky Mountain states...)
This is a lively history of three Rocky Mountain states in the twentieth century. With the sure hand of an experienced writer and the engaging voice of a veteran storyteller, the well-known historian Duane Smith recounts the major social, political, and economic events of the period with verve and zest. It is obvious that Smith is thoroughly familiar with his subject and has a genuine enthusiasm for the history of the region. Written with the general reader in mind, Rocky Mountain Heartland will appeal to students, teachers, and armchair historians” of all ages. This is the colorful saga of how the Old West became the New West. Beginning at the end of the nineteenth century and concluding after the turn of the twentyfirst, Rocky Mountain Heartland explains how Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming evolved over the course of the century. Smith is mindful of all the factors that propelled the region: mining, agriculture, water, immigration, tourism, technology, and two world wars. And he points out how the three states responded in varying ways to each of these forces. Although this is a regional story, Smith never loses sight of the national events that influenced events in the region. As Smith skillfully shows, the vast natural resources of the three states attracted optimistic, hopeful Americans intent on getting rich, enjoying the outdoors, or creating new lives for themselves and their families. How they resolved these often conflicting goals is the modern story of the Rocky Mountain region.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0816527598/?tag=2022091-20
( Horace Tabor: His Life and the Legend is the first biog...)
Horace Tabor: His Life and the Legend is the first biography to give full attention to Tabor's mining, business, and political activities as well as to his matrimonial escapades. It is a careful and detailed portrait of a man so extraordinary that even in his own lifetime the facts were largely obscured behind the legend. Rarely has the Victorian American West, both good and bad, been better synopsized in the figure of one man.Show More an.Show Less An 1858er who had spent nearly two decades following the will-o-the-wisp Colorado mining frontier, in 1876 Tabor was then living and working in out-of-the-way Oro City, near where Leadville would be one day. Soon thereafter came the Little Pittsburg silver strike, and Tabor's fortune took flight. Very quickly, Colorado - and the rest of the nation - was hearing about Horace Tabor. "Denver's lucky star was on high when Governor Tabor decided to spend his fortune here," praised the Denver Tribune in 1881. The Leadville Daily Herald (July 8, 1882) also understood his contribution: "Colorado has produced fortunes for many men, but no man who has met with success has so freely made investments in this state, as has Governor Tabor." The events that followed that amazing silver discovery on Fryer Hill, May 1878 unfolded like a classic Greek tragedy. Tabor weathered them all, and his name has resounded through the succeeding decades. No other Coloradan of his generation is so well remembered, nor does anyone else so typify the tempo of this legendary mining era.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0870812068/?tag=2022091-20
( Mining America is a vivid account of the damage wrought...)
Mining America is a vivid account of the damage wrought by almost two centuries of mining, but its main focus is on the conflicting attitudes behind the destruction and on society's responses. Veteran author and historian Duane Smith asserts that the marriage of mining and environmental issues was bound to touch America's sensitive pocketbook nerve - but the question now is, are all groups willing to pay the price?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0870813064/?tag=2022091-20
( First produced at the Central City Opera House in 1956,...)
First produced at the Central City Opera House in 1956, "The Ballad of Baby Doe" is now widely considered a classic and is the second most produced American opera. In The Ballad of Baby Doe, Duane A. Smith tells the tale of the complicated birth of this most American of operas. Inspired in 1953 by composer Douglas Moore's interest in Horace Tabor's story and funded by the Central City Opera House Association, the opera came together through a unique combination of hard work and serendipity. Smith relates how key people - including investors and historians in addition to creative talent - turned Moore's idea into a reality and brought the story of the Tabors to millions of opera fans worldwide. In addition, Smith compares the opera's libretto with historical reality, and the book even includes a chapter on the production written by John Moriarty, who conducted the opera in 1981, 1988, and 1996. For anyone interested in opera history or this Colorado story in particular - the emblematic tale of silver millionaire Horace Tabor and the two women he married - The Ballad of Baby Doe will be the definitive history for years to come.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0870816594/?tag=2022091-20
(1989 University of Oklahoma Press hardcover, Duane A. Smi...)
1989 University of Oklahoma Press hardcover, Duane A. Smith (Crested Butte: From Coal Camp to Ski Town). The history of the state of Colorado
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806121807/?tag=2022091-20
(Mesa Verde National Park was America's first cultural par...)
Mesa Verde National Park was America's first cultural park and also the world's first cultural heritage park. Created in 1906, it preserves the sites and materials of the prehistoric Puebloan people. Located in southwestern Colorado near the famous Four Corners, where the states of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico meet, the magnificent Mesa Verde is situated in Montezuma County, just south of Cortez and directly west of Durango. The park's rich archaeological history was played out amid some of the most ruggedly beautiful landscapes in the West. The greater story of the evolution of the park encompasses the Ute people, Theodore Roosevelt, novelist Willa Cather, and other personalities. These remarkable vintage photographs tell that saga, which is as fascinating as that of the Puebloans.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0738569461/?tag=2022091-20
(The 1890s were a tumultuous decade in American history, w...)
The 1890s were a tumultuous decade in American history, with economic depression, war, heated politics, and labor conflicts surrounding AmericaÂ’s emergence as a world power. Against this chaotic background, life in the rowdy western mining town of Durango, Colorado, and the quiet agricultural hamlet of Sandwich, Illinois, seemed to be worlds apart. In A Tale of Two Towns, historian Duane Smith takes a comparative look at Durango and Sandwich in an effort to determine what life was like in these two small communities. His fascinating study, based on a close examination of papers, municipal records, and personal correspondence, offers a unique portrait of everyday life in these two towns. A Tale of Two Towns shows how small town life a century ago in these communities was quite similar, and hauntingly familiar to life in each town today.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0870813951/?tag=2022091-20
( Over one hundred and thirty years ago, pioneers arrivin...)
Over one hundred and thirty years ago, pioneers arriving in Colorado during the Civil War era brought the game of baseball to the high and dry Rocky Mountains frontier. From the days of games in pastures with no gloves to the high drama of Coors Field and the Colorado Rockies, baseball and Coloradans have had a love affair that has continued to flourish over the decades. In They Came To Play: A Photographic History of Colorado Baseball, historians and avid baseball fans Duane Smith and Mark Foster have collected the finest historic baseball photographs of teams, players, and games from around the state. They are all here, the town teams, company teams, early professional clubs, and the ethnic teams that made baseball an integral part of the life and times in Colorado's mountain towns, prairie hamlets, and bustling frontier cities. Combined with the wonderful photographs and captions is an essay that brings baseball's rich heritage in Colorado to life for the reader.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0870814338/?tag=2022091-20
Smith, Duane Allan was born on April 20, 1937 in San Diego, California, United States. Son of Stanley W. and Ila B. (Bark) Smith.
Bachelor, University Colorado, 1959. Master of Arts, University Colorado, 1961. Doctor of Philosophy, University Colorado, 1964.
Professor of history, Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado, since 1964.
( Co-Winner of the 2004 Colorado Endowment for the Humani...)
( Originally published in 1988, Mesa Verde National Park:...)
( Mining America is a vivid account of the damage wrought...)
( Mining America is a vivid account of the damage wrought...)
( Horace Tabor: His Life and the Legend is the first biog...)
(The 1890s were a tumultuous decade in American history, w...)
( Over one hundred and thirty years ago, pioneers arrivin...)
( First produced at the Central City Opera House in 1956,...)
(Rocky Mountain West: Colorado, Wyoming, & Montana, 1859-1...)
(Harriet Fish Backus provided us with fascinating glimpses...)
(Mesa Verde National Park was America's first cultural par...)
(The history of Colorado is the story of its people, young...)
( This is a lively history of three Rocky Mountain states...)
(1989 University of Oklahoma Press hardcover, Duane A. Smi...)
( Serving longer in the U.S. Senate than any other Colora...)
(Mesa Verde)
Chairman La Plata County Democratic Committee, Durango, 1984-1985. Member Colorado Centennial Commission, 1974-1976, Durango History Preservation Commission, 1989-1991, Durango History Preservation Board, since 1991, Gary Hart Campaign La Plata County, 1974, 80, 84. Member Society for American Baseball Research, Mining History Association (presiding chairman 1989-1990, president 1994-1995), Western History Association (council 1985-1988), Colorado History Society.
Married Gay Woodruff, August 20, 1960. 1 child, Laralee Ellen.