TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Mining

Black Powder and Hand Steel describes the miners and the machinery they used. Otis E. Young, Jr. gives an account of the miners, particularly the Cornish and Irish, their origins, character, social life, pleasures, and, most importantly, their labors. The miner’s lot was  dependent upon the tools he used, and the author traces the evolution of the miner’s most important tools: from hoisting bucket to mine elevator, cold mining to dynamite, ore car to skip, hemp to wire rope, and slow match to Bickford fuse.

William B. Shillingberg rediscovers the real Tombstone in this historical tour-de-force. The rough mining town of boomers and investors, of hard men and women seeking their fortunes, comes to life with startling clarity. Tombstone, A.T.: A History of Early Mining, Milling, and Mayhem relates true tales of those who founded and built the town, including the infamous Earps and Clantons.

The town of White Oaks, New Mexico Territory, was born in 1879 when prospectors discovered gold at nearby Baxter Mountain. In Gold-Mining Boomtown, Roberta Key Haldane offers an intimate portrait of the southeastern New Mexico community by profiling more than forty families and individuals who made their homes there during its heyday. The White Oaks that Haldane uncovers—and depicts with lively prose and more than 250 photographs—is a microcosm of the Old West in its diversity and evolution from mining camp to thriving burg to the near–ghost town it is today. Anyone interested in the history of the Southwest will enjoy this richly detailed account.

The first of a two-volume study of the heyday of gold, silver, and copper mining in the American West is unique in both scope and approach. Richard E. Lingenfelter describes how miners, managers, investors, and speculators produced enormous wealth—spurring the American economy, attracting myriads of Argonauts and settlers, and transforming the West and the nation. This tale of great expectations follows the money from rich pockets of ore and the bulging pockets of investors and speculators through mills, smelters, and stock markets. Some of the greatest stockholder losses came from insider looting and market manipulation. Bonanzas & Borrascas ties together the fortunes of East and West by exploring the impact of eastern investors and speculators on western mines, as well as the generally unrecognized impact of the western mines on Wall Street and Washington, D.C.

The second of a two-volume study of the heyday of gold, silver, and copper mining in the American West is unique in both scope and approach. Richard E. Lingenfelter describes how miners, managers, investors, and speculators produced enormous wealth—spurring the American economy, attracting myriads of Argonauts and settlers, and transforming the West and the nation. This tale of great expectations follows the money from rich pockets of ore and the bulging pockets of investors and speculators through mills, smelters, and stock markets. Some of the greatest stockholder losses came from insider looting and market manipulation. Bonanzas & Borrascas ties together the fortunes of East and West by exploring the impact of eastern investors and speculators on western mines, as well as the generally unrecognized impact of the western mines on Wall Street and Washington, D.C.

Colorado’s Ten Mile Mining District was north of Leadville and south of Copper Mountain. Sandwiched between two mountain ranges, fully two miles above sea level, the district had a remarkable history that was a microcosm of the mining West. Although Ten Mile’s history and situation were unique, the district reflected developments throughout Colorado and the mining West. Each new discovery triggered a larger-scale mobilization of capital and labor, the use of more advanced technology, and the ongoing development of the infrastructure needed to support mining. Such themes characterized American mining during the century covered in this fascinating book.