In 1997 Jon Thiem was hiking in Livermore country near Fort Collins, Colorado. Following one fork of Rabbit Creek, he discovered an abandoned house and literally walked into the lives of John and Ida Elliott and Miss Josephine Lamb. Always curious about earlier inhabitants of this land, and conscious of the changes wrought by modern sprawl on its use and character, Thiem pursued the story of these former ranchers for nearly a decade. What Thiem and...