Colorado Legends & Lore: The Phantom Fiddler, Snow Snakes and Other Tales

by Stephanie Waters Moding

Colorado is steeped in stories as unique as the people who settled it. Each wave of exploration and settlement brought new tales to explain the mysteries of this incomparable place. With extreme weather and breathtaking landscapes, it seems only natural that Colorado could play host to UFOs, stripper lightning and the Fountain of Love. From creation myths and rumored Aztec treasure to snow snakes and drunken house flies, professional yarn-spinner Stephanie Waters turns an eye to the ancient lore of the Centennial State.

Genres: Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published August 3, 2014

Reviews

[Mar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stephanie Waters' Colorado Legends and Lore promises a journey into the Centennial State's captivating myths, but unfortunately stumbles along the way.

The narratives within feel stretched thin, unfolding at a sluggish pace that struggles to capture the imagination. Instead of drawing the reader in, the book often leaves one wishing for a more compelling hook. Adding to this disappointment, some of the photographic choices appear overly staged, detracting from the potential atmosphere where a well-crafted illustration might have been more effective.


A significant drawback is the apparent lack of thorough research, with some mentioned locations proving to be nonexistent. This undermines the reader's trust, particularly for those seeking historically accurate lore and the authentic voices of local traditions. While the inclusion of certain passages feels questionable, a notable bright spot shines through in the discussion of the legend surrounding the Angel of Shavano. The lore connected to this iconic 14,000-foot peak, accessible for both hiking and skiing, offers a genuine spark of intrigue that hints at the book's unrealized potential.

[Jacob · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stop using alliteration. Just stop.

Although, "Jesus juice" is gonna stick with me a long time - not a good thing, by the way.

The racism throughout was so bad. Read other reviews for more detail there.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read, but a little hokey

Colorado has a rich and colorful history, as Stephanie Waters has so aptly pointed out. This book was entertaining as it regaled tales of times long past, and Waters did a nice job of capturing all of Colorado. However, she far too often fell into the trap of using euphemism, slang, and cheesy terms and phrases like "naked as a jaybird" and "screeching like a toad on a hot skillet" that are charming when used by a character, but distracting when they are part of the narrative of the story. So, I recommend it for some of the interesting stories, but be prepared for a heavy dose of cheese.

[Julian Horne · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a very disappointing and tedious read for me. The book has 6 chapters and a total of 42 individual short stories in only 123 pages. You might think that each story must be dense and full of interesting information, but it often feels as though the author is adding filler to a book in desperate need of further development.

One of the most egregious examples of this was the “Great Balls of Fire” section. According to the author, it is a relatively common occurrence in Colorado that people are struck by lightning and have all of their clothes blown off. So much so that during baseball games at Coors Field it is expected to happen, and, “...the crowd quickly follows suit, then Rockies fans happily jump up and down, doing the naked wave on the Jumbo-Tron”(44). Not only am I 99% sure this has never happened, but this entire section could have been deleted and used instead to develop other far more interesting stories.

It seems like the author’s motto throughout this book was quantity over quality. The volume of underdeveloped stories and writing littered with distracting slang made it difficult for me to finish reading.

[Lindsay · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sigh. As a lover of mythology and tall tales, I was really excited to find this book in the library and I am so deeply deeply disappointed in the result. With the writing style of a mediocre 5th grade student and the social/historical awareness of someone with their head in the sand, this book was a slog to get through for only being 123 pages long. Whenever there was an opportunity for the author to sprinkle in local detail or color or historical insight, instead she used forced metaphor, absolutely appalling figurative language and so much filler it felt like 80% of the book was absolute fluff. Pared down to its bones and edited to remove the abundance of unnecessary garbage interfering with the actual stories, I'm pretty sure this book would have dropped down to about 30 pages. The thread of racist undertones also made this an appallingly bad read. This is such promising subject matter and yet was so poorly handled I really had to force myself to finish.

[HoneyBakedAmbs · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book to do a bit of research into a fiction project I am working on, and while I appreciate the author’s effort, I didn’t enjoy reading it. There’s a ton of totally unnecessary alliteration. It’s dripping with racist and sexist tropes. The author likes to use adjectives and adverbs to prove her point instead of proving it. And I honestly can’t say it was well-researched. People who know paranormal Colorado can reference the Sasquatch connections … not even a blurb in the book anywhere about them. There are also several stories that seem to be based on nothing more than old paintings and the author’s imagination, which is not encouraging.

Somewhat educational, so it can have another star above the minimum.

[Zach]

Colorado Legends and Lore is a charmingly written book that explores the marginalia of Colorado's history. Lots of curious tales within,  and I particularly enjoyed chapters "Supernaturals Mysteries" and "Mountain Magic." The bizarre of ocurrencies of lightning were electric!  Also, the newspaper headlines were a great inclusion and fun to read. Well written and well researched.

Pairing this with Jack Kutz's Mysteries and Miracles of Colorado would make for some great discussion.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book, but felt greatly disappointed with it. It has very little of what I would actually consider legends or lore, and a whole lot of what I would call “ghost stories.” While this may interest some, it’s not what I was looking for.

Additionally the author writes in a very colloquial, almost kitschy style. While I found this fun and charming for the first few stories, it got to feel very old and tiresome by the end of the book.

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but written with a “sensational” bent. Most of these legends I had heard before, but then, I’m from Colorado. However, I did not know about snow snakes & laughed out loud when I read the conclusion of the tale. Fulfilled my October mini challenge.

[Jonathan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not great

Poorly written. The author tries too hard to come off as witty and clever and yet folksy at the same time. For some one who claims to be a historian the book seems to contain a lot of things heard in passing with very little research or explanation to back it up.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read, bits of info from a ghost- story point of view