Ghost Gold: Lives and Legends of Western Mining Camps

Before it was called a ghost town, a mining camp was a community. Ghost Gold follows the households, workers, businesses, stories, and caretakers behind Western camp ruins. Read census pages, newspapers, maps, buildings, and family accounts without allowing a single source to stand for everyone.

A Bodie, California, case traces conflicting figures and the history of its 'Bad Man' reputation. A reusable camp profile helps you distinguish evidence from legend while appreciating the people and places that remain. This is Western history with the residents back in the frame.

• Meet the households, workers, businesses, and caretakers behind Western camp ruins.
• Read census pages, newspapers, maps, buildings, and family accounts together.
• Use Bodie's conflicting figures and 'Bad Man' reputation to see how a town becomes a legend.

Visit the ghost town through the lives that made it a community.

See what is inside

The revised edition covers these chapters and reader resources:

• Chapter 1 — A Camp Was a Community
• Chapter 2 — Follow a Camp Through Its Records
• Chapter 3 — Read the Changing Townscape
• Chapter 4 — The People Behind the Boom
• Chapter 5 — A Town Does Not End at Once
• Chapter 6 — Stories Have Tellers
• Chapter 7 — The Place in Our Care
• Chapter 8 — Memory Has Keepers
• Chapter 9 — A Bodie Case File
• Chapter 10 — Write the Camp Profile
• Camp-History Profile Sheet