Lost mines, abandoned diggings, ghost towns...

The very words conjure enigmatic images of the Old West of the stampede following the discovery of gold in California and the thousands of towns and mining camps that boomed during that brief time when men scrambled through unexplored territory searching for the next big strike.

Unlike other books centered on history or travel itineraries, Ghosts of the West: Tales and Legends from the Bonanza Trail walks the reader through a landscape of legends and dramatic non-fiction stories while keeping one foot planted firmly in the real world. With dozens of historical and contemporary photos for illustration, stories are organized into chapters on discoveries, boom times, bust times, and ultimate fates. A final section on lost mines bookends the first with tales of discoveries and caches that were lost, and for which some people search even today.

Included are stories about accidental gold and silver strikes that created boom towns, towns that maintained a passive-aggressive continuation of the Civil War, entire cities that vanished completely, the legend of Silver Heels, and the story of the Lost Dutchman gold mine of the Superstition Mountains. Some of the locations discussed are: Bodie, California; Aurora, Nevada; Buckskin Joe, Colorado; Bannack, Montana; Silver Cliff, Colorado; Stanton, Arizona; Granite, Montana; Deadwood, South Dakota; Summitville, Colorado; and Golden, Oregon.

The legends of the Old West towns have endured for more than a century, and they continue to fascinate and intrigue. And even haunt us...