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Reviews
| Bodie: "The Mines Are Looking Well...": The History of the Bodie Mining District, Mono County, California. By Michael H. Piatt. El Sobrante, Calif.: North Bay Books, 2003. 288 pp., maps, illus., diags., notes, bibl., glossary, index. $39.95 hb (ISBN 0-9725200-5-8).
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The celebrated ghost town of Bodie, on the eastern border of California, is the subject of two recent books. Marguerite Sprague's Bodie's Gold: Tall Tales & True History from a California Mining Town (2003) is chiefly concerned with the social history of the camp. The second book, by Michael Piatt and the subject of this review, chronicles the rise and long decline of the town's gold mines. Of the two books, Piatt's is likely to have greater appeal to readers of this journal since the author is interested in describing and explaining the changes over time that altered Bodie's physical and industrial landscape.
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Most local or regional studies of mining towns in the American West describe the initial mineral discovery and the boom that followed; the ensuing collapse is rarely the subject of more than a chapter. Piatt's study of Bodie is noteworthy for its careful chronicle of the town's gradual decline, which had begun by 1882, although mining operations continued another 60 years. Throughout this period, mining engineers struggled to implement more efficient ways to tap Bodie's underground wealth. The persistent search for greater economy encouraged a series of innovations and experiments, and, consequently, the town's mines served as a training ground of sorts for engineers. After interviewing Thomas Leggett, manager of Bodie's Standard Consolidated mine in the early 1890s, the noted mining journalist T. A. Rickard reflected, "the Standard Consolidated ... has served to train a number of good men, both in mining and metallurgy" (Interviews with Mining Engineers, 1922, p. 272).
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This training reflected some unique challenges confronting Bodie's mining industry. The town's relative isolation meant that its mines had to pay high freight charges, adding considerably to the cost of the cordwood necessary for fuel. To lower the energy bill at the Standard mill, Leggett constructed a long-distance hydroelectric power system in 1892, and two years later he installed a cyanide plant to treat the mill tailings more efficiently. Leggett's efforts illustrate a point made by his contemporary, Waldemar Lindgren, that marginally profitable mines were the ones that really pushed engineers to implement efficient practices: "The interests of good mining are not always served by the finding of rich ore. True progress in the art is more apt to be recorded at the low-grade mines ... where small economies may make the difference between profit and loss" (Mining and Scientific Press, 1 Dec. 1906, p. 660).
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Piatt's book provides an excellent chronicle of the changing practices in Bodie's mines and mills and includes detailed references as well as a generous number of contemporary photographs. Those unfamiliar with the ways of gold mining can learn something of the relevant processes in the four-page appendix entitled "The Technology of Mining Gold." Piatt also makes adroit use of the sidebar in the book, providing further commentary on themes that run parallel to his larger story.
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| The author notes that he first visited Bodie more than 35 years ago, and it is clear that much time and effort went into researching this book. If the book has a fault, it perhaps reflects Piatt's enthusiasm for his topic. While he does a very good job of tracking the changing fortunes of Bodie's mines, he is less successful at situating those changes within the larger context of western mining. Although he carefully describes the involvement of San Francisco mining men in Bodie's development, he might have spent more time reflecting on the reasons for their interest. The decline of the neighboring Comstock and the more or less contemporary Leadville boom are noted only in passing, while the social history of the camp is largely ignored. Other books, however, deal with these themes, and Piatt succeeds in providing an excellent account of the mining history of Bodie. Fittingly, he concludes with an epilogue that explains how the town has survived years of neglect as well as, more recently, the attentions of Galactic Resources, Ltd. The threat of renewed mining by Galactic acted as a catalyst and led to the official designation of Bodie as a protected area in the 1990s. The book is a testament to the importance of what survives there. |
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