April 2010:
Columbine Ink announced its new
Waterfalls of Colorado 2011 calendar was delivered from the printer!
January
2009: Columbine Ink was featured in The Flume!
Reprinted with permission from The Flume, January 23, 2009
Park County ghost towns book revived
New publishing company gets it back in print
By Debra Orecchio
Correspondent
John Aldrich’s book “Ghosts of Park County” has been reprinted by Columbine Ink,
a
publishing company in Denver.
Peg Williams, publisher, said that she thought Aldrich’s books were wonderful
and
she was excited by the chance to pick it up and get it back into print.
“Ghosts of Park County” is one of a series of 15 books written by Aldrich, all
of
which are guides to Colorado’s ghost towns and mining camps.
Of the 15 books, five have been out of print, according to Williams. The Park
County book is the first one to be reprinted. Williams said for this first
reprinting, they have had 100 books reprinted and she has been encouraged with
how
many have sold so far. She declined to give a specific number.
Aldrich said the book on Park County was probably the third book he wrote in the
series, and it was first printed in 1984. Overall, he sold more than 43,000
copies
of his books during the time they were all in print.
On average, it took Aldrich three to four months to research and write each
book. He
was a geologist by training, he said, and writing the books started out as a
hobby.
He was in the oil business for 20 years; when they wanted to transfer him to
Texas,
he decided to write full-time instead and stay in Colorado.
The book is full of historical information on the many mining towns throughout
Park
County. Aldrich includes fascinating stories of the people who settled in the
area.
Aldrich, 63, lives in Centennial and had a cabin in Park County until he sold it
a
couple of months ago. His health issues, including going blind in one eye, made
it
difficult to make the drive up to Fairplay, so he made the difficult decision to
sell the property that he had owned for almost 10 years.
It was up at that property that Williams first met Aldrich. Williams and her
husband, Ron, own property near Aldrich’s in Horseshoe Gulch near Fairplay.
Aldrich
would have parties at his cabin during the summer months. She was also a
geologist
and spoke to Aldrich about the books he had written.
“One thing led to another,” she said.
She wanted to start a business as a regional publisher of western books and felt
Aldrich’s series was a great foundation. Columbine Ink acquired all of the books
from Aldrich. The Williams, along with Anne Justen, are checking the facts in
each
of the books and updating some of the information. They are also adding updated
photographs, especially of buildings that may have been restored, like the Como
Roundhouse.
Peg Williams said that the revisions are fairly minor and the information is
what
Aldrich originally researched.
She is hoping to expand the business with other publications in the future.
One of the challenges with the books, Williams said, is that they are done in
the
old style of printing. That format needs to be converted to digital printing,
including scanning all the original photographs. She also has an artist restore
the
color to the photos as much as possible to the original.
It took about two months to complete the process for the Park County book, she
said,
but with each book the process gets faster. They have already completed the
updated
version of the book on Gilpin County and will soon be starting on Boulder
County.
Aldrich’s books can be purchased on the Columbine Ink Web site
(www.columbineink.com) or by calling Williams at 303-756-1106.