Mining Frontiers of the Far West, 1848-1880

The California Gold Rush was only the first of a series of rushes that brought the first permanent settlers to much of the Far West between 1848 and 1880. Despite a flood of popular writings on separate mining regions, this book is the first to view the entire movement as an integral part of the settlement process.

The author displays a thorough knowledge of all aspects of western mining: geology, technology, and economics, as well as history. His emphasis is not on bad men and vigilantes but on the ingenious contrivers of new techniques and machinery, the hardheaded capitalists who subsidized the development of the most promising mines, the builders of the transportation routes needed to link mining camps with markets.