Ann Parker

Inez Stannert has reinvented herself—again. Fleeing the comfort and wealth of her East Coast upbringing, she became a saloon owner and card sharp in the rough silver boomtown of Leadville, Colorado, always favoring the unconventional path—a difficult road for a woman in the late 1800s.

It's autumn of 1881, and Inez Stannert, still the co-owner of Leadville, Colorado's Silver Queen saloon, is settled in San Francisco with her young ward, Antonia Gizzi. Inez has turned her business talents to managing a music store....

The crooked, the greedy, and those with a checkered past - they all came to Leadville with the same purpose: Get in, get rich, get out....

Summer 1880. The railroad is coming west, all the way to Leadville, Colorado, and its rich Rocky Mountain mines - and millionaires....

In the summer of 1880, many people are traveling to the booming health resort of Manitou Springs, Colorado, at the foot of Pike’s Peak, to “chase the cure” for tuberculosis.....

As part owner of the Silver Queen Saloon, Inez Stannert has seen the ruin that comes from yielding to temptation....