Denver was founded in 1861 by gold seekers. Its history has been a cycle of booms and depressions. Among the most
startling periods of growth occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, when Colorado’s oil and military and tourist industries all
prospered, and when businesses from throughout the United States relocated to Denver at the request of employees who were
attracted by the region’s natural beauty.
In a few years, however, the area’s ruin would be testament to a bargain we had tried to strike. The pictures record what we
purchased, what we paid, and what we could not buy. They document a separation from ourselves, and in turn from the natural
world that we professed to love.
—R.A., 1995
