Mile High Fever, Silver Mines, Boom Towns, Comstoc

Category: History: U.S.: Colorado

Publishing Information: 2009 by St. Martin's Press

ISBN: 0312379471

Binding: Hardcover

Description:

In the rip-roaring, true saga of the Comstock Lode, Dennis ì Drabelle skillfully brings to life silver-mining in the ì late-nineteenth-century American West. The immense wealth ì extracted from the Lode spurred the growth of San Francisco, and ì Virginia City, the hell-raising town that sprang up above the ì mines, was the inspiration for the TV series "Bonanza." ì Innovations in Comstock mining-the use of underground "cubes" to ì avoid cave-ins and of elevators to bring ore to the surface-was ì adapted to make possible the modern skyscraper.

The boom also accentuated less positive themes in American ì history. The growth of Virginia City brought ruthless treatment ì of Native Americans. The risks and expenses of deep mining lent ì themselves to stock-market manipulations and fraud on a grand ì scale. To opportunists such as William M. Stewart, a mining ì lawyer and future U.S. Senator with a tenuous grasp of ethics, ì the Comstock experience meant that the West belonged to the ì crafty and the strong. Perhaps the boom's most lasting legacy, ì however, was the education it gave to a great American writer: ì Mark Twain. In Virginia City, the young journalist learned the ì value of plain but salty Western speech and saw how he might use ì the vivid reality of the frontier in the great books of his ì future. Full of colorful characters and get-rich-quick schemes.

Condition Information: This is a used book.

Quantity currently in Stock: 1

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