Presenters for
Myths & Mysteries of the Rocky Mountain West
Sat., June 11, 2016
East Library
5550 N. Union Blvd.
Colorado Springs, CO 80918
click here to make reservations for this free event
Dennis Daily is manager of Special Collections at the Pikes Peak Library District. He earned his BA in journalism at New Mexico State University, and his masters in library science from the University of North Texas. He has worked in archives and special collections at New Mexico State University and the Pikes Peak Library District for nearly 20 years. His interests include Colonial Mexico, history of photography, traditional musics and the intersections of cultural practice and the documentary record.
Beau Driver is a PhD candidate at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His research interests lie in labor and working-class, intellectual, and cultural history. Driver focuses on the Gilded Age and Progressive Era United States and he is currently working on his dissertation, which examines the life and work of Walter Wyckoff, professor of Economics and Sociology at Princeton University and the author of The Workers: An Experiment in Reality (1897).
Susan Fletcher is the historian and archivist for The Navigators, where she documents and interprets the history of Glen Eyrie. A native of Colorado Springs, Fletcher’s experiences as a docent at the McAllister House Museum and intern at the Western Museum of Mining and Industry convinced her to pursue a full-time history career. Susan holds an MA in public history from Indiana University—Purdue University Indianapolis. She worked at the Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology in Indianapolis, the Indiana Historical Society, and the Lilly House Museum and Gardens and served as the archivist for Lee University in Tennessee. She is the coauthor of Dawson Trotman In His Own Words and of several articles on Pikes Peak regional history. Fletcher currently serves as the chairman of the Colorado Springs Historic Preservation Board.
Joyce B. Lohse combines journalism and genealogy to write historical biographies for Filter Press, Palmer Lake, Colorado. She is national administrator for Women Writing the West, president of the Columbine Genealogical & Historical Society in Centennial, and writes history-related articles for magazines including True West, Steamboat Magazine, Colorado Central, and Women Out West. Awards include three CIPA EVVY Awards, two silver WILLA awards, and a Colorado Authors’ League Award. In March 2008, she accepted induction into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame for her historical subject, Eliza Routt. Lohse’s interest in western history has led her to present over 170 programs, and has taken her on research jaunts to cemeteries and archives throughout Colorado.
Richard Marold is a Colorado historian who focuses primarily on the history of the Cheyenne Mountain/Pikes Peak region. He is editor of the journal Cheyenne Mountain Kiva and author of the book Winfield Scott Stratton—Reluctant Millionaire. Marold is a native of Colorado Springs, a graduate of Cheyenne Mountain School and holds a master’s degree in humanities from Penn State University. He is known for his portrayals of Winfield Scott Stratton, Nikola Tesla, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Doris McCraw has a BA in social work and criminology from Illinois Wesleyan University. She has been researching and performing throughout Colorado as Helen (Hunt) Jackson for more than 15 years. Additionally, McCraw has spent the last three years finding and telling the stories of the early women doctors in Colorado. McCraw has presented twice with the History Symposium and has published historical fiction under the pen name Angela Raines. Her writing practice includes a Monday through Friday published Haiku illustrated by her photographs.
Michael Olsen has a BA in history from St. Olaf College and an MA and PhD from the University of Washington. He is a retired professor of history from New Mexico Highlands University, where he taught for 30 years. His primary research interest is in the social and cultural history of the Santa Fe Trail and the Smoky Hill Trail and he has published extensively on the story and heritage of both trails.
Pamela Owens has been involved in documenting the history of the Fountain Valley and southeastern Colorado since moving here 10 years ago. She works at PPLD’s Fountain Library where she teaches genealogy. She also writes the scripts for the annual cemetery tours at Fountain’s Fairview Cemetery. Pam has worked as a contractor for the Army for the past decade, writing historic contexts that allow archaeologists to evaluate structures they may find within their place in history. By sharing some of her research on the Andrews homestead, Owens hopes to show that the discovery of Bent’s Stockade on modern-day Fort Carson is all myth.
Steve Ruskin is a native of Colorado Springs. He received his PhD in the history and philosophy of science from the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of the book John Herschel’s Cape Voyage: Private Science, Public Imagination, and the Ambitions of Empire (Ashgate, 2004) and numerous articles on the history of science.
Bernard (Beau) Schriever grew up exploring the Pikes Peak region and its historic towns and resources. After 15 years working in the Southwest and Southern Plains, he returned home in 2010 when hired as a contract archaeologist for Fort Carson. Since then, he has conducted fieldwork and research to help identify and evaluate the historic resources, like the Andrews homestead at Fort Carson and at the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site. He also collaborates on research related to local historic resources and is part of a research group creating an online encyclopedia of Maker’s Marks found on bottles in the United States.
John Stansfield has recounted stories from the American West and the world or more than 35 years. A storyteller and author, Stansfield reenacts the lives of national park pioneers Enos Mills and John Otto, as well as Charles Fox Gardiner, frontier physician. He authored biographies, Enos Mills: Rocky Mountain Naturalist and John Denver: Man for the World. His book Writers of the American West: Multicultural Learning Encounters earned a Colorado Authors’ League Award and was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award.
Katherine Scott Sturdevant is Professor of History at Pikes Peak Community College, where she has been the lead American history teacher for about 25 years. She also teaches American Indian, Colorado, women’s, West, Southwest, and Pikes Peak region history. Kathy works frequently with the Pikes Peak Library District and the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum as a speaker, consultant, writer, and editor. She has authored two books and numerous articles, and has won local, state, and national awards for teaching excellence. She has collaborated consistently on most of the PPLD Regional History Series books and symposia since they began.
Rick W. Sturdevant, PhD, joined the U.S. Air Force History & Museums Program in 1984 and has been Air Force Space Command deputy director of history since 1999. An internationally recognized authority on U.S. military space history, he appears frequently as a lecturer on aerospace history topics and, in addition to writing classified official histories, has published extensively in open literature. He serves on the editorial board of Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly and is editor of the International Academy of Astronautics history series. Rick’s professional honors include the Air Force Exemplary Civilian Service Award (1995–1999), the American Astronautical Society (AAS) President’s Recognition Award (2005), and election as an AAS Fellow (2007).
Eric Swab was born in 1938. He is married with two children and three grandchildren. During his frequent hikes on Pikes Peak he has encountered considerable evidence of human activity, which has stimulated his interest in the history of those endeavors. As a volunteer for the National Forest, Swab has researched the Fremont Experimental Forest, the Skelton Mountain Ranch, the Manitou Incline, and the Monument Nursery. For his own enjoyment, he is researching Longs Ranch, the mining in the Duffield area, the Pikes Peak summit, the Clyde Timber Company, and South Cheyenne Cañon. Swab has prepared exhibits on his research for the Old Colorado City Historical Society and the Manitou Springs Heritage Center and is a previous Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium presenter and author.
Tamilla K. Wright has been a Manitou Springs Historic Preservation commissioner for the past five years and has produced historic documentaries of Colorado. For the last 28 years, she has enjoyed a wonderful career as a hairstylist, wife, and mom. While pursuing a career in forensic psychology, she found a love for writing, which has been encouraged by her college professors. Her articles have appeared in a local newspaper.
Nethery Wylie is an artist who lives and works in Colorado. Nethery works predominantly in the media of painting and printmaking, but often transfers and layers images onto fabrics, glass or other transparent materials. She frequently uses material and perspectives from her career as an academic reference librarian and her study of history as the starting point for her art explorations. Nethery completed an MFA at the Transart Institutue (with Plymouth University, UK) in 2014. She also holds an MA in history and a masters in library science.
Beau Driver is a PhD candidate at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His research interests lie in labor and working-class, intellectual, and cultural history. Driver focuses on the Gilded Age and Progressive Era United States and he is currently working on his dissertation, which examines the life and work of Walter Wyckoff, professor of Economics and Sociology at Princeton University and the author of The Workers: An Experiment in Reality (1897).
Susan Fletcher is the historian and archivist for The Navigators, where she documents and interprets the history of Glen Eyrie. A native of Colorado Springs, Fletcher’s experiences as a docent at the McAllister House Museum and intern at the Western Museum of Mining and Industry convinced her to pursue a full-time history career. Susan holds an MA in public history from Indiana University—Purdue University Indianapolis. She worked at the Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology in Indianapolis, the Indiana Historical Society, and the Lilly House Museum and Gardens and served as the archivist for Lee University in Tennessee. She is the coauthor of Dawson Trotman In His Own Words and of several articles on Pikes Peak regional history. Fletcher currently serves as the chairman of the Colorado Springs Historic Preservation Board.
Joyce B. Lohse combines journalism and genealogy to write historical biographies for Filter Press, Palmer Lake, Colorado. She is national administrator for Women Writing the West, president of the Columbine Genealogical & Historical Society in Centennial, and writes history-related articles for magazines including True West, Steamboat Magazine, Colorado Central, and Women Out West. Awards include three CIPA EVVY Awards, two silver WILLA awards, and a Colorado Authors’ League Award. In March 2008, she accepted induction into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame for her historical subject, Eliza Routt. Lohse’s interest in western history has led her to present over 170 programs, and has taken her on research jaunts to cemeteries and archives throughout Colorado.
Richard Marold is a Colorado historian who focuses primarily on the history of the Cheyenne Mountain/Pikes Peak region. He is editor of the journal Cheyenne Mountain Kiva and author of the book Winfield Scott Stratton—Reluctant Millionaire. Marold is a native of Colorado Springs, a graduate of Cheyenne Mountain School and holds a master’s degree in humanities from Penn State University. He is known for his portrayals of Winfield Scott Stratton, Nikola Tesla, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Doris McCraw has a BA in social work and criminology from Illinois Wesleyan University. She has been researching and performing throughout Colorado as Helen (Hunt) Jackson for more than 15 years. Additionally, McCraw has spent the last three years finding and telling the stories of the early women doctors in Colorado. McCraw has presented twice with the History Symposium and has published historical fiction under the pen name Angela Raines. Her writing practice includes a Monday through Friday published Haiku illustrated by her photographs.
Michael Olsen has a BA in history from St. Olaf College and an MA and PhD from the University of Washington. He is a retired professor of history from New Mexico Highlands University, where he taught for 30 years. His primary research interest is in the social and cultural history of the Santa Fe Trail and the Smoky Hill Trail and he has published extensively on the story and heritage of both trails.
Pamela Owens has been involved in documenting the history of the Fountain Valley and southeastern Colorado since moving here 10 years ago. She works at PPLD’s Fountain Library where she teaches genealogy. She also writes the scripts for the annual cemetery tours at Fountain’s Fairview Cemetery. Pam has worked as a contractor for the Army for the past decade, writing historic contexts that allow archaeologists to evaluate structures they may find within their place in history. By sharing some of her research on the Andrews homestead, Owens hopes to show that the discovery of Bent’s Stockade on modern-day Fort Carson is all myth.
Steve Ruskin is a native of Colorado Springs. He received his PhD in the history and philosophy of science from the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of the book John Herschel’s Cape Voyage: Private Science, Public Imagination, and the Ambitions of Empire (Ashgate, 2004) and numerous articles on the history of science.
Bernard (Beau) Schriever grew up exploring the Pikes Peak region and its historic towns and resources. After 15 years working in the Southwest and Southern Plains, he returned home in 2010 when hired as a contract archaeologist for Fort Carson. Since then, he has conducted fieldwork and research to help identify and evaluate the historic resources, like the Andrews homestead at Fort Carson and at the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site. He also collaborates on research related to local historic resources and is part of a research group creating an online encyclopedia of Maker’s Marks found on bottles in the United States.
John Stansfield has recounted stories from the American West and the world or more than 35 years. A storyteller and author, Stansfield reenacts the lives of national park pioneers Enos Mills and John Otto, as well as Charles Fox Gardiner, frontier physician. He authored biographies, Enos Mills: Rocky Mountain Naturalist and John Denver: Man for the World. His book Writers of the American West: Multicultural Learning Encounters earned a Colorado Authors’ League Award and was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award.
Katherine Scott Sturdevant is Professor of History at Pikes Peak Community College, where she has been the lead American history teacher for about 25 years. She also teaches American Indian, Colorado, women’s, West, Southwest, and Pikes Peak region history. Kathy works frequently with the Pikes Peak Library District and the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum as a speaker, consultant, writer, and editor. She has authored two books and numerous articles, and has won local, state, and national awards for teaching excellence. She has collaborated consistently on most of the PPLD Regional History Series books and symposia since they began.
Rick W. Sturdevant, PhD, joined the U.S. Air Force History & Museums Program in 1984 and has been Air Force Space Command deputy director of history since 1999. An internationally recognized authority on U.S. military space history, he appears frequently as a lecturer on aerospace history topics and, in addition to writing classified official histories, has published extensively in open literature. He serves on the editorial board of Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly and is editor of the International Academy of Astronautics history series. Rick’s professional honors include the Air Force Exemplary Civilian Service Award (1995–1999), the American Astronautical Society (AAS) President’s Recognition Award (2005), and election as an AAS Fellow (2007).
Eric Swab was born in 1938. He is married with two children and three grandchildren. During his frequent hikes on Pikes Peak he has encountered considerable evidence of human activity, which has stimulated his interest in the history of those endeavors. As a volunteer for the National Forest, Swab has researched the Fremont Experimental Forest, the Skelton Mountain Ranch, the Manitou Incline, and the Monument Nursery. For his own enjoyment, he is researching Longs Ranch, the mining in the Duffield area, the Pikes Peak summit, the Clyde Timber Company, and South Cheyenne Cañon. Swab has prepared exhibits on his research for the Old Colorado City Historical Society and the Manitou Springs Heritage Center and is a previous Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium presenter and author.
Tamilla K. Wright has been a Manitou Springs Historic Preservation commissioner for the past five years and has produced historic documentaries of Colorado. For the last 28 years, she has enjoyed a wonderful career as a hairstylist, wife, and mom. While pursuing a career in forensic psychology, she found a love for writing, which has been encouraged by her college professors. Her articles have appeared in a local newspaper.
Nethery Wylie is an artist who lives and works in Colorado. Nethery works predominantly in the media of painting and printmaking, but often transfers and layers images onto fabrics, glass or other transparent materials. She frequently uses material and perspectives from her career as an academic reference librarian and her study of history as the starting point for her art explorations. Nethery completed an MFA at the Transart Institutue (with Plymouth University, UK) in 2014. She also holds an MA in history and a masters in library science.
