You may be thinkin’ that Colorado’s all civilized and like, but it ain’t so, and I’m gonna set you straight now. Colorado’s got big cities and small ones, and many a ghost town besides, and there’s history all over. Many a person come and don’t know the first thing about it, and some...well, some try to keep that history for th’selves. That’s where my boss comes in. His name’s Jimmy Maddo, and he’s the Colorado Desperado. 

Jimmy didn’t start out in the city. He just a regular country boy from the open plains a’Falcon. There he learned to rope and to ride, all the practical skills a’livin’ on the land. Course, some folks think country skills don’t help much when you head to the Big City, but they do. He was adaptable and as cunning as all the hard varmints on a hard land. He’s a real smart man, yes sir. Well, he traveled the West and learnt its ways and its people. In his duster and hat, he looked mighty mean, but his eye was always focused on the good of keepin’ our history strong and our places alive. Shoot, he even took a job at the museum for a spell, though he quick foun’ that sittin’ at a desk weren’t quite his style. No, he was a man for action. You’da thought he was destined for great things, but it just takes one fly in the ointment t’ruin the batch, and that’s what someone done to him. It’s a mighty sad thing that he been cast under a deep shadow. Mighty sad. 

That shadow spun like a spider’s web by Ophelia the Outlaw. She got a tangled web, that one, and more lines to trip ya up than you c’n imagine. She weren’t born for the wild life, no sir. Her folks just honest farmers, living not far from Falcon, matter fact. One day, though, she was travelin’ thru the Paint Mines with her family’s produce for market and got robbed by some bandits, then left there to die. Just a young’n now and the sun tore down on her somethin’ fierce days ‘fore they found ‘er, all thirsty of throat ‘n thirsty of mind. Her mind was still there, but burnt to something sere and sharp. She set her jaw ‘n said life been cruel to her, so she’s gonna be cruel to life. She done gone and become an outlaw, making her hideout in Bailey. Bailey always been a wild place, and now it home to the Bailey Baddies. She always makin’ chaos, lookin’ to take over the state and make its places and history all for her. You watch out fer her, now. 

Course, she ain’t alone in her work. They’s others who work with her, and her right-hand honcho is Lariat Louise, and she done loopy, too. She ain’t quite so downright bad as Ophelia. Louise gotta good heart. You’d think Ophelia the Outlaw don’t wanna have someone w’good heart, but Lariat Louise is family. Lariat Louise done born near Bergen Park, and she spent her youth cuttin’ trees with her kin. Her momma was a sister of Ophelia’s momma, and Ophelia sweet on her momma. Ophelia’s father didn’t die a no myocardinal infraction, neither. One jab shish kebab, but that’s another story. Anyway, Lariat Louise grew up knowin’ her ways and people from Golden to Morrison and everthang in between, and she never quite reconciled herself to life domestical, so she took on with Ophelia, and they the two baddest of the Baddies. A little clumsy, a little bumblin’ that Lariat Louise, and that Ophelia Outlaw would just as soon spit her ‘baccy juice in yer eye as talk to ya. 

The worst thing they Baddies done is get Jimmy all painted as the outlaw. Now, you know he’s as honest as Abe and as upright as a fence post, but Ophelia didn’t like him for stoppin’ her “jobs” from workin’ out, so she gottem framed for a crime. You might r’member, a few years back now, that fancy museum in Denver done had its most famous dress stolen, ‘long some other stuff. Baby Doe’s dress gone missin’ the same night that Jimmy was in town to take a spell at the Palace. Someone done dressed up just like Jimmy, I know, and talked ‘bout how he was gonna give the dress to some little sweetie he was plum gone on, but it weren’t Jimmy. The authoritize in Denver didn’t listen to me or nobody else, though. They say Jimmy was guilty, guilty, guilty, and that’s when Jimmy Maddo became a desperado. 

Livin’ under the law, you might think he’d turn to lawlessness himself. Not Jimmy. No, he still doin’ good for the state’s history, its places and people...he just doin’ it on the sly. And he ain’t alone. 

Back at the museum, they’s someone we call the Voice. We don’t know who it is, but the Voice tell us when things goin’ on in the state, when Ophelia the Outlaw and her cache a’crooked cranks out cooking up sump’n bad. The Voice knows Jimmy a right guy.

Then they’s Professor Polly. She know her way ‘round books and gadgets and everythin’ ee-lectric. She done born in Boulder and got herself all fancy with the learnin’ in those big buildings by the Flatirons. Her family got a home up in Nederland, too, so she spent lotta time there. Boulder just a bit busted in the head, you ask me, and Nederland always kinda m’cob, so Professor Polly got herself a bit a twisted humor sometimes, but she a right thing. She always comin’ up with some kinda newfangled doohickey to help Jimmy in his work.

Now, this point, you prolly sayin’, “Well, how you know so much about Jimmy and Louise and all the rest.’” Well, shoot ...that one’s easy t’answer. My name’s Opus. I ain’t much more than a hayseed from Wray, the pertiest part o’the state. I travel with Jimmy Maddo. I guess you’d call me his sidekick. Yep, that’d make me his Sancho, if we was talking quick psychotic. Just cuz I’m a hayseed don’t mean I ain’t had some book learning, and I know lots of big words, so don’t think I’m gonna disassemble.

Jimmy Maddo, the Colorado Desperado, has done a lotta good for this state, and I’m gonna tell you all about it.  Them rascals Ophelia the Outlaw and Lariat Louise might be vicious varmints, but Jimmy and Professor Polly and me gonna fight him and keep the history comin’ to you.  So, that’s our story, and I’m stickin’ to it.  You settle y’self right on down now, and I’m gonna tell ya our adventures.