One Shot for Gold

“In addition to an engagingly written and refreshingly optimistic story about how we might mine better, Swent has provided an excellent blueprint for environmental historians interested in the problem of mining.”
—Kent Curtis, Environmental History

“One Shot for Gold is right on target. . . . Over about two hundred pages, she tells the story with dispatch, with the deliber­ate haste of a business enterprise and the clarity of a gifted historian. Having visited the McLaughlin Mine repeatedly herself and having worked with these materials for decades, Swent had one shot to tell this story. She hit a bullseye.”
—Gage McKinney, Mining History Journal

“Swent’s One Shot for Gold is an impressive account of the economic and technological development of the McLaughlin Mine and serves as an excellent contrast to the discovery story of Sutter’s Mill.”
—John Baeten, H-Environment

"The major achievement of One Shot for Gold is that it excavates the mine’s history and brings it to life through in-depth interviews with a wide variety of people who have an intimate knowledge of the mine. . . . Swent is extremely well-positioned to tell this story and to prevent McLaughlin mine’s history from being lost. What makes this book unprecedented is that it relies almost exclusively on oral histories and extended quotes, depicting a deep place-based attachment of people to the mine and its environment."     —Iva Peša, Oral History Journal

"This publication is a model for both oral history and mining history. Swent is a well-prepared and knowledgeable interviewer offering a range of interviewees, careful transcriptions, and editing . . . . [T]his book opens the door to the immense richness of information that these twentieth-century mining oral histories offer"
—Andrew Johnston, Nevada Historical Society Quarterly

“When people think about gold mining in California, what comes to mind is surely not an open-pit mine on the edge of Napa County, a place known more for its vineyards than its minerals. In one of the first mining histories set almost entirely after 1980, Eleanor Swent’s One Shot for Gold covers the development, operation, and afterlife of the McLaughlin Mine, the last major gold mine operated by the famous Homestake Mining Company. . . .  It is rare for a mining history to dig up so much ground from so many perspectives.”
—Brian Leech, associate professor of history, Augustana College, and author of The City That Ate Itself

“The Homestake Mining Company had many successes during its nearly 125-year history, and the McLaughlin Mine was one of its more noteworthy. With a strong commitment to environmental stewardship, community engagement, and technological advancement, the company set a high standard for modern gold mining. By relying on oral histories gathered as part of Berkeley’s Western Mining series, Eleanor Swent gives a fascinating account of the inception, development, and closing of California’s most productive Twentieth-Century gold mine.”
—David A. Wolff, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Black Hills State University