True West Magazine
Life always looks a lot better in hindsight. Movies have cleaned up and sanitized life in the West.
The romance of the West meant many things to many people. It’s a place that lives by its myths and legends. It symbolized hope, freedom and opportunity. It was about open spaces and a pristine land; its mountains that reached up and touched the sky. Colorado alone boasts 53 mountain peaks over 14,000 feet in elevation. Those same mountains possessed deposits of gold, silver and copper beyond a Spanish Conquistador’s wildest dreams. It turned out to be the richest treasure trove of natural resources in the history of the civilized world. And for the first time in history the finder got to keep what he found. Earlier, it became the property of a ruler, king or queen.