The Bonanza Trail

THIS is the story of the men who sought for gold, from California to the eastern rim of the Rocky Mountains. Mrs. Wolle writes colorfully of the unbelievable privations the men endured in penetrating the fastnesses of the high Sierra and the Rockies and in crossing the desert wastes of Arizona, Utah and Nevada; of the mines first discovered in New Mexico by Coronado and his men four centuries ago; and the first great rush that hit California in 1849. She follows the miners who poured in successive waves into the golden gulches of Oregon, Washington and Idaho, climbed to the deeper mines high in the mountains of Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, and dared at last to penetrate the Indian-infested Black Hills of South Dakota. It is doubtful if the vividness of this phase of history will ever fade for American readers. In personally following the trails of the pioneering prospectors, Mrs. Wolle finds her excitement continually renewed, as she stumbles upon mute evidence of past bloodshed, lust and struggle. It is this excitement which she conveys to her readers both in the text and in the more than one hundred on-the-spot drawings which show the towns and town sites with the eye of the nostalgic lover of this picturesque and courageous part of our national heritage. A guide book for the adventurous, THE BONANZA TRAIL will be attractive alike to travelers, American history enthusiasts and collectors of Americana. Nor will its pages soon be forgotten by the general reader. “THE BONANZA TRAIL is the fascinating and definitive book on the ghost and near-ghost towns of the Old West for which so many students and amateurs of Western Americana have been waiting. Like the once booming camps and diggings which are its subject, it is a repository of the wonderments, glories and pathos of pioneer times and romantic bonanzas....A book that, to the informed intelligence, is almost impossible to put down.”—LUCIUS BEEBE, The Territorial Enterprise

This classic account of Old West mining camps and gold-hunting prospectors is “a successful digging of a rich historical vein . . . phenomenal” (The New York Times). This colorful blend of history, reference, and travelogue brings to life the frenzied search for precious metals in nineteenth-century America through a tour of mining camps and former boomtowns, many now abandoned. It reveals the unbelievable privations men endured in the high Sierra and the Rockies and in crossing the desert wastes of Arizona, Utah and Nevada; the mines first discovered in New Mexico by Coronado and his men four centuries ago; and the first great rush that hit California in 1849. She follows the miners who poured in successive waves into the golden gulches of Oregon, Washington and Idaho, climbed to the deeper mines high in the mountains of Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, and dared at last to penetrate the hostile Black Hills of South Dakota. In personally following the trails of the pioneering prospectors, Wolle stumbles upon mute evidence of past bloodshed, lust, and struggle, and recreates the excitement of the period. A gifted artist, she also includes maps and “more than a hundred poignant sketches conveying the loneliness, melancholy and crumbling dryness of ghost cities which throbbed once with the hopes of many people” (The New York Times). “The fascinating and definitive book on the ghost and near-ghost towns of the Old West.” —Lucius Beebe, The Territorial Enterprise “Good popular history and [a] useful reference work.” —Library Journal

Dawson City was a rumbustious boom-town where whisky and champagne flowed. Men lost fortunes on the throw of a dice as thousands of greenhorns flocked into the Yukon's golden triangle. Hunter and guide Scope Mitchell was better equipped than most to survive the perils of the wilderness, but he had a battle on his hands when Frenchie Pete and his gang of thugs began stalking him. Would his lone rifle be a match for the outlaws?

Excerpt from The Mystery of Bonanza Trail Bonanza Trail is a pathway over the mountain leading from the north to the south side of a titanic uplift that adjoins the main range. The gap through which it passes reaches an altitude of 11,000 feet above sea level. From that point to the creek bottom on the south, the Trail drops abruptly to the deep gulch that gradually widens from a pass to a beautiful valley, and finally is lost in the desert miles and miles away. The Trail, after leaving the saddle, hugs the side of the Ascension range, on the left, following a great dyke of volcanic rock, spewed up during a throe of nature in the early making of the world. The side of the mountain, as far as the line of vision extends, is a monotonous sea of broken andesite, sharp and jagged. There is not a tree on the side of this towering mass, not a sign of vegetation. One must follow the dyke, for to cross on the slide would mean death. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Lost mines, abandoned diggings, ghost towns... The legends of the Old West towns have endured for more than a century, and they continue to fascinate and intrigue. And even haunt us...