Montana Pay Dirt: A Guide to the Mining Camps of the Treasure State [Paperback]

Muriel Sibell Wolle (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 436 pages
• Publisher: Swallow Press; 1 edition (February 1, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804007225
• ISBN-13: 978-0804007221
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,939,355 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Evocative and engaging ..., August 21, 2001

By 

Mark - See all my reviews

This review is from: Montana Pay Dirt: A Guide to the Mining Camps of the Treasure State (Paperback)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another book by one of the finest ghost town authors of all time., July 1, 2008

By 

ZoneIII (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Montana Pay Dirt: A Guide to the Mining Camps of the Treasure State (Paperback)

I have had an interest in ghost towns since the late 1960s and, as a professional photographer, I hunt them down and photograph them. To that end, I have a large library of ghost towns books and there is absolutely no question that the late Muriel Sibell Wolle and Lambert Florin produced the finest books on the subject of all time. Unfortunately, most modern authors of ghost town books, such as Varney, only show color photographs and those books have very little of colorful history of the towns that make them so interesting. They basically just give raw, cold statistical information. Muriel and Florin, on the other hand, wrote incredibly fascinating books about ghost towns. It's true that their books are outdated in the sense that they were written generally decades ago and the status of the towns has changed but, even so, their books should be the heart and soul of any collection of ghost town books. I am surprised that another reviewer here was disappointed that this book doesn't have photographs. Photographs are nice but nothing captures the mood of these towns like the charming drawings in Muriel and Florin's books. In fact, it was the drawings in books about ghost towns that kindled my lifetime fascination with ghost towns. And I'm saying that as a professional photographer! I can also tell you that Muriel's drawings were extremely accurate in their depiction of the towns. This is a wonderful book and so are all of Muriel's books. Her love of history and ghost towns comes through in every drawing and every word she writes. If you have a serious interest in ghost towns, by all means, buy books by more current authors but you should also definitely get books by Muriel and Lambert. They are the "bibles" for ghost town enthusiasts. I know of no current authors on the subject that even come close to Muriel's and Lamberts work. I believe I have posted reviews of other ghost town books that you may want to check out.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great book- but NO pictures!, August 30, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Montana Pay Dirt: A Guide to the Mining Camps of the Treasure State (Paperback)

This is a very interesting book with historical stories relating to the ghost towns.

However, I was VERY disappointed after learning that there wasn't even ONE actual picture in the book of the old ghost towns- just drawings!

I will probably sell this book and seek one out that has old historical photographs as well.

Personally- I think it is fascinating to see the actual pictures of the ghost towns, too.