There’s some speculation as to how the main character in my novel The Silver Baron’s Wife got the nickname “Baby Doe.” Born Elizabeth McCourt, she had married Harvey Doe, the son of the mayor in her hometown of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Lizzie travelled with her new husband and father-in-law to Colorado after Harvey Doe Senior gifted them with a share in a silver mine called The Fourth of July. They settled into a ramshackle cabin and Harvey began working at the mine while Lizzie stayed behind doing woman’s work in the cabin. But Harvey wasn’t the most driven man – in fact, he was a hard-drinking gambler who succumbed to the lure of alcohol and opium and spent much of his time frequenting saloons and brothels.  As she watched their chances at making a fortune disappear, Lizzie decided to take matters into her own hands. Despite loud objections from her husband and the other miners, she insisted on going to work herself at the mine. Despite the miners’ superstitions about women being bad luck at mines, Lizzie donned men’s clothes and descended into the earth.   Her hard work caught the attention of a reporter for Leadville’s local newspaper and her work ethic and striking beauty charmed her fellow miners and she became their “sweetheart.” That and her petite size (only 5′ feet tall) earned her the nickname “Baby,” which was in line with the long-standing tradition of normally hard-edged mineworkers giving playful, romantic names to the mines they worked in.