Muriel Sibell Wolle - The Bonanza Trail: Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of the West

The Bonanza Trail

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

BY Muriel Sibell Wolle

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

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Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA

iupress.indiana.edu

1953 Indiana University Press

New Indiana University Press edition 2017

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LCCN: 53010019

ISBN 978-0-253-03327-7 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-253-03328-4 (ebook)

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THIS 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 Rhyolites 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