Elizabeth M. Byers moved west during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush and quickly became a civic leader in the small settlement of Denver City. Her husband, William N. Byers, founded the Rocky Mountain News, Colorado’s first newspaper. The Byers lived in Denver as it grew from a boom-and-bust town into the thriving state capital of Colorado. She was burned out of one home and flooded out of another, but she also found humor throughout her life.