In the 1890s, historian Frederick Jackson Turner lamented that the frontier was gone and with it the Old West, but overlooked was some 50,000 square miles of a frontier line outlining the Mojave Desert the Last Frontier. In this arid land, unsettled and sketchily mapped written off as godforsaken and worse there would now be a headlong 25-year rush for richesand for the Old West a grand, tumultuous, rowdy Last Act. Overnight towns named Randsburg, Tonopah, Goldfield, Rhyolite, Greenwater, Skidoo, Ballarat, and Bagdad popped up in this arid desert as gold and silver was discovered. The rush was on as miners worked their various digs: the Yellow Aster, the Lost Gunsight, Mizpah, Belmont, Mohawk, Florence, the Lost Breyfogle, Bullfrog, Bagdad, and the Glory Hole. Just as quickly ghost towns replaced booming towns as mines played out. All of this is captured in rare photographs of the day assembled with interpretive text. Having been a desert person all my life, I loved this book. It is a miracle of pictures, many new and rarely seen, and besides that it is a treasure of history. It takes you back in time: you are there in the midst of what was the old west. For me, who has been there with a burro and a back pack, it was the real thing. It is truly a bonanza find that is a great collector s must have item. A very valuable book, strike it rich.- Emmett Harder --Emmett Harder, Desert Explorers Sometimes treasures are not discovered in the deep sands of the Mojave; instead they are found in back rooms of long lost cities and towns. Thankfully, Nicholas Clapp found a remarkable collection of memories from a time long ago and has presented them in a beautiful and stunning way. A GREAT read and a magnificent story. This book is surely a must have! --John Grasson, editor Dezert Magazine It s all here the glamour, the grit, the gold, and the grandeur of the desert landscape....all the ingredients for a breathtaking visual experience of the last great rush for riches in the Old West. A beautifully crafted volume, this book is a must buy. --Linda Green Smith, National Park Service Historian and Chief of Resources Management (ret.), Death Valley National Park Sometimes treasures are not discovered in the deep sands of the Mojave; instead they are found in back rooms of long lost cities and towns. Thankfully, Nicholas Clapp found a remarkable collection of memories from a time long ago and has presented them in a beautiful and stunning way. A GREAT read and a magnificent story. This book is surely a must have! --John Grasson, editor Dezert Magazine It s all here the glamour, the grit, the gold, and the grandeur of the desert landscape....all the ingredients for a breathtaking visual experience of the last great rush for riches in the Old West. A beautifully crafted volume, this book is a must buy. --Linda Green Smith, National Park Service Historian and Chief of Resources Management (ret.), Death Valley National Park Award-winning documentary filmmaker and author Nicholas Clapp has studied, filmed, and written about the deserts of the world. With a master’s degree in cinema from the University of Southern California, his first professional break came when he produced and directed The Great Mojave Desert, a one-hour special for CBS and the National Geographic Society. He has won over 70 major film awards for his documentary work. As an author, his distinguished previous publications include The Road to Ubar: Finding the Atlantis of the Sands and Sheba: Through the Desert in Search of the Legendary Queen. His interest in the Queen of Sheba drew him to the story of the Queen of Sheba Mine in Death Valley and to its mining engineer, leading to his last work, Who Killed Chester Pray? It was while researching for this book that Clapp discovered the many rare photographs of America’s Last Frontier. With the detailed eye of a cinematographer, Clapp has noted the most exacting details in each of the photographs selected for this book ― a final look at life on this Last Frontier.