Ellen E. Jack backed up her orders with a shotgun as she stood at the entrance to her Black Queen Mine. To profit from the mine, located near Aspen, she engaged in many other battles with lawyers and capitalists who tried to wrest her ore away. Mrs. Captain Jack contributed to the myth of the West by crowning herself as the “Mining Queen of the Rockies” as she entertained tourists at her roadhouse near Colorado Springs. Author Jane Bardal offers a captivating biography of a pioneering woman who fashioned a legacy through true tenacity and maybe even a few tall tales.

Jane Bardal’s previous publications include “Southwestern New Mexico Mining Towns” and “Oral Histories from the Grants Uranium District,” in the Mining History Journal. She teaches psychology at Central New Mexico Community College.

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