"This is not a history book. Rather it is a directory of towns, and compilation of known information about those towns. In undertaking the stud, I was amazed at the amount of legend and contradictory information Colorado history has collected in just one hundred years. Who was it that said: 'History is the perpetuation of saleable gossip'? (Perhaps, nobody has said it yet. In that case, it's mine, all mine.)

"As of this moment, this is the most complete compilation of Colorado mining towns—ghost or going—available.

"For the fourth edition, over 100 towns have been added. Also, I have included a new chapter (XXVI. Addendum, page 466), the first couple of pages of which can well be read as a second Preface to the book."
— Perry Eberhart, Preface, 1959 and 1969

Perry Eberhart was a social worker, teacher, reporter, editor, environmental activist and respected author. He collected stories about the history of Colorado and the West for more than 30 years.