The Lost Cement Mine
By James W. A Wright
Edited by Richard Lingenfelter and Genny Smith, Illustrated by Nina Kelley
120 pp., $9.95 paperback, ISBN 978-0-931378-09-6
This book contains the original story of the Lost Cement Gold Mine "somewhere on the headwaters of the Owens River," exactly as published in the San Francisco Daily Evening Post in the fall of 1879. Included in this volume are historic maps and accounts of Monoville and Mammoth City mining camps, along with Mark Twain's story of his midnight expedition to locate the legendary mine (accompanied by drawings from the 1872 first edition of Roughing It).
A Fascinating Book to Treasure
Among hundred-year-old files of the San Francisco Daily Evening Post, Richard Lingefelter discovered this story of the Lost Cement Mine by James W. A. Wright. Wright wrote his account in the fall of 1879, after a summer visit to Mono County's mining camps in eastern California.
Following a hundred year old trail ...
Wright's report is partly hearsay, partly a day-by-day account of the country he traveled between Monoville and Mammoth City. So detailed are his descriptions that you can locate today many of the places he wrote about more than a hundred years ago. For example, you can easily follow his route up Red Mountain, south of Mammoth City, to the top of his "highest gray granite peak." There you can enjoy the same magnificent views that enthralled him on the eighth of July, 1879, and that he wrote about at length in the Introductory.
Exclusive Maps ...
Exclusive to this edition are three historic maps, additional notes, Mark Twain's full account of the Cement Mine, and Nina Kelley's dramatic illustrations. Perhaps, one day, somewhere on the headwaters of the Owens River, you too may hear the tap! tap! tap! of a prospector's hammer, just as Wright did over a hundred years ago.
Contents
Publisher's Preface / vii
Acknowledgments / viii
Preface / ix
James William Abert Wright / xi
The Lost Cement Mine / 1
Introductory / 5
Original Story of the Cement Hunters / 19
Episodes and Later Incidents of Cement Hunting / 27
The Cement Hunting Continued / 39
A Queer Episode — Who Was He? / 45
Late Visit to the Destroyed Camps / 61
Three Historic Maps / 69
Appendix / 81
Notes / 91
Recommended Books and Maps / 95
