Harriet Freiberger has been a member of the Steamboat Springs Writers Group since 1982. She is a professional writer whose articles have been published both regionally and nationally. Since the first anniversary of September 11, she has written about the veterans of America’s wars for publication in Steamboat Today and the Denver Post. Raised in the South, she now is nourished by four decades of living on the western slope of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains.
Intrigued by the second hero in her life, she followed the footprints of New Mexican pioneer Lucien Maxwell who also crossed the Mississippi River and headed west. The results of her journey can be found in three efforts to capture in print her admiration of the ideal and hope that is the United States of America.
LUCIEN MAXWELL: VILLAIN OR VISIONARY, first published (Santa Fe, NM) in 1999, then updated and revised by Eagle Trail Press. Lucien and his wife owned two million acres of land in northeastern New Mexico. Through his efforts a town grew, travelers on the Santa Fe Trail partook of his hospitality, and hundreds of American Indians, Mexicans, and Anglos thrived under his leadership. Even now, one hundred fifty-one years after his death, the stories continue to be told about the man who left more than a physical imprint upon New Mexico, the man who welcomed into his home and at his overflowing dinner table Indian, Mexican, and Anglo; soldier, trader, and preacher; rich, poor, stranger, and friend.
THEN AND NOW – A HISTORY OF STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, COLORADO, with photographer Ken Proper, 1999. Now in its third printing, this book presents a series of images that immerse the reader in currents of twentieth century history. Photographs delineate the physical essence of a small western town’s birth and development while connecting people and events in Steamboat Springs with America’s progress toward maturity. People who traveled west expressed the optimism and hope that life could be good in a new place, and they were willing to build that place. Some of what they constructed remains, not only in the buildings that line Lincoln Avenue, but also in what those buildings represented as connections between generations.
HOMECOMING . . . SOLDIERS LEAVE – VETERANS RETURN
This history appeared in book form in 2022, and has been added to the electronic resources of the Bud Werner Memorial Library.
Veterans returning from military engagement appreciate the sense of connection with the natural world that the Rocky Mountain valley harbors. Military training has highlighted their ability to see beyond the superficial and understand more than the immediate. On that September day in the year 2001, the dream that is America clarified in the emptiness of what could not be touched. Those who have experienced war on behalf of that dream will lead the way toward defining that place where it will flourish. Such will be the work of tomorrow.