Book Description

America's agricultural lands are disappearing quickly, as are stories of the seemingly average, but often extraordinary 19th-century pioneers who farmed those lands. At Home on the Range: George R. McIntosh, Western Everyman tells one of those stories, unfolding an exciting saga extending from 17th-century Scotland to 20th-century California. The traits that enabled his ancestors to overcome huge hurdles also distinguished George McIntosh (1837-1924). Two years after leaving his Ohio home as a solitary teenager, he became a Colorado gold miner and then served with the North in a pivotal battle of the Civil War. Following the war, he freighted along dangerous routes from Denver to the Missouri River and homesteaded with an ex-slave. His is an Everyman's tale, but also that of an individual who, despite poor health, contentious kin, accidents, and natural disasters, persevered on frontier lands to become a prosperous rancher and family man in northeastern Colorado. After graduating with a Master's Degree in Library Science, Robin worked as a librarian before obtaining a graduate degree in Art History. She taught Art History and Humanities courses at the University of Colorado at Boulder for fifteen years. Robin served as Book Review Editor for Colorado Libraries and has published in both library science and art history. Her translation from the original German of Climate and Society (by Stehr and Von Storch) was published in 2010 by World Scientific. Her interest in local history first found an outlet when she interviewed a number of long-time Boulder County residents as part of an oral history project. Upon retirement from teaching, Robin volunteered as a historical researcher with the Agricultural Heritage Center at the Lohr-McIntosh Farm in Longmont, Colorado. She was inspired to investigate George McIntosh's life after annotating intriguing 19th-century McIntosh family letters. This book grew out of her discoveries.