Rocky Mountain High: A Tale of Boom and Bust in the New Wild West - Hardcover

by Finn Murphy (Author)

After decades as a long-haul trucker, Finn Murphy left the road and settled in Boulder County, Colorado. Before long he noticed that many of his neighbors were captivated by the prospect of vast riches in "the Hemp Space." When hemp was legalized, after eighty years in federal exile, Colorado became the center of a hemp growing and processing boom. Figuring he'd harvest some of that easy money, Murphy bought a thirty-six-acre farm. What could go wrong? Well, pretty much everything...

Rocky Mountain High is the comic chronicle of a wild year as Murphy follows his Great American Dream, gradually losing his shirt but not his spirit. Pivoting away from growing hemp himself, he decides to make himself a middleman. He builds drying sheds the size of football fields. He battles with freezing temperatures and even colder bankers. And he assembles an eclectic crew of workers, including the wry and vastly talented Manuel, the business savvy Pierce, and a scruffy army of "trimmigrants"--specialized farm laborers who roam the country pursuing (or not) their own American Dreams. Pretty soon, Murphy is pitting his dwindling cash against the mercurial buyers who inhabit the Wild West of the hemp market.

Told with Murphy's trademark wit, keen eye for character, and sharp insights into the hardscrabble society around him, Rocky Mountain High is an inside look at the alluring world of the hemp boom and a masterful tale of one entrepreneur's misadventures.

Back Jacket

Praise for The Long Haul

"Almost shamefully enjoyable."
--Jennifer Senior, New York Times

"Like a Mark Twain behind the wheel, [Finn Murphy] takes us on the road coast to coast and city to city with a voice that's honest and direct and sometimes even poetic."
--Bob Ryan, Boston Globe

"Rich [and] insightful.... A well-written story that rarely slows down."
--Nathan Deuel, Los Angeles Times

"Beguil[es] readers with wit, wisdom, and observations born from decades in transit."
--Jason Blevins, Denver Post

"Exquisite.... Murphy can cross class boundaries as smoothly as changing lanes on the highway."
--Meghan Daum, New York Times Book Review