About Me

Kay Turnbaugh is the author of the award-winning The Last of the Wild West Cowgirls, a project she began after she sold the newspaper she owned for 27 years in Nederland, Colorado. She had written several articles about Goldie Griffith, one of Nederland’s more notorious former residents, through the years, but didn’t realize what a true character Goldie was until she started writing a book about the cowgirl’s life.

She used some of the same research from the cowgirl book in writing Around Nederland. With some previously unpublished historic photos, Around Nederland traces the history of the Nederland area through three boom and bust cycles.

Living in the Rocky Mountains surrounded by millions of mountain pine beetles was the inspiration for The Mountain Pine Beetle—Tiny but Mighty, a book for children ages 8 to 12. Pine beetles have attacked some of the trees in her yard, and she’s been taking pictures of the beetles and the damage they cause for years. David Brooks contributed the wonderfully zany illustrations that complement the photos and text.