Thomas F. Walsh: PROGRESSIVE BUSINESSMAN AND COLORADO MINING TYCOON

Thomas F. Walsh PROGRESSIVE BUSINESSMAN AND COLORADO MINING TYCOON John Stewart University Press of Colorado, Boulder, 2007. Illustrations, maps, appendixes, notes, bibliography, index, xv + 230 pp. $34-95 cloth.

Along with Horace Tabor and Winfield Scott Stratton, Tom Walsh was part of a triumvirate of Colorado miners whose fabulously rich strikes were legendary, yet much of what has been known about Walsh has come from journalistic promotions and the autobiography of his daughter, all mixes of fact and fiction. Fortunately, John Stewart's Thomas F. Walsh sets the record straight. Walsh was born in a small farming community in County Tipperary, Ireland, in 1850. Still dealing with the effects of the Great Famine, Walsh's family apprenticed him to a millwright, a decision that would benefit him gready. In 1869, Walsh followed his family to the United States and soon arrived at the Colorado mines. There and in the Black Hills, he worked as a carpenter and hotelier, all the while prospecting on the side. Although the details of Walsh's early life are sketchy, Stewart develops a nuanced portrait of the world in which Walsh was active. Such a view makes it clear that Walsh was not a run-of-the-mill miner but an entrepreneur, investing his savings in real estate and businesses, most famously the Grand Hotel in Leadville.

Aldiough many people at the time believed Walsh found his bonanza in the Imogene Basin of the San Juan Mountains through a stroke of luck, Stewart convincingly argues otherwise. Walsh's rise was sure and steady, buttressed by research before investment. That Walsh was able to survive Colorado's silver crash was due to his diversification into gold production, the profits from which allowed him to develop his mine without going into debt.

Where Stewart's contribution is greatest is in his assessment of Walsh as a businessman. Instead of selling off his discovery, the Camp Bird Mine, Walsh built the mine into a solid business that utilized the newest technology. When it came to his employees, his approach was simple: "Treat your men with humanity and justice" (p. 73). Accordingly, his miners were well paid and some of the best housed. Walsh even provided for medical assistance. Indeed, when other mining regions were awash with strikes and violence in the 1890s, production at Walsh's Camp Bird continued unchecked. The story of this part of Walsh's life should be required reading for business school students.

Walsh stayed at the Camp Bird a short time before moving his family to an opulent mansion in Washington, D.C. The extravagant life Walsh led there seemed at odds with much of his previous life, and Stewart could have better explained the transformation, especially Walsh's fascination with and defense of King Leopold, a monarch widely excoriated in newspapers around the world. Walsh's businesses and transactions at this time also seem to appear and disappear quickly and could have been made clearer. Still, Stewart has given us a portrait of a man who took different paths and, for a short time, made his world a better place for all who were a part of it.

Terrence Delaney

Three Rivers Community College,

Norwich, Connecticut

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