The Civil War was over and most of the men who came to Oro City in Colorado came only for the gold. Young lay preacher Jonathan Roming and Mormon Heber Arnold came over the dangerous, icy mountains into the valley of the Blue River with thirty men -- veterans of the Northern Union Armies and the Southern Armies of the Confederacy -- two hostile camps uneasily united in the search for gold. Conflict was everywhere as men fought the elements and each other. Shining Mountains is the story of the people who came on foot, behind wagons, and over treacherous mountain passes in search of the gold that very few ever found.