Children's book

Nelly's Silver Mine A Story of Colorado Life is a children's book by Helen Hunt Jackson. It was originally published in 1878 by Roberts Brothers. The story is about a young girl and her family who move from their home in New England to a small town in Colorado, much as Helen left her home in New England to her new life in Colorado.

One of the passages in the book describes Nelly's first impression of her new home:

The first thing they saw as they walked out of the hotel door, was a long range of high mountains to the south. They looked down the street on which the hotel stood, and saw these mountains rising up like a great wall across the end of the street. They were covered with snow two-thirds of the way down. The lower part which was not covered with snow was of a very dark blue color; and the upper part, where the snow lay, shone in the sun so dazzling bright that it made their eyes ache to look at itl The sky was as blue as blue could be, and had not a cloud in it; and some of the sharp peaks of the mountains looked as if they were really cutting through the sky (Jackson, p 85, 1930).

The description above could very well have been her own first impression of Colorado. She was known to love the view of the mountains from her home in Colorado Springs.