- Home
- technology & engineering
- history
- science
- Wilderness Bonanza
Wilderness Bonanza
The Tri-State District of Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma
Published by: University of Oklahoma Press
Imprint: University of Oklahoma Press
378 Pages | 6 x 9 | 38 b&w illus., 4 maps
$21.95
But the deposits were shallow, scattered, and short-lived, and by the 1950s few companies and fewer individuals remained to work what was left. Ghost towns dotted the landscape where once there had been frenzied activity, and the larger towns and cities turned to other business and industry. Yet the unique heritage of the district remains—including the values and traditions of the pioneer miners.
Wilderness Bonanza: The Tri-State District of Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma draws on a wide variety of source materials, including personal interviews with former miners, to give the first full account of the Tri-State District’s mining history. It describes the geology of the region and the changing methods of prospecting, mining, milling, and smelting, along with evolving labor relations and social and financial conditions. The many illustrations, including some never before reproduced, show the mines, the men, and the equipment they used.
Arrell Morgan Gibson (1921–1987) was the George Lynn Cross Research Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma. He was the author of many books on western history, including The Chickasaws, The Life and Death of Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain, and Oklahoma: A History of Five Centuries, all published by the University of Oklahoma Press.
Forthcoming Events

Jill Hunting in Conversation with Mike Everhart at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History
Thursday. June 16, 2022 | 6:00 pm
Sternberg Museum of Natural History 3000 Sternberg Dr. Hays, KS 67601
Read more
Meet Jill Hunting at Flint Hills Books
Saturday. June 18, 2022 | 1:30 pm
Flint Hills Books 130 W. Main Council Grove, Kansas 66846
Read more
Author Talk with Jill Hunting at Full Circle Books
Tuesday. June 21, 2022 | 6:00 pm
Full Circle Books 50 Penn Place 1900 NW Expressway, Oklahoma City, OK 73118
Read more