Shadow Mountain

by Dane Coolidge

• Two of American western author Dane Collidge’s best selling books from a century ago are bound together in this Kindle edition: Shadow Mountain and Rimrock Jones

Shadow Mountain
Under the rim of Shadow Mountain, embraced like a pearl of great price by the curve of Bonanza Point and the mined-out slope of Gold Hill, the deserted city of Keno lay brooding.
There were old men and cripples, left stranded by the exodus; and gold prospectors who had moved into the vacant houses along with the other desert rats.
But out on the gallery of the old Huff mansion there was a flutter of activity
Virginia, daughter of the old paymaster, was now a waiter, and Wiley Homan had decided to come back into town to see her.
Virginia had always been convinced that Wiley’s father had robbed her father. Now here Willy was, sitting in front of her with a massive gold ring on his hands, asking whether they could be friends. But that wasn’t all he wanted. Wiley Homan had a business proposal.

Rimrock Jones (1917)
Set in the deserts of southern Arizona, American author Dane Coolidge tells a story of high finance, greed and mining law. The main character is a hard-drinking, gun-toting miner struggling to own a multi-million dollar copper mine. An attractive typist named Mary Fortune holds a one percent share of the mine, but it may well be enough for her to control the fortune and all of the men around her.
Rimrock Jones was made into a Hollywood film in 1918 with matinee idol Wallace Reid.

322 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 21, 2014

About the author

Dane Coolidge was born in Natick, Massachusetts, on March 24, 1873. He was brought up in Riverside, California, and received his higher education at Stanford and Harvard Universities. From 1895 to 1900 he was a field collector of mammals, birds and reptiles in Nevada, Arizona and Southern California for a number of institutions, including Stanford University, the British Museum, U. S. National Zoological Park, and the U. S. National Museum in Italy and France. On July 30, 1906, he married Nary Roberts, and the couple eventually made their home in Berkeley, California. In 1910, his first novel, Hidden Water, was published, and this was followed by a long succession of novels and some non-fiction, with California and Southwest locales. He and his wife collaborated on two books, The Navajo Indians (1930) and The Last of the Seris (1939). In addition, Coolidge contributed short stories and illustrated articles to several magazines, including Youth's Companion, Sunset, Redbook, Harper's and Country Life in America. Mr. Coolidge died in 1940; Mrs. Coolidge, in 1945.

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was looking forward to this book. I really enjoyed Coolidge's The Desert Trail, and when it came time to pick an author for my March Literary Birthday Challenge, I decided Shadow Mountain would be a nice choice, mainly because years ago when I lived in El Paso, Texas, I worked at a store on Shadow Mountain Drive. Well, that is as good a reason as any, right?

But whether it was Carnaval, or the latest in-law visit, or April the giraffe (when is she going to have that baby?!) or the book itself, I could never get interested in the story. I struggled along to the halfway point, but at yet another chapter full of maths I gave up. I simply never had that 'ooh, gotta go see what is happening' feeling that usually keeps me turning pages.

The story revolves around a mine near Death Valley. The hero Wiley arrives in Keno, which used to be a booming mining town, but now is nearly a ghost town, with only a few people still hanging on. There is the requisite widow in dire straits, and her beautiful daughter Virginia, neither of whom trust our man Wiley, mainly because of the bad feelings his father left behind. There is a lot of information (a whole lot, way too much, over and over and over) about mining claims, shares, stocks, quit-claims, this thing and that other thing and percentages and so on and so forth. Crap, I hate trying to read math stuff. My brain just says Nope, don't wanna, ain't gonna.

The most intriguing character was Death Valley Charley, who knew something about Virginia's father, hinting that he was not really dead. But Death Valley Charley also was a bit touched in the head, insisting that he could see and feel the electricity in the earth, and that he heard the Germans coming. (The story was set during WWI, and Wiley was hoping to find materials in the mine to help the war effort.) One reason I kept on for as long as I did was that I wanted to see if DVC ever took control of the story but if he did, it was after the halfway point.

There are other Coolidge titles at Gutenberg, and I will try another one sometime later this month. Maybe I will have less distractions (are you listening, April?!) and maybe whichever story I pick will be as exciting as The Desert Trail was.