RETURNS YOU TO A TIME IN THE WEST WHEN THE GHOSTOWNS WERE ALIVE.

I ENJOYED THE BOOK AS IT TELLS IT LIKE IT WAS.

REAL GOOD STUFF ON BLOODY BRIDLES WAITE, ONE OF MY UNSUNG HEROES OF THE WEST. THE GOVERNOR COMES ALIVE IN THIS BOOK AS THE TRUE HERO OF LABOR.

IF YOU LIKE HISTORY AND WANT THE FACTS, THIS IS THE BOOK THAT DOES JUST THAT.

The western ghost town holds a special mystique for all of us who are fascinated by the history of the American frontier, or who simply love to wander its mountain backroads. As a result, guidebooks to these etherial, abandoned communities abound. It's unfortunate that most such volumes really have little to recommend them, with their quick compilations of boilerplate text and often-reproduced photographs.

"Montana Pay Dirt" is an intriguing and memorable exception to this rule. The book chronicles the histories of Montana's most famous old mining camps with an accuracy and thoroughness found nowhere else, drawing on a combination of extensive archival research and engrossing interviews with old-timers. These fascinating stories are presented in an engaging, evocative style that makes them a joy to read.

Muriel Sibell Wolle researched and visited most of these towns back in the early 1950s, and the book is filled with great first-person stories of her explorations in the backroads of the Montana mountains, driving a large touring sedan and searching for abandoned mines and cabins. A talented artist, Wolle illustrated her books with handsome sketches of ghost town streetscapes -- drawings that alone are worth the price of the volume.

In short, Montana Pay Dirt is certainly among the best of the western "ghost town" books, and it also endures today as a standard history of the Montana mining frontier. Very highly recommended.

This book was an amazing find for those of us who love Colorado and its history. It is a history of mining camps and towns throughout Colorado seen through the eyes of a woman who has made it a lifes work. She is trying to preserve a rapidly eroding image of Colorado and the men and women who carved it out of the wild. She traveled to every little spot on the map where mines or mining facilities were reported, sometimes only by word of mouth, and interviewed people still living there or who had memories of the mine camp when it was a going concern. Some of these camps have ceased to exist except on the pages of this book. She has also recorded drawings of the location done during her travels. Perhaps the most poignant part of the book is found on her return visit to these camps many years after her first visit. Her prophecy of the demise of the simple and beautiful way of life that attracted so many of the early settlers is painfully obvious now. For those of you with a sense of adventure and a bit of wanderlust mixed with a passion for history, this is a travel guide for mind and spirit.