Hattie was born in England in 1902, she came to New York in 1921 and worked on Broadway, and she was a fine actress and was always being cast in the latest hit play. Backstage one night she met Billy Calter, recently down from Alaska were he had found gold and was very rich. They fell in love and were married, they honeymooned on a cruise around the world, and they bought a home on Long Island and visited New York often. Hattie occasionally starred in a Broadway play.

With the stock market crash of 1929, Billy's fortune was gone. They sold their home and headed for Texas to hopefully cash-in on the oil boom. While in Texas Billy purchased claims for silver mines in Colorado. Hattie and he, and a curmudgeon looking miner named Abner Hotchman, took the train north to Denver.

Abner was born in 1914 and was a young man during the first oil booms in Texas. He was caught up in the get rich quick era and went to South America to find gold and maybe emeralds. After 10 years in Brazil and Uruguay, he returned to Texas. He met a young newlywed named Billy Calter who talked of a huge silver strike in Colorado; it would be bigger than the Mother Lode in Nevada!

Abner ended up on a five acre claim and never dug one ounce of dirt. He just kept talking about it, like he was afraid he would find silver, and then have to be rich and work to keep it. Billy also had a claim next to Abner's and died in a mining accident soon after they both arrived. Abner was working in Billy's mine, and did not shore up the support timbers like he had promised, and the mine caved-in.

Billy's wife was Hattie, and stayed on the claim after her husband's death. She blamed Abner for the rest of her life for being responsible for her beloved Mr. Calter's death.