The inhabitants of Meadow Lake, California, dreamed as big as all the gold seekers of the far West, certain that their town, their mine was the "big bonanza"--a place of legendary wealth that most prospectors believed really existed somewhere. The dream took shape in 1865 when the Meadow Lake region of eastern California became the scene of one of the most feverish stampedes in the history of prospecting. Reports of gold-filled ledges five miles long brought miners, lumbermen, and speculators rushing into the area, and within a year a city of several thousand people sprang up. Their frenzied optimism was undiminished by disquieting news that the gold could not be removed from the surrounding granite. The following summer brought increasing crowds, but a profitable method of separating the gold from the rock was never discovered. Disenchanted miners began to leave, and within a few years only a lone hermit, the original inhabitant of Meadow Lake, remained in the dismal wreckage of the once-thriving town. Paul Fatout brings to life the colorful characters who figured in the history of Meadow Lake, telling the story at a sprightly pace and in fascinating detail.

Meadow Lake: Gold Town

History

Fatout, Paul

Americas

Indiana University Press

Mark Twain on the Lecture Circuit

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Southern Illinois University Press

Beginning with the first Indiana canal effort in 1804, this narrative deals with the half century of canal agitation in the valleys of the Wabash and Whitewater rivers. The rising tide of enthusiasm for internal improvements reached flood stage in the mammoth system legislation of 1836, which provided for a network of canals throughout the state, and for several turnpikes and a few railroads as well.

Indiana canals

Engineering & Transportation

Transportation

Purdue University Studies

<p>Beginning with the first Indiana canal effort in 1804, this narrative deals with the half century of canal agitation in the valleys of the Wabash and Whitewater rivers. The rising tide of enthusiasm for internal improvements reached flood stage in the mammoth system legislation of 1836, which provided for a network of canals throughout the state, several turnpikes and even a few railroads. The Wabash and Earie Canal was eventually completed to Evansville, and for a brief period flourished as a busy carrier of agriculture and industrial products. The White-water Canal also had its useful moments in a checkered career. However, Indiana went bankrupt before the canals were completed, faced with such a heavy debt that for some years the state floundered in a financial morass. Affected by the vagaries of natural forces, the perversities of human nature, and the competition of early railroads, the rise, and fall of these two waterways and the ineffective Central Canal are chartered in this carefully researched and documented history. Men political and otherwise – governors, legislators, canal officials, citizens with vested interests, and articulate voters – who were involved with the improvements mania are brought to life with all their colorful idiosyncrasies. The youthful, over-confident mood of Indiana at the time, especially in the canal towns exhilarated by internal improvements that were supposed to bring progress and prosperity, is captured in this engaging, anecdotal chronicle.</p>

Indiana Canals

Purdue University Press

Ambrose Bierce,: The Devil's lexicographer

University of Oklahoma Press

Mark Twain in Virginia City

Mark Twain On The Lecture Circuit

Format Hardcover Subject Literary Collections

Humor & Entertainment

Literary Licensing, LLC

Literature & Fiction

Essays & Correspondence

<p>From September 1862 until May 1865, Major William Watson served as surgeon with the 105th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, which fought at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and elsewhere. Over the course of three years at war, he wrote 91 letters to his family, in which he describes his own war against death and disease. This well-educated and sensitive young man has left us a variety of impressions of camp life, marches, and battles; of a soldier's matter-of-fact willingness to accept -- though not without grumbling -- the rigors of his lot, of concern with the job at hand and with immediate needs like food and shelter; and of a veteran's indifference to the flag-waving of professional patriots. In spite of his often acute criticisms of the Union's military leadership, Watson never faltered in his belief in the Union cause and the ultimate outcome of the war nor in his dedication to Lincoln's major goals.</p>

Letters of a Civil War Surgeon

Historical

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Books by Fatout, Paul