"Rocky Mountain High" - A humorous tale of more than the local hemp industry

Finn Murphy was a Conneticut Yankee who took an offramp from long haul trucking to end up on a ranch in Boulder, Colorado. He was seduced by local excitement over a potential modern gold rush in hemp production when the eighty-year federal ban was lifted in 2018.

It wasn't as if Murphy was a neophyte in small business. He started a poster business in college, became a trucking contractor, and then grew a small sweater importing business into a cashmere empire, among other things. He was East Coast privilege with resources, education and experience. But what he found in Colorado was a horse of a different color.

His book, "Rocky Mountain High," available at Inkberry Books, is Murphy's recounting of his efforts to succeed at growing hemp on a 36-acre farm, then after failing that, becoming a middle man who built sheds the size of football fields in order to receive the crop, dry it and send it to market.

His ensuing adventures dealing with climate challenges, seasonal workers, the volatile hemp producers and marketers, along with stony financial backers, make up the crux of Murphy's tale.

Yet there are additional bits of wisdom that come along with the storytelling, such as Murphy's comparison of the economics of small town Main Street businesses and big-box stores:

"Most Main Street businesses are owner-operated, usually by a local who's part of the community," he wrote. "They're being exterminated by what appear to be lower prices and more convenience. Whether that's true or not depends how you value certain intangibles. Some assets are difficult to value, like employing locals with better pay and benefits than the big-boxes, keeping historic buildings occupied, having a pleasant downtown with a mix of offerings, making it a place you're proud of, and keeping the expenses and revenue close to home instead of all that money being wire-transferred every night to some faraway place. Communities pay for those "low prices" in ways that seriously degrade the character of their town and the quality of life for everyone."

What this book is not is just a history of the local marijuana boom. It is a much more complex and human tale of the challenges of farming and new product delivery of an ancient medicinal plant with a potentially huge variety of uses in a currently fraught economic environment.

It is vastly engaging in a light-hearted but very serious way. Murphy draws you in and keeps you there. If you are a local, you should read it. If you aren't a local but like to be entertained and learn something at the same time, you should read it. It's got something for most everyone.