{"product_id":"rocky-mountain-mining-camps-the-urban-frontier-9780253031143","title":"Rocky Mountain Mining Camps: The Urban Frontier","description":"\u003cp\u003eTraditionally the American frontier was the home of the self-sufficient individualist, a rural environment where settlers lived without the comforts of society. But from the first gold rush into the Rockies in 1859 until the 1890s, when most gold fields had been played out, the unsettled wilderness of the Rocky Mountains became the setting of a unique phenomenon--the Western mining camp. To be profitable, miners needed a community of support--including secure lines of transportation, farmers who could raise crops, and merchants who could supply equipment. The lure of easy money also attracted a drifting crowd of gamblers, prostitutes, and con men, and a saloon and a brothel often were the first businesses to appear in a prospering mining town. Unstable populations and a lack of planning exacerbated the problems of the mining camps, including lawlessness, destructive fires, and rough-and-ready vigilante justice, but most maturing communities stabilized and quickly established schools, churches, and libraries.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIn this absorbing history of the Rocky Mountain mining towns, Duane A. Smith traces their cycle of growth from birth to boom and either extinction or transformation into permanent agricultural-mining communities, and he recounts colorful histories of camps that sprang up overnight and developed into urban settlements.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Duane a. Smith\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Indiana University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/22\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 305\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.85lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.25h x 5.50w x 0.67d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780253031143\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDuane A. Smith is author of \u003ci\u003eA Colorado History\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e Horace Tabor: His Life and the Legend\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e Silver Saga: The Story of Caribou Colorado\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e Colorado Mining: A Photographic History\u003c\/i\u003e, and\u003ci\u003e Fortunes Are for the Few: Letters of a Forty-Niner.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Indiana University Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44185075056755,"sku":"9.78025E+12","price":28.3,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/9255\/0515\/files\/img_ba785b0c-4cd9-4697-b004-b8378e5581dc.jpg?v=1767099477","url":"https:\/\/bookstorenmore.com\/products\/rocky-mountain-mining-camps-the-urban-frontier-9780253031143","provider":"Bookstore N More","version":"1.0","type":"link"}