The Ghosts of Leadville, Colorado

Drove the back roads, the 17, the 24, up from 7500 ft. elevation to 10,200 to the historic and haunted Leadville. The center of the Silver Boom of 1880 and a setting for my father and my book 'Passing', this was a long awaited trip for me. My former Marin County roommate Julie drove up from Denver to meet me for a weekend of research and discovery. We stayed at the Delaware Hotel on Harrison Ave, built 1886. We went to the Baby Doe Reading Room at the Library, clad in red velvet. We found a book with description of 'Stillborn Alley', the appalling tell-all of where the prostitutes ubiquitous with the times through their miscarriages and unwanted babes. The cribs still line the back side of what was 3rd Street. The dirt still mingled with blood, semen and tears. Julie and I were spooked, 1000%. We had the good fortune of being able to take in a silent movie at the Tabor Opera house on Sunday after a horseback ride through the mountains. The pieces of my grandmothers stories are not any clearer, but the setting is.