In the aftermath of his father's death in the railway yard, young John Rossing left the Colorado family farm in search of work to support his mother. The roads traveled took him into the tough, gritty, and dangerous world of late 19th and early 20th century mining in Colorado and Utah and the people who labored in the underground. Finding friendship, love, faith amongst the immigrants who crossed the oceans to work in the mines, John walks us into the dark portal and life in the mining towns of Winter Quarters and Castlegate which became two of the greatest mining disasters in US history.




While John Rossing is a fictional character, allowing us to journey with him into the 19th and 20th century Western mining towns and the lives that fueled the development of American industry, the incidents and other people are historically accurate. Enter with John, the world of the deep and dark.




Author, R. Craig Johnson, an international leader and attorney for the mining industry, and a Utah native, tells the story of these events, to honor all those early miners who lost their lives,

toiling each and every day to prosper this nation.