Judy Buffington Sammons

Keepin' the Peace Judy Buffington Sammons

They had a certain bond and a certain look--the courageous lawman and the notorious outlaw of Colorado's eadly-day Western Slope. And even though one stood for right and the other for wrong, the line between them would often blur and sometimes disappear in America's "wild and wooly" West. Blending historical detail, biographical sketches, and good-guy, bad-guy stories of the day, author Judy Sammons takes a look at a time when Keepin' the Peace went hand-in-hand with civilizing a hard and vast wilderness. As local governments organized in Western Colorado in the late 1800's, a vaqriety of lawmen were assigned to keep the peace, each with a certain territory, county, or town to patrol. With the coming of civilization, there also came those men who would prey on the riches of others; and, in some instances, lawman turned outlaw and outlaw turned lawman, depending on which way the enterprising wind was blowing. Keepin' the Peace takes a look at the early days of law enforcement in Western Colorado--the brazen criminals, the intrepid lawmen, the inhumane jails, and the merciless vigilante "neck tie parties." In towns stretching north from Western Colorado's New Mexico border to Wyoming, from Creede to Gunnison to Delta and on up to Brown's Park--Sammanons' stories, capturing the danger and eaxcitement of that time, promise to hold the rapt attention of readers today.