| Although this novel is based on historical events, it is a work of imagination. |
| The violent strike in the southern Colorado coalfields that occupied the nation's headlines in 1913-14 first came to my attention when I was doing research connected with the biography of my great-grandfather, Thomas M. Patterson. During the early stages of the strike, Patterson, a former U.S. senator and political reformer, was asked to mediate a settlement. Later, two of Patterson's law partners served as the defense attorneys for the union leader, John Lawson, accused of murder. |
| I knew nothing more about the strike. Was it a tragic incident of only regional interest or did it have national implications? Stirred by these questions, I began my search for answers. I walked land once occupied by union camps and talked to descendants of miners and residents of Trinidad who had lived during that period. I read hearings records, newspaper accounts of the day, and scholarly work focused on the strike. |
| Predictably, what emerged was an account of a violent and ruthless power struggle between classes, between capital and labor. Yet the story was of the men and women whose actions and attitudes forced the nation to truly look at itself, however briefly, and examine what it had become. |
| Most of the characters are fictional. Others were suggested by individuals, such as State Senator Helen Ring Robinson, who toured the union camps during the strike. A few of the characters were actual players in the events: John Lawson, the union leader; Louis Tikas, miner and union activist; John Osgood, a mine owner; Jesse Welborn of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company; A. C. Felts, supervisor for the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency; Frederick Gates, Rockefeller executive; Horace Hawkins, attorney; Edward M. Keating, congressman; and John D. Rockefeller Jr. Careful research was done to present them accurately. Only those who knew them at the time, however, can be certain whether the characterization is as precise as it might have been. |
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