Longarm 201: Big Trouble

As I've said, some Longarm novels are much better than others. I've read about 75 of them so far and I have to say I found this one of the best.This was a true Western and did not,as often happens,drift off into being a "Whodunnit". "Goodbye God,I'm going to Bodie" ,was the cry of those who up and left wherever they were and headed to Bodie to "strike it rich".This slogan rates up there with "Go West,young man,go West". This episode has a particular interest to me for a few reasons. It combines my interest in Birdwatching with the Old West.I actually visited Bodie on September 19,1995 on a birding trip with friends.We arrived at the town just after daybreak and on the hillside before entering town we were able to find Sage Grouse,Brewer's Blackbirds,Mountain Bluebirds and Clark's Nutcrackers.It was quite a sight looking down on this old Ghost Town.I also remember the sad sight of the string of grave markers on the opposite hillside .I was not reading Westerns at that time but that visit was one of the things that got me interested.Some interesting facts and fantastic photos of Bodie can be found in "Ghost Towns of the Old West" by Gary Topping.It is one of the best restored towns to show what these western towns of Longarm's time were like. Bodie was founded in 1860. In the late 1870's ,the time this episode takes place,the population was 20,000.At the height of the gold rush,miners made almost $900 per day. By 1883 gold started to run out. A fire in 1932 destroyed roughly 2/3 of Bodie. A great yarn about the Old West and a Longarm episode at its finest. "Ghost towns remind us that all dreams do not come true;and even when they do,they often do not endure."