Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Fairplay Research

This past week I read Silver Lies by Ann Parker. This fictional book is set in Leadville during the winter of 1879-1880; the height of the Leadville silver boom. Great murder-mystery! While reading this book, I was also reading through the 1879 and 1880 Fairplay Flume newspapers on Colorado Historic Newspapers. I realized the search function wasn't picking up all of the references to Wilburn Christison, so I started reading each paper. I am so glad I did!

I have a much more complete picture of Wilburn now. He had an impressive law practice and involved in many civic matters-- president of the school board, town clerk, Park County's attorney, chairman of the Park County democratic party, etc. It was interesting to think about Wilburn living in Fairplay while reading Silver Lies. While Fairplay never boomed like Leadville did, the silver mining made Fairplay a bustling town in 1880-1881.

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