Regional Books “Brothers Down,” Leon Gaspard and more

Brothers Down by Walter R. Borneman (Little, Brown)

Many Americans know about the deaths of the five Sullivan brothers, who were assigned to the same World War II ship and killed when it was torpedoed in 1942. Lesser known are the stories of brothers who were assigned to ships at Pearl Harbor. Six Patten brothers from Iowa, for example, were aboard the USS Nevada there on Dec. 7, 1941. All survived.

The brothers assigned to the Árizona that fateful day were not so lucky. In “Brothers Down,” a moving account of a littleknown part of World War II history, Colorado author Walter R. Borneman tells the story of 32 sets of brothers (a total of 78 men) who served on the Arizona, which was sunk in the Japanese attack onpearl Harbor. Some 1,177 of the 1,514 men assigned to the Arizona were killed — 63 of them brothers. Only one set of brothers (Ken and Russell Warriner) survived.

The facts are appalling, but it is the stories of these brothers that bring readers to tears.

A few days after the attack, the Giovenazzo family in Illinois was relieved to find that their son Joe was safe. They had no word of his brother Mike, who had been reported missing. Then, on Christmas Eve, came a telegram saying that Mike was alive. A few days later, they received another telegram telling them there had been a mistake.

Men who had liberty the weekend of the attack fared better than their brothers on the Arizona, of course. And many who survived bore a lifetime of guilt. John Anderson, later a Hollywood stunt man who lived to become the last of the Arizona’s brothers, asked that some of his ashes be interred near the remains of his twin, who was killed in the attack.

Most of the surviving brothers went on to live ordinary post-war lives, but they never forgot. “Everything that happened that day is tattooed on your soul,” said one sailor who lived to be 88. Nor did the families of the dead ever heal. Clara May Morse from Lamar lost two sons that fateful day. She told of her misery with “nothing left for me now except hard work.” She went to nursing school and spent the rest of her active years working and volunteering in Denver hospitals. and Duane A. Smith (University Press of Colorado)

Most books about mining towns concentrate on the bonanza days. “The Once and Future Silver Queen of the Rockies” tells of the aftermath of one Colorado community.

The 1893 repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase was a near-fatal blow to Georgetown. The local bank closed, and the value of the county’s silver production dropped to less than $1 million. Mining was not dead “but sleepeth,” wrote a hopeful reporter. Population dropped from a high of 3,500 to 300, and there were more Georgetownites living in California than in Georgetown. Some men “have gone fishing; they might as well as there is nothing else to do,” a local newspaper editorialized.

Still, Georgetown hung on, with a wait-till-nextyear attitude. It is those hard years of hope and despair that historians Christine A. Bradley and Duane A. Smith write about. They tell of keeping downsized mines alive, of small-town social events, of Georgetown’s efforts to support both world wars. During those years, Georgetown struggled to make infrastructure repairs. It supported efforts to build automobile roads to connect it with Denver and the Western Slope. Despite their efforts, railroad passenger service was eliminated, and the bridge of the famed Georgetown Loop was sold for $400. Buildings burned down or were demolished.

Georgetown’s eventual salvation was tourism, which took off after World War II with historic preservation and upscale tourist events instead of helldorado-type attractions.

Bradley, Clear Creek County’s archivist, and Smith, author of some 50 books, have done extensive research that together with dozens of photographs make “The Once and future Silver Queen of the Rockies” an entertaining story of the survival of one of Colorado’s most charming mining towns.

by Forrest Fenn and Carleen Milburn (The TOA Collection/fenn Archive/university of Oklahoma)

Leon Gaspard was one of the Southwest’s great artists. Born in Russia in 1882, he painted people from all over the world, delighting in the colorful dress of primitive cultures. His bold style and brilliant use of color resulted in vibrant, ambitious paintings.

A well-known artist when he first visited Taos in 1918, Gaspard, a recovering World War I veteran, was taken with the Indians of New Mexico and Arizona, just as he had been with the peasants of his native country. He painted them dressed in blankets and turquoise jewelry, the women in bright velvet skirts. Costumes appealed to Gaspard. His most famous works show peasants in flowered robes, the women in bright hats and scarves. His “Taos Canyon Winter Trek,” showing a caravan of Indians heading into a forest, is similar in composition to his Russian pictures of migrating natives — and to a 1918 retreat in the Argonne Forest.

Although he settled in Taos, where he built a palatial adobe that he painted pink, Gaspard loved to travel. He and his wife spent a two-year honeymoon in the wilds of Russia on a painting trip. Captured by bandits who demanded he pay a ransom, Gaspard painted a picture of their chief, who was so delighted he spared Gaspard’s life. “It’s difficult to say if Gaspard’s outings were in quest of art or adventure,” the authors write.

“Leon Gaspard” is a splashy, over-sized book worthy of the artist himself. Santa Fe art gallery owner Forrest Fenn dealt in Gaspard paintings for years. Working with Montana writer Carleen Milburn, he pens an entertaining story of Gaspard and his life. The authors avoid scholarly discourse in favor of an entertaining narrative.

The book is illustrated with dozens of full-color Gaspard paintings that dazzle the reader. Gaspard has been the subject of other books, notably one by Taos writer Frank Waters. The Fenn-milburn volume is as brilliant as the art’s work itself.

Thebankerandthe Blackfoot by J. Edward Chamberlin (Bluebridge)

The glory days of the Blackfoot in Canada were waning when Crop Eared Wolf stopped a stranger in Fort Macloud to ask about his horse. The stranger, Jack Cowdry, had just come from a place called Pile of Bones (later Regina), looking for somewhere to settle. The friendship the two struck up that day in 1885 lasted until Crop Eared Wolf’s death in 1913.

“The Banker and the Blackfoot” is less about the friendship that the two enjoyed than parallel stories of the two men, set against the changing times in Canada. Crop Eared Wolf went on to become a chief, while Cowdry was a successful banker and rancher.

The narrative, written by J. Edward Chamberlin (who is Cowdry’s grandson), tells of the transition of Fort Macleod from a rough prairie settlement to a “civilized” town. During that period, the Blackfoot faced the demise of much of their way of life, the loss of their land and their treatment at the hands of racist Indian agents. Cowdry was a champion of the Indians, and Chamberlin relates a story of how the two men foiled a survey meant to appropriate Indian lands.

The book is filled with vignettes of well-known men, such as the Sundance Kid, who spent a year on a local ranch, as well as Canadian characters. One was Snookum Jim, who wrote in a letter to a friend: “My partner, Will Geary, got to putting on airs and I shot him and he is dead. Your potatoes are looking well.”

Written in an easy, entertaining style, “The Banker and the Blackfoot” is part biography, part history.

Tomboy Bride by Harriet Fish Backus (West Margin Press)

“Tomboy Bride,” a first-person account of a remarkable young woman who moved to the Tomboy Mine near Telluride in 1906, was first published 1969.

Harriet Fish Backus’ story of life high in the mountains at the Tomboy, as well as a later posting in Leadville, details the trials and triumphs of mining camp women. This 50th anniversary edition, with a forward by Colorado author Pam Houston, is a welcome Colorado classic back in print.

Sandra Dallas is a Denver author. Contact her at sandradallas@msn.com.