Mark A. and Karen A. Vendl
1 book in the catalogue.
Mark A. and Karen A. Vendl are credited with My Home at Present, the one book of theirs in the Western Reflections catalogue. It is a history of life in the mine boardinghouses of the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado.
About Mark A. and Karen A. Vendl
A journal review in the Mining History Journal describes the Vendls as knowledgeable and entertaining guides to the Silverton region. It also says historian Duane Smith has collaborated with them on other projects, and it reviews their separate book Mines around Silverton, published by Arcadia in 2015 in the Images of America series.
We have no further biography that we could verify, so we leave it there.
What the books share
Their book in our catalogue concerns the daily life of the hard rock miner in the San Juans, and especially the boardinghouse: the food, the winter isolation, the cold and avalanches, and the cards and stories that filled the hours. The Mining History Journal review of their Arcadia book shows the same attention to the Silverton mining districts.
Next steps for readers of this author
Putting a Silverton visit in context
Read the listing before you go, then phone the number it gives to ask what is open. The boardinghouse theme of My Home at Present is easier to picture once you have seen the terrain.
Following the authors across projects
The Mining History Journal review we cite covers a separate Vendl book on mines around Silverton. Search a library catalog for it if you want more of their work.
Starting a mining family project
Gather names and claims from relatives, then send a specific question to an archive instead of a general request. Staff can usually do more with a name and a place.
Go deeper
The Vendls write about the Silverton mining country in the San Juan Mountains. Local sources can help a reader place their boardinghouse history in an actual town and landscape.
Silverton Colorado, historical society listing
The town's visitor site describes the San Juan County Historical Society, founded in 1964, and says it operates the Mining Heritage Center, the Allen Nossaman Memorial Archive and the Mayflower Mill Tour.
Old Hundred Gold Mine, reference article
Places the mine near Howardsville, about five miles east of Silverton, and says its miners' boarding house was stabilized against collapse.
Fort Lewis College archives
The Delaney Research Library and Archives sits inside the Center of Southwest Studies in Durango, a regional collection that a Silverton researcher may also want to check.
Good to know
What have the Vendls written?
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.