"In this book, the microcosm, the history of higher education in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, is reflective of the macrocosm, the larger educational history of America. This book tells the story of the rise of liberal arts education in Steamboat Springs before the coming of Colorado Mountain College (CMC), the continuation of that kind of education after the coming of CMC in the 1980's and 1990's, and the diminution of that tradition in the twentieth-first century."--Introduction (page 2).