Touring the Old West

"Touring the Old West" is a practical guide to what is left of the western frontier and a page-turning history for those wo can't hit the trail. In this "love letter to half of America," Kent Ruth takes the reader through twenty-one states, pointing out legendary and little-known attractions on and off the main highways.Ruth directs today's explorer to famous old trails and landmarks, crumbling cemeteries, and original rail lines to Indian encampments and military forts (some of them restored and catering to history buffs). The tour is dotted with old-time fur trading posts, boom-and-bust mining camps, sleepy ghost towns, and near-ghosts with hotels still standing. Photographs and a state-by-state index identify authentic highlights for anybody's "out West" tour.