Slumgullion Grit

Slumgullion Grit is one of three Slumgullion novels from Alex Harold, set in Lake City, Colorado. Open Library lists it as a 2005 edition from Western Reflections Publishing Co., and the catalogue gives 166 pages and the ISBN 978-1-932738-17-9.

Open Library files the book under Western stories, sheriffs, fiction, and frontier and pioneer life. That tells you more about its flavor than any blurb we could write. Expect lawmen, small-town stakes and the sort of adventure that Western readers look for, in a setting Harold uses across all his books.

The catalogue says Harold follows a long line of Western novelists who combine Old West lore with real adventure. We have no chapter list or plot summary to share. Grit reads fine as a stand-alone, and it pairs naturally with the other two volumes.

This book is for readers who like their Westerns with a lawman in them. The subject headings point to sheriffs and frontier life, so fans of badge-and-saddle fiction should feel at home. It also fits readers who want a book of about 166 pages, short enough for a long afternoon. If you have driven Highway 149 over the pass to Lake City, you may enjoy seeing the town on the page. It is a novel, not a travel guide or a history.

Alex Harold has three single Slumgullion novels with us, and Grit is the one with the fullest subject listing on Open Library. His author record there shows no birth or death dates, and we haven't located a verified biography. We can say he returned to Lake City again and again as his setting. The author page shows all four catalogue entries.

More about Alex Harold →

The name Slumgullion belongs to the landscape before it belongs to any book. Slumgullion Pass carries State Highway 149 east of Lake City in Hinsdale County, and it is named for the nearby Slumgullion Earthflow, a gigantic landslide whose yellowish soil reminded early settlers and miners of slumgullion stew.

The pass reaches about 11,530 feet by the article's lead figure, though the true pass lies off the highway at roughly 11,300 feet. The north side has a 9 percent grade, which Wikipedia calls the steepest of any continuously paved road in Colorado. The first flow was large enough to block the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River and create Lake San Cristobal. Anyone who wants a feel for the ground these novels sit on can start here.

Source: Slumgullion Pass (Wikipedia)