Gold-mining boomtown: people of White Oaks, Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory

The liveliest little gold camp in the Southwest: an introduction

The Aguayos in Lincoln County : descendants of the Spanish and Mexican houses De Aguayo

John An Nue, a.k.a. "John Chinaman": celestial extroardianaire

James A. Alcock: fiesty little Irishman and manager of the Carrizozo Catte Ranch Company

Susan McSween Barber: cattle queen of New Mexico

James W. Bell: deputy sheriff shot dead by Billy the Kid during his escape from Lincoln

Edwin R. Bonnell: builder of the Bonnell Opera House

James Carlyle, alias Bermuda Carlisle: gunned down in the Greathouse-Kuch Ranch shootout

The De Guevara, Lalone, and Lacey families: Mexico and Texas meet Canada in White Oaks

Scotswoman Jane Malcolm Gallacher and her three sons: founders of the J + H Ranch

Benjamin Gumm and sons: builders of the Gumm Houwe, the Hoyle House, and the White Oaks Schoolhouse

John A. Halley: printer's ink flowed in his veins

John Y. Hewitt: first citizen of White Oaks

"Jolly Jerry" Hockradle: age cannot weary the prospector

Emerson Hough: lawyer, conservationist, author of Heart's desire

Matthew Watson "Watt" Hoyle: partner in teh Old Abe Mine and builder of Hoyle House

William and John Hudgens: double trouble from Louisiana

Andrew "Andy" Hudspeth: foremost legal mind in the Southwest

David L. "Happy Jack" Jackson: a lesson in do-it-yourself integration

Max H. Koch: photographer of note

Dr. Alexander Gallatin Lane: from Confederate surgeon to White Oaks physician and pharmacist

Judge Franklin Houston Lea: former Quantrill guerilla

New England sea captain John Lee: around the world aboard the Yankee Clipper

The Leslies: settlers fo Texas Park

The enterprising Mayer brothers: Frederick, Paul, and Charles

William Calhoun McDonald: first elected governor of New Mexico

Charles Madison Merrill: a prospector's prospector

Urbain Ozanne: a Frenchman with a nose for business

Dr. Melvin G. Paden: legendary country doctor

E. W. and Emmeline Parker: civilizers of a raucous mining camp and parents of a mining dynasty

Colonel George Worth Prichard: New Mexico's Clarence Darrow

The Queen families: mining their blood

James B. Redman/Redmond, G.S. and J.S. Redman/Readman, S.J./W.J. Woodland: man of many names

John Burchem Slack: from international diamond hoaxer to coffin builder and undertaker

Levin Washington Stewart: merchantilist from Saint Louis

Jones and Stanley Taliaferro: newspapermen, politicians, mercantilists, miners

The legend of Madam Varnish

William H. Weed: Santa Fe trail trader and White Oaks merchant, dreamer, and doer

Samuel and Martha Frances Wells: not of the "White Oaks 400" and proud of it

Marcus Whiteman: Russian Jew and founder of the Pioneer Store

John E. Wilson and son-in-law John Wauchope: bit hard by the gold bug

John V. "Old Jack" Winters: owner of the North Homestake Mine

George Richard "Dick" Young: mercantilist from Mississippi and Klondike prospector

Albert and Jacob Ziegler: German-Jewish merchants chasing the American dream

Afterword.