Caroline Arlen
1 book in the catalogue, published 2002.
Caroline Arlen is a Durango, Colorado writer who compiled and edited Colorado Mining Stories, the one book of hers on our list. It gathers the recollections of hardrock miners and their relatives from the San Juan country and nearby regions, with their hazards and humor left in.
About Caroline Arlen
The fullest account of Arlen we could read is a 2002 review in the Durango Telegraph, which calls her a Durango writer. It says she tracked down more than two dozen regional people, either surviving miners or their kin, and edited their stories. The reviewer credits her with skillful editing and a talent for picking out the best passages.
We could not find a longer biography, a birth year or a list of her other work in sources we could open, so we don't offer one. Open Library has an author record for her, but we could not load it from our systems, so nothing here rests on it.
What the books share
The book is built around the voices of working miners. According to the Durango Telegraph review, the accounts return to barroom brawls, tragedies narrowly averted, pain and laughter, and to taking a mine job out of necessity instead of choice. Women who worked in the mines appear too. Arlen added a glossary of mining terms for readers who do not know the vocabulary. The book's own description points to the same contradiction in every telling: a real love of the work, set beside the accidents that happened almost daily.
The subjects this author is catalogued under. Open Library record.
Next steps for readers of this author
Researching Durango area family history
Contact the Animas Museum with a family name and the mine or town it links to. Staff handle research questions, according to its website.
Finding recorded voices
Search the oral history inventory by county to see which interviews exist and where they are kept. Some entries link straight to the recording.
Go deeper
Arlen collected stories from the San Juan country around Durango. These resources keep that region's memories and records.
Animas Museum, La Plata County Historical Society
A local history museum in the 1904 Animas City School building, which invites research and photograph inquiries by contact.
Southwest Colorado Oral Histories
A searchable inventory of oral histories about the region's counties and the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute Reservations.
2002 review of the book, Durango Telegraph
A local newspaper review from the year of publication, calling Arlen a Durango writer.
Good to know
How many Caroline Arlen books does Western Reflections publish?
Where does Caroline Arlen live?
Is the book written by Arlen alone?
Writers like this one are how the list was built
We have published Colorado and Western writers since 1996, and every submission is still read by a person. Send yours, finished or half written.