West

Travel to the past and enjoy a string quartet and an eight-course dinner in an elegant wilderness.

Beginning in the 1880s, the beauty of Lake Tahoe enticed entrepreneurs to build the most opulent resort hotels in America catering to the wealthiest from California and Nevada. Baldwin’s Tallac House, the Tahoe Tavern and Brockway Hot Springs Hotel fought to outdo one another as they took luxury to new heights with musical entertainment, movies, horseback excursions and five-star dining. Tahoe Tavern even featured its own private railway, while Brockway spawned America’s first gambling casino resort, the Cal-Neva Lodge, where celebrities mingled with mobsters. By the 1960s, the golden era had begun to fade as the tourist demographic shifted, but a splendid legacy endures.

Author Paul Nelson brings to life the intrigue and opulence of Lake Tahoe’s earliest resorts.

The Cannibal City

In the early days of the California Gold Rush, Sacramento City had several competing towns vying for the influx of newcomers. Many of its rivals not only had vibrant multicultural communities but also enjoyed superior geography for transportation and flood control. Even the initial land grant from Johann Sutter is considered controversial if not downright fiction, yet Sacramento thrived where others failed. Once-bustling Mormon Island was initially the proposed site of the railway that would end up bypassing it, and Brighton became a hotbed of agitation after the deadly “Squatters’ Riot,” leading to its decline. Hoboken, Prairie City and more were also wiped off the map.

The Special Collections of the Sacramento Public Library explores the history of these lost Sacramentos.

A full menu of unforgettable events and historical milestones.

Delve into the Rose City’s colorful and sometimes tumultuous past through the memories, meals and recipes that put these bygone restaurants on the map. From The Quality Pie, a favorite of Portlanders from all walks of life, to the River Queen, which enjoyed a long and storied life as a working vessel before becoming a stationary restaurant on the Willamette River, visitors and locals alike have enjoyed a unique variety of eateries. Celebrities once enjoyed steak dinners in the Barbary Coast’s Roaring 20’s Room while Café Lena offered simpler fare to poets and dreamers in search of a relaxed atmosphere.

Join author Theresa Griffin Kennedy for a sumptuous tour of Portland’s shuttered cafés, diners and grand dining rooms.

The vast mountains and deserts of Arizona hide a multitude of buried treasures and forgotten mines just waiting to be rediscovered.

The Aztecs reportedly hid gold and other valuables worth millions across the Southwest to keep it from the Spaniards hundreds of years ago, but nothing has ever been recovered. The famous Lost Dutchman mine has captured attention and claimed multiple lives since its discovery in the Superstition Mountains, and it’s just one of many mines lost to history and shifting landscapes. More recently, rumors spread that more than $1 million in cash from the 1977 robbery of Marjorie Jackson is still hidden somewhere north of Phoenix.

Author W. Craig Gaines maps out the potential paths leading to lost fortunes.

This book includes such highlights as the Grand Opera House, once graced by entertainers and cultural icons like Charlie Chaplin, Sarah Bernhardt and Mark Twain; the infamous brothels protested by reformer Carrie Nation, wielding her hatchet and sharp tongue; and the Columbia Gardens, built by copper king William Clark as a respite from the smoke and toil of the mines and later destroyed by fire. Through the stories of these structures, lost to the march of time and urban renewal, historian Richard Gibson recalls the boom and bust of Butte, once a mining metropolis and now part of the largest National Historic Landmark District.

Gone but not Forgotten in the Electric City

The unrelenting passage of time inevitably brings dramatic physical change. Thus, many of Great Falls’ iconic figures and landmarks persist only in memory. Internationally famous “cowboy artist” Charles M. Russell favored socializing at the Mint and Silver Dollar Saloons. The Ozark Club broke down racial barriers, where African American businessman Leo LaMar presented the hottest jazz acts touring the West. Mark Twain and other luminaries graced the Grand Opera. City-sanctioned brothels littered the infamous 10th Alley South. The Big Stack, once the world’s tallest structure, stood as a testament of industry and progress. Award-winning historian Ken Robison turns back the clock for a nostalgic tour of the city’s lost architectural, social and cultural heritage.

The untold story of the Bolsa Chica Gun Club, one of Southern California’s most important power centers.Before the rise of Huntington Beach, the Bolsa Chica Gun Club stood as a captivating testament to power and ambition. Influential figures like Jared Sidney Torrance and Henry Huntington were members of this exclusive haven where businessmen, politicians, and even stars of early Hollywood gathered to relax and socialize. Once rapid development and the discovery of oil began encroaching on the club lands, it slowly faded into memory, but its influence remains.Join author Chris Epting as he explores the remarkable and sometimes controversial events that unfolded on the club’s hallowed grounds.

Before the Flood

The lost town of Sopris lies silently beneath the depths of Trinidad Lake. Once a thriving mining community in the late 1800s, it was renowned for abundant coal deposits and a bustling population. Three generations called Sopris home. They fought in the Civil War, homesteaded and immigrated to work in the mines. Unfortunately, the town's fate took a drastic turn with the construction of the Trinidad Dam, which flooded the area and submerged the town. Authors Genevieve Faoro-Johannsen and Robert Daniel Vigil, Jr. preserve an enduring legacy of community and resilience through first-hand accounts, historic photos and never-before-seen maps.

Discover the vanished history of Napa Valley

Once known for its cattle and silver mines, Napa Valley has grown into an international wine destination. From the Von Uhlit family’s fruit farm in Napa to the Wheeler Ranch in St. Helena, fields and orchards became neighborhoods and vineyards. The Dolphin, a steamboat that once delivered travelers from San Francisco, was replaced by faster transport and the Napa State Hospital’s original ‘castle’ was demolished. The Sawyer Tannery, in operation for over one hundred years, closed its doors in 1990, and places like the Kay-Von Drive-In and the Bel Aire Bowl now live on only in memory.

Join author Lauren Coodley as she celebrates these once-beloved landmarks in California’s Wine Country.

Forging America’s Fuel

Henry Cottle registered the first mining claim in what would become northern Hot Springs County in the late 1880s. Henry Monro and Frank Porter’s Cedar Mountain “Cowboy Mine” followed in 1898. In 1906, Burlington Railroad built its southbound line from Billings, Montana to Frannie and Worland, Wyoming. The route was, in no small part, because of the quality and quantity of coal near Kirby. With a rail contract for a twenty-mile extension, Mormon pioneer Jesse W. Crosby, Jr. filed his mining claim in 1910. Naturally, more entrepreneurs followed, including Samuel Gebo. The coal camps of Gebo and Crosby were born, forming a significant coal district that nurtured a true melting pot of nationalities. Author Lea Cavalli Schoenewald recounts the area’s heyday and the lives that powered its development.