The Bonanza Trail

Muriel Sibell Wolle

Description

Searching for gold in the American West was not for the faint of heart. To reach the fabled gold fields of California, prospectors penetrated the boundless high Sierras and the Rockies and crossed the desert wastes of Arizona, Utah, and Nevada. Waves of would-be miners poured into the golden gulches of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, while others climbed to the deeper mines high in the mountains of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. Along the way, they made their homes and earned a living in makeshift camps and towns, many of which have since vanished.

Written back when old-timers still recalled the glorious ordeal of the Old West and many ruins still stood, The Bonanza Trail endures as a classic of western storytelling. Muriel Sibell Wolle traveled 20,000 miles across 12 western states in search of the legendary mining camps and towns where adventure could happen on a dime and dreams of instant fortune filled the days. The risky but always exciting life in those bustling frontier settlements is memorably captured by Wolle in vivid detail and her extraordinary drawings and paintings.

Contents
Introduction: The Bonanza Trail
1. New Mexico: Indian Turquoise and Spanish Gold
2. Arizona: Desert Mines in Cactus Hills
3. California: Mother Lode and Mohave Desert
4. Wyoming: Copper and Gold in the Sagebrush
5. Montana: From Alder Gulch to Anaconda Copper
6. Idaho: From Boise Basin to the Coeur d'Alenes
7. Washington: Chief Moses Held the Key
8. Oregon: Strikes beyond the Siskiyous
9. Nevada: Raw Camps in Barren Hills
10. Utah: The Army Turns Prospector
11. Colorado: Stampede to Timberline
12. South Dakota: Indian Menace in the Black Hills
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• HISTORY
• Kilotón
• Óxido de carbono (II)
• WEST
• GOLD
• Mining
• History of the Americas
• United States
• NV
• HI
• ID
• UT
• MT
• CA
• CO

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9780253033314
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

The Bonanza Trail

BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Ghost Cities of Colorado
Cloud Cities of Colorado
Stampede to Timberline

BY Muriel Sibell Wolle
The Bonanza Trail
GHOST TOWNS AND MINING CAMPS OF THE WEST
Illustrated by the author
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
1953 Indiana University Press
New Indiana University Press edition 2017
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
LCCN: 53010019
ISBN 978-0-253-03327-7 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-253-03328-4 (ebook)
1 2 3 4 5 22 21 20 19 18 17
DEDICATED TO all the patient, long-suffering, mistreated beasts-the horses, mules, burros, and oxen-without whose help man would have been unable to conquer the West
Acknowledgments
T HIS BOOK , which covers such a vast area and such an amazing variety of terrain, was accomplished only through the assistance of many people: oldtimers who were willing to talk to me, and writers of books, pamphlets, diaries, and newspaper articles, who made vivid the human as well as the historical development of the great West.
I am grateful to the filling-station attendants, storekeepers, newspaper editors, housewives, and waitresses who gave me road directions, bits of history, and the names of pioneers still living in the community. I appreciate the picturesque reminiscences recounted by dozens of old men, who identified mine properties, historic sites, and the original status of remodeled buildings, and who often rummaged through trunks and drawers to find faded photographs taken when a town was in its prime. Without this help, I should not have been able to visit many remote places, to identify what I saw nor to sketch important relics as they appear today.
I am deeply grateful to the host of librarians who dug up forgotten material and who often saved me time by having it ready upon my arrival. At the University of Colorado in Boulder Mary Lou Lyda, Elizabeth Selleck, Virginia Holbert, Louise Black, and Frances Binkley were my mainstays. The bulk of my research preparatory to my long trips through the West was done in the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library, where Miss Ina M. Aulls, Alys Freeze, Opal Harber, and Louisa Ward Arps put piles of books before me. Additional material was supplied by Margery Bedinger, Science and Engineering Librarian of the same library, and by Frances Shea, Librarian of the State Historical Society.
Outside of Colorado my thanks go to the following librarians: In Arizona to Mrs. Alice B. Good, Department of Library and Archives, at Phoenix; in California to Caroline Wenzel, State Library, at Sacramento; in Idaho to Mrs. Gertrude McDevitt, Historical Society, at Boise; in Montana to Mrs. Anne McDonnell, State Historical Library, at Helena; in Nevada to Mrs. Constance C. Collins and Mrs. Katherine Raycraft, State Library, at Carson City; in New Mexico to William Reed, Historical Society, Palace of the Governors, and to Mrs. Irene S. Peck and E. Anne Amison, State Extension Library Service, at Santa Fe, and to William M. Speare, New Mexico School of Mines, at Socorro; in Oregon to Lancaster Pollard, Historical Society, and Evelyn Robinson, Public Library, at Portland, and to Pearl Jennings, Public Library, at Baker; in South Dakota to Mrs. George Brewster, Jr., Public Library, at Deadwood; in Utah to A. R. Mortensen, State Historical Society, at Salt Lake City; in Washington to Mildred M. Hill, State Library, and to Mrs. Ida N. Burford, State Capitol Historical Museum, at Olympia, and to Mrs. Gilbert, Public Library, Spokane; in Wyoming to Mary E. Cody, State Historian, and to May Gillies, State Library, at Cheyenne.
In each state certain individuals were especially helpful. In Arizona Miss Maurine E. Sanborn and her uncle George Upton told me of their town, Stanton; Mrs. Alfred Nelson, nurse, did the same with Oatman; Fred Gibson, curator at the Thompson Southwest Arboretum, owned photographs of Silver King; Jay Lowe, Superior, directed us to the town; and Mrs. Olsen, schoolteacher, the Sargents and Virginia and Allen Cheves showed us the remains of the place. In California , Mr. Hill, North San Juan, showed me old photographs and books, and Mrs. Gildo E. Solari talked of Mokelumne Hill. In Colorado Frances Dorrell and Arlene Wolfe typed the manuscript. In Idaho Mr. Dundas, merchant of Pierce, and John Grete, oldest inhabitant of Silver City, discussed the old days and identified buildings, and John Fairchild, Boise lawyer, gave valuable tips on roads. In Montana Mrs. Katharine Sullivan of Marysville and Harry Bouton of Garnet knew their towns and shared their information with me. In Nevada Bob and Paul Cornelius, proprietors of the Ghost Casino, were full of stories of Rhyolite s past, and W. H. Brown, ex-sheriff of Death Valley and butcher at Beatty, drew me a map of Rhyolite; Mrs. Berta Reed, postmistress, and Ollie Thompson, veteran miner, were goldmines of local lore in Searchlight, as was ex-State Senator James A. Caughman of Hawthorne, who acted as my guide to Aurora and Bodie, and Gary Barton, also of Hawthorne, who got me to both places in spite of washouts. In New Mexico Howard E. Sylvester and William L. Long, faculty members, New Mexico School of Mines at Socorro, started me on my New Mexico tripping; Mr. Leslie A. Gillett, mining expert of Santa Fe, gave me a list of important old towns; and Mr. McCall who owns a garage in Hillsboro, Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Chandler, who run a filling station in Silver City, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, the only people I saw in Mogollon, Mr. Bentley, veteran storekeeper at Organ, Effie Jenks, owner of the ghost town of Bland, and Mr. Jackson, oldtime resident of White Oaks, all contributed to my growing fund of information. In Oregon Amos E. Voorhies, editor of the Grants Pass Courier , put early papers at my disposal; Oscar E. Coombs of Baker was a walking encyclopedia of dredge and placer mining; Mr. Snyder of Cornucopia described the town as it had been in his boyhood, and Mrs. Binns, postmistress of Sparta, showed me old relics she had collected. In South Dakota Mrs. Camille Yuill, staff writer for the Deadwood Pioneer Times , laid out an itinerary of the Black Hills towns; Mrs. Charles Bentley of Rapid City showed me her girlhood home at Galena, and Mrs. Ted Browne, postmistress, and James Cosgrove, prospector of Silver City, pointed out mines. In Utah Helmer L. Grane, watchman and caretaker at Mercur, and Tim Sullivan, oldtimer in Eureka, both knew tales of boom days. In Washington Chapin D. Foster, director of the Washington State Historical Society, Tacoma, obtained permission for me to quote two elusive sources and Mr. and Mrs. Tim Kelly, formerly of Seattle, gave me names of persons to contact. In Wyoming Robert D. Martin, editor of the Saratoga Sun , gave me access to the old files and George Baker, one of the first residents of Encampment, told me of the mines in the Sierra Madre.
I am grateful to the following for permission to quote from copyright material: The Automobile Club of Southern California, Los Angeles, Philip Johnston, Lost and Living Cities of the California Gold Rush ; the Keystone Press, Butte, Montana, Professor Thomas J. Dimsdale, Vigilantes of Montana ; the Torch Press, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, R. E. Twitchell, Leading Facts of New Mexican History ; Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., George W. Fuller, A History of the Pacific Northwest ; Kate B. Carter, Heart Throbs of the West ; Pressly Watts, editor of the Okanogan Independent , writings by O. H. Woody, deceased; Great Falls Tribune , Mary J. Pardee s article on Beartown; New Mexico Magazine , Manville Chapman s article on the E-town dredge; Casper Tribune-Herald , reminiscences of George Carpenter; Rock Springs Rocket , article about South Pass; the John F. Hiskey Unit No. 45 of the American Legion Auxiliary, Austin, Nevada, from its historical leaflet; the Pacific Northwest Quarterly , reprints from the Ruby Miner from Loretta Louis article on Ruby; Mrs. Persis Gunn Ulrich of Index, Washington, for reminiscences printed in Told by the Pioneers.
But if it had not been for five particular companions who cheerfully accompanied me on the long trips of exploration, I could not have completed this work. Although these five are referred to in the text simply as my companion, my driver, or my friend, they of all people deserve to be named here and to receive my deepest thanks. The trip to southern Wyoming I owe to a friend of long standing, C. K. (Budd) Arnold; the circle of the Black Hills of South Dakota to a former trooper on Colorado trips, Victoria Siegfried (Mrs. Gordon) Barker; the days in the deserts of southern California, Nevada, and Arizona to my exuberant friend and colleague on the faculty of the Department of Fine Arts, Leslie O. Merrill; the pilgrimages, one of six weeks and the other of three, through all the rest of the territory in eight big states, to my steady friend and splendid driver, Hazel Townley (Mrs. Frank) Potts; and most of all I owe the initial trip through New Mexico and Arizona and the impetus and encouragement for the whole project to my husband, Francis Wolle, whose patience, understanding, and help make this book his as well as mine. To the constant support and confiden