Muriel Sibell Wolle

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.

The Bonanza Trail: Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of the West is a comprehensive guidebook written by Muriel Sibell Wolle. The book explores the history and culture of the American West through the lens of its abandoned mining camps and ghost towns. Wolle takes readers on a journey through the region's rich mining history, from the California Gold Rush to the boom towns of Nevada, Montana, Colorado, and Wyoming. The book is organized geographically, with chapters dedicated to specific regions and states. Each chapter provides detailed information about the history of the area, the mining camps and ghost towns that once thrived there, and the people who lived and worked in these communities. Wolle also includes maps, photographs, and illustrations to help readers visualize the landscapes and structures of these abandoned towns. In addition to its historical and cultural insights, The Bonanza Trail also serves as a practical guide for those interested in exploring these ghost towns and mining camps firsthand. Wolle provides information about how to access these sites, what to look for, and how to stay safe while exploring them. Overall, The Bonanza Trail: Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of the West is a fascinating and informative book that offers readers a unique glimpse into the history and culture of the American West. Whether you're a history buff, a fan of the Wild West, or simply curious about the region's past, this book is sure to captivate and inspire. This is a new release of the original 1953 edition. This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

"Timberline Tailings is a follow-up volume which the author published in 1977, after years of receiving letters from people who related their own stories, directions and data about Colorado mining camps after reading Stampede to Timberline." - Sn3 Modeler

This book includes the story of 240 of Colorado's mining camps, with emphasis on the human side. The men who swarmed to the mountains to find precious metal came in successive waves from the late 1850s on, combing the gulches, scrambling over the passes and climbing the peaks. Their story is full of adventurous chances, lucky strikes, boom conditions, reckless spending, banditry, claim jumping, railroad wars and labor troubles. The author searched the Colorado Rockies from the time she saw and sketched her first ghost town until she had rediscovered and painted the vanishing mining camps. Twenty-two maps give the location of each one and serve as a guide for those who want to reach them by car or jeep, by horseback or on foot. The hardships of the early prospectors, the strikes they made, the gold and silver mines they uncovered, the towns they established, and the rise and fall of their fortunes are vividly recorded. Names and dates are given of the earliest finds, of the most important mines and the money they made, of the newspapers printed, and of the hotels, churches and theaters erected. The difficult supply routes into the rocky fastnesses are also clearly traced. But all these facts are humanized by an author who is an artist rather than a historian, and to whom all this mining in the Colorado Rockies is essentially the story of heroic pioneer effort—the men and women behind the deeds. The book contains 212 separate sketches made by the artist-author on the spot at the oftentimes remote and completely deserted mining camps. These pictures, as well as her 1200 other lithographic sketches of Colorado towns, form an invaluable record of places which are rapidly disappearing under the ravages of fire, wind and snow.

"In her pictures of mountain scenery and miners' cabins, deserted mills and smelters, empty boarding houses, once-lavish hotels, and forgotten stores and post offices, Muriel Sibell Wolle has preserved the authentic look of the Montana mining frontier in a poignant and effective record." Allan Radbourne - The English Westerners Tally Sheet