Cowgirl Books: The Silver Baron's Wife

THE SILVER BARON’S WIFE

By Donna Baier Stein (Serving House Books)

When Elizabeth McCourt (Baby Doe) Tabor married Horace Tabor, the Colorado Silver King, she became one of the richest women in the Old West.  Tabor showered wealth on beautiful Baby Doe, but the fun and glamor of it all did not last long.  The fabulous Tabor fortune head vanished by 1893 and the builder of it died a poor man.  Baby Doe spent the great part of her life in a grimy shack near Leadville, Colorado, where she became a recluse.  Author Donna Baier Stein’s book about the queen of the silver boom days entitled The Silver Baron’s Wife offers readers a unique insight into the legendary character with the riches to rags life.  Drawing on journal entries written by Baby Doe herself and from actual historic events, Baier Stein crafts a moving story about Mrs. Tabor’s life and times that is tantalizing and tragic. It is through Baby Doe’s eyes that readers see the fun and excitement of lavish prodigality and the horror of losing everything except a solitary, all-but-played-out, silver mine.  As Horace was dying he told Baby Doe to hold onto that mine and she did.  Baby Doe lived the remainder of her days in a tumble-down shack at the edge of the mine holding onto one burning hope – that it would one day boom again.  The Silver Baron’s Wife is a gem; an enthralling read from beginning to end.    

Reviewed by Chris Enss, COWGIRL Book Editor, and a New York Times

Bestselling author who writes about women of the Old West.