Western Mining

By Otis E. Young

Book Overview

Here, for the first time, is a clear account in words and pictures of the methods by which gold and silver were extracted and processed in the Old West. The author describes the early days of Spanish and Indian mining and the wild era inaugurated by the American prospector who rushed west to get rich quick, ending with the year 1893, when repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act virtually closed the mining frontier.

The account gives in laymen's language the techniques employed in prospecting, placering, lode mining, and milling, particularly those employed by the Spaniards, Indians, and Cornishmen, and shows how the ever-practical Americans adapted and improved them. Special attention is given to the methods employed in the California and Montana gold fields, Colorado and the Comstock Lode, the Black Hills, and Tombstone, Arizona. In these pages the reader also meets some of the unforgettable personalities whose lives enriched (and sometimes impoverished) the mining camps.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0806113529
• ISBN13: 9780806113524
• Release Date: June 1977
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Good Information and fun to read.

If you enjoy Old West history, mining or geology, or if you just want to know how the desert rats found gold and silver, then this is your book. Lots of detail on the geology of placer and lode mining, techniques used by the Spaniards and desert rats and plenty of colorful history. While the geology can get to be a bit much for those of us who aren't geologists, the history makes up for it.