Daisy The Cripple Creek Donkey

Daisy, the Cripple Creek Donkey is a children's book set in the Colorado mountains. Adam, a young boy, is visiting his grandfather when he makes a surprising discovery: wild donkeys live just outside the old man's doorstep. According to the description, their ancestors packed ore out of the nearby mines and played a crucial part in turning the surrounding area into the "gold capital of the world."

Then the story turns to something closer to Adam himself. One of the donkeys is a jenny named Daisy, and like Adam she was born with weak legs. Her legs keep her from keeping up with the rest of her kind, and Adam sees that her handicap is similar to his own. The mining history sets the scene, but the heart of the book is that likeness between a boy and a donkey.

It runs 56 pages, and our catalogue lists it as published in 2004 by Western Reflections Publishing Co. A retailer listing places it in the Children of Colorado series and gives its grade level as 2 to 3, so it suits young readers who are still building confidence with longer books.

This book is for early elementary readers, and for parents, grandparents and teachers who want a story about a child with a physical handicap meeting an animal with one too. Families who have visited Cripple Creek, or plan to, will enjoy meeting the donkeys on the page first. Classrooms studying Colorado's mining past can use it as a gentle way in. It's short at 56 pages, so a younger child can finish it without feeling lost.

Lyn Bezek wrote Daisy, and the author note on her later book Ribbon the Border Collie calls her the author of this one. That same note says she and Ribbon's illustrator are both nurses in Pueblo, Colorado. Our catalogue lists four books under her name, spanning 2004 to 2010. We have no longer biography to offer here, so we won't invent one. See her author page for the full list.

More about Lyn Bezek →

Cripple Creek sits in Teller County, Colorado, and its famous gold rush began on October 20, 1890, when Robert Miller "Bob" Womack found rich ore there, starting what Wikipedia calls the last great Colorado gold rush. Teller County was created on March 23, 1899, with Cripple Creek as its county seat. The Cripple Creek Historic District received National Historic Landmark status in 1961.

The donkeys in Bezek's story have a living counterpart. The City of Cripple Creek says the town's donkeys roam its streets from mid-May through mid-October, then spend the rest of the year in a winter pasture off C Street and Thurlow. A volunteer group called the Two Mile High Club cares for the herd, and the city notes that the cost of that care is funded only by donations. News accounts disagree on how directly today's animals descend from the mine donkeys, so we won't claim it either way.

Source: City of Cripple Creek: The Cripple Creek Donkeys