Description
To modern travelers zipping along California’s Highway 4, Silver Mountain City is just a “ghost of a ghost town” with not a stick of lumber left standing. But in the 1860s this was a roaring silver mining camp, filled with eager silver-seekers hoping to strike it rich with the next Comstock Lode.
Silver Mountain City recounts the true story of Alpine County’s original county seat and the fascinating cast of characters who helped put California’s smallest county on the map. Meet lovely Antoinette Chalmers, a housekeeper who married Alpine’s richest bachelor only to end her life in tragedy. Read the tale of Ernst Reusch, a jilted husband whose tragic end gave Hangman’s Bridge its name.
From accounts of the first strikes of “ruby ore” to the town’s fading glory, this is the saga of Alpine County’s early history. Richly illustrated with historic photos and vintage newspaper clippings.
Silver Mountain City: Ghost of the Sierra, by Karen Dustman (Clairitage Press 2011).
