Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
March 2000
Abstract
Unfulfilled aspirations, a condition common to all human beings, are nowhere more tangible than in an abandoned town. They are the siren call of such places and why guides to ghost towns have become popular items on bookstore shelves, forming a highly varied genre both in quality and intended audience. Don Baker positions his entry on the far side of informality, which is fine, and of carelessness, which is not. The author, a Billings resident bringing enthusiasm to his subject, has produced a visually pleasing, large-format book contammg over eighty photographs. After short sketches of early railroads, the homesteading process, ethnicity, politics, and initial failures, the bulk of the text is devoted to sixty-six entries on individual towns, each averaging a page in length.
Comments
Published in Great Plains Quarterly, Volume 20, Number 2, Spring 2000, pp. 173 - 174. © 2000 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska – Lincoln.