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

Staff Reviews
Come and Meet Finn Murphy on July 19th, 2023!
Finn Murphy, of long haul trucking fame, is back with this witty, eye-opening, and thoroughly enjoyable account of his experiences in the hemp industry. With an eye on the prosperity the hemp boom promised, Murphy settles on a Boulder County farm, ready to make the most out of this new and exciting market. Nothing can go wrong and most things do.
Murphy pairs uncanny insight with an excellent storyteller’s candor and sense of humor. Reading Rocky Mountain High is like sitting with that one uncle or uncle equivalent who lived more lives and done more things than you thought possible. Be sure to check this hempish adventure out!
-Izzy
Check out the Audiobook
— From Jousting July Staff PicksDescription
The best-selling author of The Long Haul returns with the story of ditching his truck to seek his fortune… in hemp.
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.
About the Author
Finn Murphy is the author of The Long Haul, a national bestseller about his many years as a long-haul trucker. He grew up in Connecticut and now lives in Colorado.
Praise For…
[Murphy] is a great storyteller who tells other people’s stories with as much gusto as he tells his own…Rocky Mountain High is a cautionary tale told with a good deal of wit and a refreshing lack of self-pity.
— Wendy Smith - Boston Globe
A smart, funny ride.
— People Magazine
Murphy, the author of The Long Haul, is an insightful and incisive observer…An engaging cautionary tale with much to teach about business and many relevant socio-economic issues.
— Kirkus Reviews
Finn Murphy’s misadventures on the wild hemp frontier brim with wit, pluck, and hard-won wisdom. Rocky Mountain High is a roller-coaster ride through the green gold rush, a rollicking cannabis caper full of dissolving profits and indelible characters.
— Jessica Bruder, best-selling author of Nomadland