Overview

Originating as a silver-mining camp and marketed today as a silver-mining ghost town, Calico, CA outlived the silver era when borax was discovered in its hills. Supplying Borax worldwide—employing the twenty mule teams still associated with Twenty-Mule Team Borax—the Calico mines played a pivotal role in the evolution of the less glamorous industry, borax mining. Correcting the image sold to tourists, Steeples provides a tight geographic, economic, social, political, and business history of Calico, a once thriving community struggling to survive in primitive conditions. He tells the tale of three Calicos: the silver-mining town, the borax-mining center, and the ghost town, providing a masterful history of regional silver mining and national borax mining, processing, and marketing. The book provides an essential chapter in the development of western mining, the borax industry, and western mining camps. But it is more than the story of silver and borax in Calico. Steeples probes beyond the mines and mills in search of the community's soul, considering, for instance, the local paper, the Calico Print, the creation of the twenty-mule team image of Borax, the entrepreneurship of Francis Marion Borax Smith and his multinational organization, the education of the children, and the creation of the modern-day myth. Contrasting the working Calico with the illusory Calico, Steeples writes the complete history of the town from its natural setting to its imaginary legacy.

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9780313308369

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Reviews

Treasure from the Painted Hills is a solid addition to the history of the Southwest and the town of Calico....Steeples has framed his detailed portrayal of Calico in image analysis that raises the narrative above simple description. Steeples' history is treasure from the painted hills. -David O. Whitten Professor of Economics Auburn University

"""Treasure from the Painted Hills is a solid addition to the history of the Southwest and the town of Calico....Steeples has framed his detailed portrayal of Calico in image analysis that raises the narrative above simple description. Steeples' history is treasure from the painted hills.""-David O. Whitten Professor of Economics Auburn University .,.""[a] meticulously researched history....One more Treasure from the Painted Hills.""-JOW ?...[a] meticulously researched history....One more Treasure from the Painted Hills.?-JOW ?Steeples' text indubitably brings a human side to the often stodgy business of boom town economics....With a mind to pertinent detail and daunting academic specifics. Douglas Steeples has tirelessly researched the personal and financial history of one of the West's best-known ghost towns. Utilizing both personal reminiscence and written document, he has left no stone unturned in the district's development from a primitive mining camp to its present incarnation as a profitable tourist trap.?-Great God Pan ?This is a concise, interesting and entertaining book, which includes many facets of Calico, that succeeds in relating the essentials but not detailed to infinity. It tells a well balanced story of a unique western mining town which eventually evolved into a true ghost town...?-Los Angeles Corral ?Treasure from the Painted Hills fills a hole of some importance in western mining history.?-New Mexico Historical Review ...""�a� meticulously researched history....One more Treasure from the Painted Hills.""-JOW ...""[a] meticulously researched history....One more Treasure from the Painted Hills.""-JOW ""This is a concise, interesting and entertaining book, which includes many facets of Calico, that succeeds in relating the essentials but not detailed to infinity. It tells a well balanced story of a unique western mining town which eventually evolved into a true ghost town...""-Los Angeles Corral ""Treasure from the Painted Hills fills a hole of some importance in western mining history.""-New Mexico Historical Review ""Steeples' text indubitably brings a human side to the often stodgy business of boom town economics....With a mind to pertinent detail and daunting academic specifics. Douglas Steeples has tirelessly researched the personal and financial history of one of the West's best-known ghost towns. Utilizing both personal reminiscence and written document, he has left no stone unturned in the district's development from a primitive mining camp to its present incarnation as a profitable tourist trap.""-Great God Pan"

Author Information

DOUGLAS STEEPLES is Professor of History and Dean at Mercer University. His primary research interest is the American West and U.S. business history after the Civil War. His most recent book is Democracy in Desperation (Greenwood, 1998).

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