Product Description
The first comprehensive treatment of Comstock society to incorporate mining history with the stories of the people who lived it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

An excellent history of Virginia City
I am a resident of Nevada and read a lot of history.Recently I have read a lot of books on Nevada history, and I must say this is one of the best.Thoroughly researched and footnoted, it covers almost every aspect of Virginia City history, yet is eminently readable.Some history books are too dry and dusty, and you have to plow through them (or give up), but Mr. James' book holds your interest from beginning to end.If you are interested in the history of VC, this is the one to buy!

THE must read book on the history of the Comstock
Mr. James cuts through all of the legends that have grown up around Virginia City and its fabled Comstock Lode to give us a truly outstanding and eminently readable history.He draws together primary and secondary sources, demographic analysis and archaeology to give the reader a broad, yet surprisingly detailed understanding of the Comstock from its humble beginnings, through bonanza and borrasca, and right up to the present day.Highly recommended!!

Of very good historical value
Thoroughly enjoyed reading each chapter of Mr.James' book. I would suggest it for anyone having an interest in the old West, the mining periods, and personnae of the same, and perhaps just as importantly to gain someinsightful information behind the storefornt facades and adits of VirginiaCity. The author has provided much background behind the legends, pulleddown to earth other "legends" and truly given this "touristsite" it's legitmate and historical due. I am anxious to visit theLake Tahoe area once again and take that little jaunt over the hill tovisit a now-less-mysterious Virginia City. ... Read more

Product Description
This detailed map of Reno and Sparks, Nevada has complete coverage for the cities and surrounding area, with an inset map for downtown, plus most major tourist and business districts. When you flip the map over, you will find a complete street index and a "city and vicinity" map of the entire metro area. ... Read more

Product Description
The original planners of Boulder City, Nevada, did not expect that the community of workers and engineers would outlast the construction of the great Hoover Dam. The subsequent years challenged this assumption, however, as Boulder City continued to grow and thrive even after the dam was completed and the waters of the Colorado River were harnessed. As more families took road trips to visit the dam and other southwestern attractions, Boulder City became a tourism hub. Shops, restaurants, and hotels, including the famous Boulder Dam Hotel, were built, and even more visitors flocked to the nearby Lake Mead National Recreation Area after its establishment in 1964. Elton M. Garrett aptly described the city in the masthead of his newspaper, the Boulder Dam Challenge, in 1936: Boulder City Carries On With Spirit With Which Boulder Dam Challenged Rio Colorado. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Twain's Nevada Adventures
This is a nice, little (191 p.) abridged version of Twain's longer work, Roughing It, which focuses just on his experiences in Nevada. It begins with his journey to Carson City accompanying his brother who has come to work in the new territorial government and goes on to recount his first days there and numerous adventures to surrounding mining areas, including a fascinating description of a 'virgin' Mono Lake. The latter part of the book is devoted to his time in Virginia City as a reporter for the Territorial Enterprise newspaper and his accounts of life in that rough and tumble boomtown.

I give the book a blended rating of 4:the narrative and writing is typical Twain -- superb and a solid 5; however the production quality of the book is mediocre, no better than a 2 or 3. It appears to be a reproduction (read copy) of an old 1800's era printing; the text quality is poor with some missing or blurred characters. These flaws are partially redeemed by the inclusion of numerous (almost one every other page) pen and ink drawings depicting scenes and characters from the book. Overall this is an entertaining recollection of old West life from a master storyteller and enough towhet one's appetite for the lengthier original. ... Read more

Product Description
Discusses prostitution in Virginia City, Nevada, in the late nineteenth century and profiles the lives of several prostitutes and madams. ... Read more

Product Description
Vibrant and captivating Nevada City began as a gold-mining camp called Deer Creek Dry Diggins. The large gravel deposits alongside this creek reportedly delivered a pound of pay dirt a day by the fall of 1849, when A. B. Caldwell's general store opened to supply this haphazard collection of tents. By March 1850, somewhere between 6,000 and 16,000 boisterous souls called it home, and the new town was christened Nevada, meaning snow covered in Spanish. After 1861, townsfolk took to adding City to the name, to avoid confusion with the new state whose Comstock silver strike drained off many Nevada City residents. Seven fires burned early Nevada City to the ground, sparking a fashion for brick architecture that is evident in many of the 93 downtown structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places. ... Read more

Product Description
The image of Old West saloons as sites of violence and raucous entertainment has been perpetuated by film and legend, but the true story of such establishments is far more complex. In Boomtown Saloons, archaeologist Kelly J. Dixon recounts the excavation of four historic saloon sites in Nevada's Virginia City, one of the West's most important boomtowns, and shows how the physical traces of this handful of disparate drinking places offer a new perspective on authentic life in the mining West.

During the second half of the nineteenth century, the Comstock Lode's mineral wealth attracted people from all over the world. At its peak, Virginia City had a cosmopolitan population of over 20,000 people. Like people everywhere, they sought to pass their leisure time in congenial company, often in one or another of the four saloons studied here. Dixon's account of the role these four establishments played in the social and economic life of Virginia City offers keen insight into the businesses and people who made up the backdrop of a mining boomtown. The saloons in this study were quieter than legend would have us believe; they served relatively distinct groups and offered their customers a place of refuge, solidarity, and social contact with peers in a city where few people had longtime ties or initially any close contacts.

Boomtown Saloons also offers an equally vivid portrait of the modern historical archaeologist who combines time-honored digging, reconstruction, and analysis methods with such cutting-edge technology as DNA analysis of saliva traces on a 150-year-old pipestem and chemical analysis of the residue in discarded condiment bottles. The book is illustrated with historical photographs and maps, as well as photographs of artifacts uncovered during the excavations of the four sites. Dixon's sparkling text and thoughtful interpretation of evidence reveal an unknown aspect of daily life in one of the West's most storied boomtowns and demonstrate that, contrary to legend, the traditional western saloon served an vital and complex social role in its community. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Interesting read, aimed at the layman, entertaining
An entertaining book, fairly well written, no hypo-technical jargon for which archaeologists are well known...and for that I am thankful.Very adequate photographs of the artifacts, good descriptions.Includes short fictional accounts of what may have transpired in each saloon, based on the artifacts found.My only critical points on this book are these:one i would expect a hardbound books of some size, for the price of over 21 bucks and this is a softbound, very small and short book of 166 pages not counting the exhaustive notes, so there is not much bang for the buck.Secondly, the mishmash of the various saloons and excavations is confusing in the book, the author switches from one saloon excavation to another time after time, so that you are never sure exactly where you are.Not exactly the flowing words of Ivor Noel Hume, but still a nice book, thus my four star rating.

A cutting-edge delve into the fine nuances of what archaeology can tell us about America's past.
Written by anthropology professor and American West historical archaeology specialist Kelly J. Dixon, Boomtown Saloons is an exciting account of the excavation and analysis of four nineteenth-century Virginia City, Nevada saloon sites. Dixon personally participated the excavation projects, and offers a firsthand view of the evidence, and what its analysis tells us about the people and society of Virginia City well over a century ago. From the style of saloon architecture to reconstructed menu items, saloon serving ware, vices and amusements that saloons offered, and much more, Boomtown Saloons is a cutting-edge delve into the fine nuances of what archaeology can tell us about America's past.

Not quite what you see on the Silver Screen
Boomtown Saloons puts a humane and inclusive face on Old West culture.It was refreshing to see that there was more to life in Virginia City than Hollywood's interpretations.

This well written, informative, and entertaining book which should be a must read for anyone interested in the Old West. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A friend's memories
I have a friend, a member of our bookclub, whose

grandfather wrote this book.She shares a lot of

stories with us, but I thought the book was great.

"The Kid"was a genuine rascal! ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Disappointed
Having my grandfather born in Washoe City, Nev, I was hoping to learn more about family life during these times. Much of what was in this book had been obtained previously from my genealgy research. Very disappointing nd not worth the price. ... Read more