Customer Reviews

Bodie: "The Mines Are Looking Well...": The History of the Bodie Mining District, Mono County, California

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Bodie: "The Mines Are Looking Well . . ." is the first comprehensive, serious history of the famous old California ghost town. The author, Michael Piatt, spending two years of his life directly involved with Bodie as a California State Park Aide, leads the reader through a century of gold mining history beginning in 1859. The book, like no other, provides comprehensive details on the mining activity that took place in Bodie! Lavish photo captions, fascinating sidebars, and extensive endnotes are as interesting as the text. The book also contains many photos never before seen in print. Anyone interested in learning about Bodie and its principle industry should begin with this book. An amazing historical compilation of what took place in one of California's Old West ghost towns.

I've been to Bodie 4 times in the past year, once on a "scouting trip" of the area, two more times with family that had come to visit, and then finally, a day where I stayed to talk to rangers and do a tour of the stamp mill.

I really love Bodie, and wanted to learn more about it.

The author of "Bodie, The mines are looking well" did a great job of researching the industry that built the town, and leaves one with a realization that we are truly blessed to still have Bodie to visit.

This book concentrates on the mines, and one is left wanting to learn more of the lives townspeople and of the miners. That said, the book is still great, and left me with a great knowlege of the mines themselves.

Reader's intertested in Bodie's whole history have been ovewhelmed by books claiming to tell its "true" story. The difficult part is knowing which ones are closest to the truth. Two carefully researched books are essential. This is one of them. Piatt's attention to detail and years of research allowed him to tell Bodie's story from beginning to end. This is Bodie's definitive history from which all other books will be judged. Piatt's writing has the ability to describe with ease the complex technical and financial aspects of mining. He also does not neglect the social history of the town and writes about it's entire 100+ year history.
His style is frank and matter o' fact, as one would expect from an engineer, yet once one starts to delve into the facts about Bodie, it's own story is facinating and truly an amaizing tale worth reading.

The other important work on Bodie is Roger D. McGrath's Gunfighters, Highwaymen,& Vigilantes: Violence on the Frontier, which corrects many of America's Wild West shoot-'em-up myths by studying actual crime in two western boomtowns: Aurora, Nevada, during the early 1860's and BODIE, California, around 1880.
Both Piatt and McGrath relied on Contemporary Records, making their books historically accurate as possible and bringing many little-known
facts to light.

Although heavily focused on the history of the Bodie mines rather than the history of the town and its occupants, this is an outstanding work on the most celebrated old west Gold Mine bonanza in the west. The author traces how the highs and lows of the mining camp drove investors in NYC and SF to invest in Bodie's mecurical history. The work is well researched, easy to read and shows the author's meticulous effort to craft an accurate history of the mines of fabled Bodie CA. Superb effort!