John Chivington, the “fighting parson,” and the Sand Creek Massacre, which actually occurred 148 years ago today. You can read about Silas Soule, on whom the character Captain MacIntosh is based, in Western Voices, a Colorado Historical Society publication available from our library. Frank Skimmerhorn depicted in the novel are based on the true story of Col. Much of the book concerns the Arapaho Indians and their struggles through Colorado history. The Arapaho and their allies the Cheyenne lived on Colorado’s eastern plains. The horrible Arapaho massacre and the character Col. The early portions of the novel look at the geological and natural formation of what would be Colorado. You can learn more about this topic by visiting the Colorado Geological Survey. There is a city in Colorado today called Centennial, but this is not the place the novel was based on rather, the Arapahoe County locale was only incorporated in 2001. Michener placed his Centennial in northern Colorado, mostly based on Greeley. Many of the events depicted in the story, however, were inspired by true events in Colorado’s history. Michener, set one of his best-known novels right here in Colorado. Michener spent a great deal of time in Colorado researching Centennial, renting an apartment in Capitol Hill and also spending much time in the northern part of the state, where the novel is set. Published in 1974, Centennial was adapted as a television mini-series in 1979. Upon giving Colorado the national spotlight on prime-time TV, Centennial is considered to be one of the factors contributing to Colorado’s population boom in the 1970s.

One of the great novelists of the twentieth century, James A.

Centennial book james michener