Western History books from Bored Feet Press

Gold Fever, Part Three
The Path to Civil War

Ken Salter

The latest installment of Salter's rich historical saga, set among the crime, gambling, prostitution, and political tensions of 1850s California

Sierra Stories
Tales of Dreamers, Schemers, Bigots, and Rogues

Gary Noy

Stories of the Sierra Nevada abound, and characters emerge so outlandish and outrageous that they have to be real. These fascinating stories spill out of the pages of this well-illustrated and lively history, a tribute to the memorable characters of the Sierra.

An Everyday History of Somewhere

Ray Raphael

Ray Raphael’s classic award-winning people's history of California’s north coast is an evocative blend of oral history and narrative. As the subtitle says “Being the true story of Indians, deer, homesteaders, potatoes, loggers, trees, fishermen, salmon, and other living things in the back woods of Northern California.”

Snowbound
Legendary Winters of the Tahoe Sierra

Mark McLaughlin

Covers exceptional snow events that have challenged the men and women who maintain the year-round railroad and highway systems that cross the central Sierra, as well as residents, visitors and businesses that reside in these mountains.

Gold Fever, Part Two
San Francisco 1851-1852

Ken Salter

The continuing adventures of Pierre and Manon Dubois, a French couple who travelled to San Francisco and Northern California in 1851, arriving when The City was at its most chaotic and treacherous state of development.

Yesterday's Ocean
A History of Marine Life on California's Central Coast

Marc Shargel

Reveals the secret history of Central California's marine life through archival photos and original imagery. Shargel illustrates a little-known chronicle of human use and human impact.

Norman Clyde
Legendary Mountaineer of California's Sierra Nevada

Robert C. Pavlik, foreword by Steve Roper

Biography of legendary mountaineer Norman Clyde (1885-1972). Clyde is credited with more than 130 first ascents throughout western North America.

Gold Rush Stories
49 Tales of Seekers, Scoundrels, Loss, and Luck

Gary Noy

Noy explores the deeply human stories of the California Gold Rush generation, drawing out all the brutality, tragedy, humor, and prosperity as lived by those who experienced it.

Gold Fever
San Francisco 1851

Ken Salter

Pierre Dubois goes to northern California, investigating the plight of French workers who have been sent to California. This compelling story is filled with rich historical details, bringing to life all the legendary excitement and chaos of the California Gold Rush.

Elusive Truth—Four Photographers at Manzanar: Ansel Adams, Clem Albers, Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake

Gerald H. Robinson,
Introduction by Archie Miyatake

In 1942 the United States government declared 110,000 American Japanese residents of the U.S. threat to national security and incarcerated them in eleven relocation camps around the country. This book tells the story of one such camp, Manzanar.

On the Road with Mark Twain in California and Nevada
New Revised Edition

George J. Williams III

This book details what is known of Twain’s years in the West, providing details of his stay in each of more than two dozen towns he lived in and visited. This book also tells visitors what they will find in these towns today.

The Donner Party
Weathering the Storm

Mark McLaughlin

This unique look at the 1846-47 winter of entrapment the Donner Party suffered in the snowbound Sierra Nevada focuses on the extremely harsh conditions of that long and legendary winter.

Bygone Days in Early Northern California
Growing Up in Ol’ Berryessa

James Noble Hatch, edited Neal A. Roberts

This enjoyable, evocative memoir of the early ranching days in and around California’s Solano and Napa counties paints vivid images of its times and places.

Arizona Stereographs: 1865 to 1930

Jeremy Rowe

With more than 250 unique and important early Arizona stereographs, this book provides an overview of the history of the medium.

Mark Twain and the Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
Revised Edition

George J. Williams III

How Mark Twain's humorous frog story launched his legendary career. On a prospecting trip to Angel's Camp, Twain first heard the tales of the Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. Twain's version of the tale became an international success and launched his legendary career.

Arizona Real Photo Postcards
A History & Portfolio

Jeremy Rowe

Rowe explores interesting facets of early Arizona as visually captured by professional and amateur postcard photographers. The topics include mining, labor unrest, the advent of the automobile, Indians, disasters, the Mexican Border War, and photography.

Mark Twain: His Life in Virginia City, Nevada
2nd Revised Edition

George J. Williams III

This well researched account of Clemens' twenty-one months as reporter for the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City, Nevada was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize when it was first published in 1985.

Rosa May
The Search for a Mining Camp Legend

George Williams III

Rosa May worked as a prostitute and madam in the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s in towns of Virginia City, Carson City and Bodie. Rosa May died in Bodie while nursing sick miners. Despite her efforts to save lives, she was banished to Bodie's outcast cemetery.

q^h awàla·li: water coming down place
A History of Gualala, Mendocino County, California

Annette White-Parks

A history of Gualala, bordering Mendocino and Sonoma Counties on the California Pacific west coast from the early 1800s to the mid 20th century. 160 pages illuminated with over 50 historical photographs, 8 original maps.

Aurelius O. Carpenter
Photographer of the Mendocino Frontier

Marvin A. Schenck, Karen Holmes, and Sherrie Smith-Ferri

Aurelius Carpenter photographed the frontier of northern California's rural Mendocino County region.He documented the lives of Pomo Indians and White settlers, the coming of the railroad, logging and shipping industries, and the agricultural endeavors and natural beauties of the area.

Circles of Life
Katsina Imagery on Hopi Wicker Basketry

Judith W. Finger and Andrew D. Finger

The Hopi people are well known for their skill and artistry in creating ceramics, jewelry, and most especially, katsina dolls, but this is the first book to detail the basketry art.

A Fair Distance
Lois Boblett's Western Memoir, 1851-1922

L. Darlene Spargo

A Fair Distance is the richly detailed memoir of Lois Boblett (1844-1925). L. Darlene Spargo weaves meticulously researched historical details through Boblett's memoir. Boblett's words provide new insight into the roles women played in the Western Migration.

The Guide to Bodie and Eastern Sierra Historic Sites

George Williams III

In this book, George Williams III tells of the gold discovery at Bodie in 1859, the camp's boom in 1879, its long decline, and its present state. This book also details the history and present state of other mining towns and camps in the area: nearby Aurora, Lucky Boy, and many more.

The Murders at Convict Lake

George Williams III
Illustrations by Dave Comstock

In 1871 a terrible shootout occurred at this Eastern Sierra lake between escaped convicts and a posse, leaving several men dead and wounded. Williams tells the gruesome story of the escape, man hunt and murders based on news accounts of the day.

The Lovely Sea View
A Study of the Marine Photographs
Published by Gustave Le Gray, 1856-1858

Ken Jacobson

This important monograph on the photographer Le Gray was published in a limited edition. Gorgeous duotones and extraordinary detective work transport the reader into the world of French and English art photography in the 1850s.

My Checkered Life
Luzena Stanley Wilson in Early California

Fern Henry

This historic memoir is Luzena Stanley Wilson's classic account of her family's 1849 overland journey to California and their experiences there during and after the Gold Rush.

California: Its Gold and Its Inhabitants

Sir Henry Huntley

British nobelman Huntley spent most of his life in the New World. This is a reprint of his memoirs of travels and adventures in northern California during the Gold Rush, first published in the 19th century.

Patty Reed’s Doll:
The Story of the Donner Party

Rachel Laurgaard, Illustrations by Elizabeth Sykes Michaels

Skillfully pieced together from letters, journals, and memoirs of Donner Party survivors, the story of Patty Reed and her little wooden doll gives a good picture of the true life experiences of real pioneer children.

Woodleaf Legacy
Story of a California Gold Rush Town

Rosemary Mossinger

This lively history, describes life in a small northern Sierra town. It begins with the native Maidu village, then documents the fur traders, the early mines, through years of resorts, stagecoaches and stage robbers, and lumbering.

The Savage View
Charles Savage, Pioneer Mormon Photographer

Bradley W. Richards, M.D.

The only full length biography of an excellent western photographer who emigrated to Utah in 1855, then captured more than 50 years of western landscapes, faces,and places.

Photographers in Arizona 1850-1920
A History and Directory

Jeremy Rowe

This book presents a 70-year visual history of a legendary land, an exciting window into one of the most colorful periods and places in our western heritage.

Humble Work and Mad Wanderings
Street Life in the Machine Age

Ken Appollo

This remarkable book presents fascinating images from an impassioned photo-historian of street life. Striking images and stories depict street people from the last half of the 19th century and the early 20th century.

The Remarkable Carlo Gentile
Pioneer Italian Photographer

Cesare Marino

This book tells the intriguing story of Buffalo Bill's first Wild West Show photographer. The Italian photographer Carlo Gentile left his native land at age 21 and traveled around the world, landing in San Francisco in the 1850s.

Dassonville
California Photographer (1879-1957)

Peter Palmquist; Researched and edited by Susan Herzig and Paul Hertzmann

This beautiful book is the first about an influential, superb California photographer widely published in his day and the winner of numerous prizes and honors.

Natives, Newcomers, Exiles, Fugitives
Northern California Writers and their Work

Jonah Raskin

In this book Jonah Raskin examines thirty northern California writers (fifteen of them women) and their work in the context of the region in which they live and the literary community there.

American Photographic Patents
The Daguerrotype & Wet Plate Era 1840-1880

Janice G. Schimmelman

This new book lists 810 invention patents and 22 design patents pertaining to a wide range of photographic processes, equipment and methodology.

Twenty Remarkable Women Seen Through their Handwriting

Marian Gimby Brannan

Master Graphoanalyst Brannan presents short biographies of twenty highly accomplished women, then uniquely and dramatically pairs their histories with an analysis of their handwriting, creating a vivid personal encounter with each subject.