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GOLD HILL

CONSOLIDATED VIRGINIA MINE.

HISTORY OF
THE BIG BONANZA:

AN AUTHENTIC ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY, HISTORY, AND WORKING OF THE

WORLD RENOWNED

COMSTOCK SILVER LODE OF NEVADA

INCLUDING THE

PRESENT CONDITION OF THE VARIOUS MINES SITUATED THEREON;

SKETCHES OF THE MOST PROMINENT MEN INTERESTED IN

THEM; INCIDENTS AND ADVENTURES CONNECTED WITH

MINING, THE INDIANS, AND THE COUNTRY;

AMUSING STORIES, EXPERIENCES,

ANECDOTES, &C., &C.

AND A FULL

EXPOSITION OF THE PRODUCTION OF PURE SILVER

BY

DAN DE QUILLE.

(WILLIAM WRIGHT.)

PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED.

SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY.

HARTFORD, CONN.:

AMERICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY.

SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.:

A. L. BANCROFT & CO.

1876.

Entered according to act of Congress, in year 1876 by

AMERICAN PUBLISHING CO.,

in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

INTRODUCTORY.

One easily gets a surface-knowledge of any remote country, through the writings of travellers. The inner life of such a country is not very often presented to the reader. The outside of a strange house is interesting, but the people, the life, and the furniture inside, are far more so.

Nevada is peculiarly a surface-known country, for no one has written of that land who had lived long there and made himself competent to furnish an inside view to the public. I think the present volume supplies this defect in an eminently satisfactory way. The writer of it has spent sixteen years in the heart of the silver-mining region, as one of the editors of the principal daily newspaper of Nevada; he is thoroughly acquainted with his subject, and wields a practised pen. He is a gentleman of character and reliability. Certain of us who have known him personally during half a generation are well able to testify in this regard.

MARK TWAIN.

Hartford, May, 1876.

TO

JOHN MACKEY, Esq.,

PRINCE OF MINERS,

AND

“Boss” of the Big Bonanza,

IS THIS BOOK

RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED.

PREFACE.

I have put all I had to say into the body of this book; but, being informed that a preface is a necessary evil, I have written this one.

The Author.

List of Illustrations.[A]

——————●——————

CHAPTER I.
HE FIRST SETTLERS IN NEVADA.

The bare mention of a mine of silver calls up in most minds visions of glittering wealth and a world of romantic situations and associations. All no doubt have read the story of the Indian hunter, Diego Hualca, who, in the year 1545, discovered the world-famous silver-mine of Potosi, Peru. How, while climbing up the face of a steep mountain in pursuit of a wild goat, this fortunate hunter laid hold upon a bush, in order to pull himself up over a steep ledge of rocks, and how the bush was torn out by the roots, when lo! wonderful store of wealth was laid bare. In the roots of the upturned bush, and in the soil of the spot whence it was torn, the eyes of the lone Indian hunter beheld masses of glittering silver.

Having all our lives had in mind this romantic story, and having a thousand times pictured to ourselves the great, shining lumps of native silver, as they lay exposed in the black soil before that Indian, who stood alone in a far-away place on the wild mountain, we are apt to imagine that something of the same kind is to be seen wherever a silver-mine exists. Besides, we have all heard the stories told by the old settlers of the Atlantic States in regard to the wonderful mines of silver known to the Indians in early days.

Hardly a State in the Union but has its legend of a silver-mine known to the red-men when they inhabited the country. This mine was pretty much the same in every State and in every region. Upon the removal of a large flat stone an opening resembling the mouth of a cavern was seen. Entering this, you found yourself in a great crevice in the rocks, and the sides of this crevice were lined with silver, which you forthwith proceeded to hew and chip off with a hatchet kindly furnished you by your Indian guide. You worked rapidly, as, according to contract, you had but a limited time to remain in the mine. When the Indian at your side announced your time up, the tomahawk was taken from your hand, even though you might have an immense mass detached, save a mere clinging thread.

Only men who had saved the life of some Indian of renown were ever led to these silver caverns and they were invariably obliged to submit to be blindfolded, so that none of them were ever able to find their way back to the mines they had been shown.

These and kindred stories have placed masses of native silver, and deposits of rich ores of silver very near to the surface of the ground, in the popular mind. No doubt there are many places in the world where native silver exists almost upon the present surface, as was the case in the Potosi mine, in Peru, and as was the case with the rich deposit of silver ore first found on the Comstock lode, but those who visit the present mines of the Comstock will find little in them that at all agrees with their preconceived notions of silver-mines. On the surface they will find nothing that is glittering, nothing that is at all romantic. The soil looks much the same as in any other mountainous region, and the rocks seem to have a very ordinary look to the inexperienced eye. The general hue of the hills is a yellowish-brown, and all about through the rents in the ashen-hued sagebrush which clothes the country, peep jagged piles of granite—the bones of the land, showing through its rags.

In sketching the history of the famous Comstock silver lode of Nevada, however, and of the bonanza mines, situated on that lode, it seems proper to begin by giving a brief account of the first settlement of the country, when known as Western Utah, and under Mormon, if under any rule; also, to chronicle what is to be gathered in regard to the finding of gold-diggings in that region, the working of which finally resulted in the discovery of the richest silver-mines in the world.

Nevada, as at present bounded, extends from the 35th to the 42d degree of north latitude, and from the 114th to the 120th degree west longitude from Greenwich.

The area of the State is 112,190 square miles, or 71,801,819 acres. Assuming the water-surface of the several lakes in the State to cover an area of 1,690 square miles, or 1,081,819 acres, there remain 110,500 square miles, or 70,720,000 acres as the land-area of the State.

I do not know that this is correct to the fraction of an acre, but, when the quality of the greater part of the land is considered, I don’t think anybody is likely to come along and make trouble about the measurement.

The Sierra Nevada Mountains, with long lines of snowy peaks towering to the clouds, form the western boundary of the State and rise far above any mountain ranges lying to the westward in the Great Basin region, a region largely made up of alkali deserts and rugged, barren hills, yet a country abounding in all manner of minerals.

The rivers of Nevada are none of them of great size. They all pour their waters into lakes that have no outlet, where they sink into the earth or are dissipated by the active evaporation that goes on in all this region during the greater part of the year. Each river empties into its lake, or what in that country is called its “sink.” Not a river of them all gets out of the State or through any other river reaches the sea.

This condition of the rivers of Nevada was once thus curiously accounted for by an old mountaineer and prospector. Said he:

“The way it came about was in this wise—The Almighty, at the time he was creatin’ and fashionin’ of this here yearth, got along to this section late on Saturday evening. He had finished all of the great lakes, like Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and them—had made the Ohio, Missouri and Mississippi rivers, and, as a sort of wind-up, was about to make a river that would be far ahead of anything he had yet done in that line. So he started in and traced out Humboldt River, and Truckee River, and Walker River, and Reese River, and all the other rivers, and he was leadin’ of them along, calkerlatin’ to bring ’em all together into one big boss river and then lead that off and let it empty into the Gulf of Mexico or the Gulf of California, as might be most convenient; but as he was bringin’ down and leadin’ along the several branches—the Truckee, Humboldt, Carson, Walker, and them—it came on dark and instead of trying to carry out the original plan, he jist tucked the lower ends of the several streams into the ground, whar they have remained from that day to this.”

Carson River and Carson Valley were named in honor of Kit Carson, the famous Indian fighter, trapper, and guide, who visited that region as early as 1833. He was accompanied by old Jim Beckworth, once chief of the Crow Indians, three Crow Indians and some white trappers—nine men in all. The party passed over the Sierra Nevada Mountains to California.

Thirteen years later when with Col. J. C. Fremont, Kit Carson followed his old trail in crossing the Sierras, going in the direction of Bear River, and at last, ascending a high hill in the neighborhood of where Rough-and-Ready, California, now stands, Kit struck a landmark he well remembered. Pointing out the blue peaks of the Marysville Buttes, seen far away in the smoky distance, he said,[said,] “Yonder lies the valley of the Sacramento!”

At the time of the discovery of silver, the principal settlement in that part of Utah which afterwards became the Territory and eventually the State of Nevada, was at Genoa, now the county-seat of Douglas county and situated about fourteen miles south of Carson City, the capital of the State. To all who crossed the Plains, on their way to the gold-fields of California, in the early days, Genoa was known as “Mormon Station,” a name it continued to bear for some years. Even after the name had been changed to Genoa, many of the old settlers persisted in calling the place Mormon Station.

The first building of a permanent character erected in Genoa was built by Col. John Reese, who came from Salt Lake City early in the spring of 1851 with a stock of dry-goods. This first structure was a large log-house, covering an area of forty-five square yards, was in the form of an L and at one time formed two sides of a pentagon-shaped fort. Colonel Reese bought the land on which the town of Genoa now stands, with a farm adjoining, of Captain Jim, of the Washoe tribe of Indians, for two sacks of flour.

KIT CARSON.

Besides the settlement at Mormon Station, a settlement, also by Mormons, was commenced in the spring of 1853 at Franktown, Washoe Valley. Quite a little hamlet was formed at Franktown; and others of the colony settled at various points along the west side of the valley at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Several Mormon families still reside in this neighborhood and occasionally the voice of the Mormon preacher is yet to be heard.

Orson Hyde, a man of considerable note at Salt Lake, had in charge the spiritual and temporal welfare of the Mormon settlements in the early days, he being both preacher and Justice of the Peace.

At this time in the history of the country there was no town in Eagle Valley, where Carson City now stands. The first building erected in that neighborhood was at Eagle Ranche, from which ranche the valley took its name. This place was afterwards better known as King’s Ranche, a name it still bears. Two or three houses were next built on the present site of Carson City, but the town was not regularly laid out until 1858, when the land was purchased by Major Ormsby, who gave the place the name it now bears.

Although these early settlements were made upon lands belonging to the Washoe Indians, a tribe of considerable strength at the time, yet no very serious battles were ever had with them. The whites, however, who were at first a mere handful, Mormons and “Gentiles,” all told, stood in considerable awe of the redskins. They were obliged to quietly endure not a few insults from some of the bullies of the tribe, who had a fashion of walking into houses and making themselves at home in the cupboards. They were often exceedingly insolent, and when only women and children were found at a house, always managed to frighten them into giving up most of the provisions about the place.

In one instance, however, an Indian who went to the house of a Gentile, when the only occupants were a boy about twelve years of age and his sister still younger, met a fate he little anticipated. The Indian, after regaling himself in the pantry, began threatening the children with a roasting at the stake, for the purpose of enjoying their fright; and, finally, whipping out a big knife, began “making believe” to take the scalp of the little girl. The boy, it would seem, thought they had had about enough of this foolishness, as he went into an adjoining room, took down his father’s rifle and returning to where the brave was flourishing his knife and enjoying himself, shot him dead in his tracks.

The Indian killed was one of the worst in the Washoe tribe, and was greatly dreaded in all the settlements. The father of the boy who rid the country of the much-feared Indian bully, was obliged to “pull up stakes” at once and fly to California for safety.

The Washoes inhabited the eastern slope of the Sierras, and made the stealing of the stock of the settlers both their business and their pleasure. Like crows they sat looking down into the valleys from the tops of the rocky buttresses of the mountains, and when they saw the coast clear, down they came and gathered in as many animals as they were able to drive.

Whenever the whites were so incautious as to collect for the purpose of enjoying a ball or any such social festivity, the Washoes were pretty sure to know of the affair, and seldom neglected to swoop from their mountain fastnesses, gathering up and driving away whatever animals they could find. The trail of the Indian depredators, when followed, was generally found marked with the remains of roasted horses—the Washoes having a great fondness for horse-flesh. On the occasion of a ball in Dayton, as late as 1854, the Washoes came down and “gobbled up” all the horses of the revellers. The Indians appeared to think this cunning and a very good joke.

Although Colonel Reese had about his big log-house at Mormon Station, a strong stockade, that defence was never required as a protection against the Washoe Indians. The tribe has dwindled away until at the present day those remaining are few and miserably poor, ragged, filthy, and spiritless. They now cling to the skirts of the white man and stand in awe of all surrounding tribes of Indians, even in time of peace.

The settlements thus far mentioned were all scattered along the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, but as early as 1851, there were erected a few temporary structures, principally canvas houses, at various points to the eastward, along the line of the main “Emigrant Road.” This, the then grand highway across the continent, after passing through some of the worst and most dreaded deserts between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierras, led to the well-watered and fertile valley of the Carson, a region that doubtless seemed almost a paradise to the weary emigrant, who for months and months had been toiling over rugged mountains and across sterile plains.

Mormon Station being directly on the old Hangtown (afterwards Placerville) Road, then the principal route over the Sierras, drove a thriving trade with the thousands and tens of thousands of adventurers who were then pushing their way toward the gold-fields of California. Seeing that there was money in this trade, not a few adventurers, principally from Salt Lake and California, established posts on the line of the road to the eastward of Mormon Station and Eagle Ranche, a few even pushing out a considerable distance into the deserts. The majority of these traders, however, returned to California each season, following in the wake of the last emigrant-trains that came in over the Plains, and there remained until the tide of emigration began to pour in again the next year.

These traders furnished the “pilgrims” cheap luxuries at outrageously high prices, traded for their disabled cattle and swindled them in every possible manner, as they all considered the emigrant their lawful prey.

CHAPTER II.
THE SEARCH FOR GOLD.

Gold was first discovered in Nevada in the spring of 1850, by some Mormon emigrants. They had started for California, but so early in the season that when they arrived at the Carson River they learned that the snow on the summit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains was still too deep to allow of their being crossed. This being the case, the party encamped on the Carson to await the opening of the road.

Having nothing else to do, some of the men of the party began prospecting for gold. Their camp on the river being at no great distance from the mouth of the Gold Cañon, the largest cañon in the neighborhood, they were naturally attracted to it and there began their prospecting operations.

Although they knew but little about mining, and had only pans with which to wash the gravel, they found gold sufficiently plentiful to enable them to make small wages. It does not appear, however, that the discoverers worked them longer than until they were able to continue their journey to California.

Other emigrants coming in and encamping on the river learned of the discovery of gold in the cañon, and, being anxious to begin gold-digging as soon as possible, did some prospecting along the bed of the ravine.

But the gold being fine (i. e., like dust—in fine particles), and the quantity not being up to their expectations, nearly all pushed on to California, where they expected to make fortunes in a few weeks or months; as all believed, that they, through their superior acuteness, would find places in some of the dark and secret gulches of the Sierras where they would be able to gather pounds of golden nuggets.

Finally, Spofford Hall, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, arrived across the Plains and, thinking it a good point at which to establish a permanent station, erected a substantial log-house at a point not far from the mouth of the Gold Cañon. This was for some time known as Hall’s Station. Afterwards it was known as M^cMartin’s Station, the property having been purchased by James M^cMartin, a man who came across the Plains with Mr. Hall. This house stood on ground now covered by the town of Dayton and was still being used as a store at the time of the discovery of silver, it being then owned by Major Ormsby, killed at Pyramid Lake, in 1860, in the first battle with the Piutes.

This discovery of gold at the mouth of Gold Cañon was undoubtedly that which led to the discovery, some years later, of the Comstock lode—the first step, as it were, to the grand silver discovery of the age. At the head of Gold Cañon are situated a number of the leading mines of the Comstock range.

In the spring of 1852 a considerable number of men began working on the lower part of Gold Cañon, most of them using rockers in their mining operations. As these men did well, making from $5 to $10 per day, the number of miners on the cañon was considerably greater in the winter and spring of 1853, there being as many as two or three hundred men at work. As there was little water in the bed of the cañon except during the winter and spring months, few miners were to be seen at work in summer—seldom more than forty or fifty.

As the miners worked their way up the cañon from bar to bar, a new town was eventually founded at a point a few miles above the first settlement at its mouth. This was a little hamlet of a dozen houses of all kinds, and was christened Johntown. In this little town or “Camp,” as such places are usually styled in mining countries, lived Henry Comstock, who gave his name, some years later to the great silver lode; also, Peter O’Riley and Patrick McLaughlin, the discoverers of the Comstock vein. “Old Virginia” (James Finney, or Fennimore), in whose honor Virginia City, the great mining town of Nevada, was named, was also a resident of Johntown in the early days, as were several other persons who are now classed among the worthies of the Comstock range.

“OLD VIRGINIA” AT HIS ROCKER.

From about 1856 up to 1858, Johntown was the “big mining town” of Western Utah—at least was the headquarters of most of the miners at work in the country. All told, the camp contained only about a dozen buildings, some of which were mere shanties, but many of the miners preferred to camp out during the spring and summer months—they had no use for houses.

A large number of Chinamen being at work at the mouth of the cañon, near where the gold was first discovered, that place finally became known as “Chinatown,” a name which it long retained, though the whites who settled there did not much fancy the name. They gave the place the name of Mineral Rapids, but this did not take; then there was danger of it being christened Nevada City, but the citizens rose in their might and at a meeting, held November 3d. 1861, the name of Dayton was unanimously adopted, and Dayton it has ever since remained.

The Chinamen mentioned, forty or fifty in number at first, were brought over from California, in 1856, to work on a big water-ditch, by means of which water was to be brought to the Gold Cañon mines from the Carson River. Finding they would be allowed to mine in certain places, others followed, and at one time not less than one hundred and eighty Mongolians were at work at the lower end of the Cañon.

The Celestials probably found very good pay, even in the places where they were allowed to plant their rockers, as it is said that the bars for some miles up the cañon paid well when first worked, there being places where an ounce per day was taken out.

The cañon continued to pay pretty fair wages for some years, and was still being worked at the time of the discovery of silver and the grand silver excitement which immediately followed.

Literature was not neglected at this early period in the history of Washoe. There were, even in the early days when Johntown was the great mining centre of the country, two spicy weekly papers published in the land. They were written on foolscap, often several sheets, and, by being assiduously passed from hand to hand, were widely circulated in the several settlements. These papers were everywhere eagerly read. One, called the Scorpion, was published at Genoa, and was edited by S. A. Kinsey; the other was published at Johntown and was edited by Joe Webb. It was called The Gold-Cañon Switch. These papers were both published between the years 1854 and 1858.

The people of Johntown, though not numerous, were jovial. They were fond of amusements of all kinds. Nearly every Saturday night a “grand ball” was given at “Dutch Nick’s” saloon. As there were but three white women in the town, it was necessary, in order to “make up the set,” to take in Miss Sarah Winnemucca, the “Piute Princess” (daughter of Winnemucca, chief of all the Piutes). When the orchestra—a “yaller-backed fiddle”—struck up and the ‘French four’ was in order, the enthusiastic Johntowners went forth in the dance with ardor and filled the air with splinters from the puncheon floor. When a Johntown “hoss” balanced in front of the “Princess” he made no effort to economise shoe-leather.

THE PRINCESS SARAH WINNEMUCCA.

Even in those early days and in that primitive community, the “beast of the jungle” was known in the land. The “boys” were not allowed to languish for want of amusement. When their sacks of gold-dust became painfully plethoric, and too heavy to be conveniently packed around, Jacob Job, the leading merchant of the place used to deal faro for them “out of hand;” that is, he took the cards from his hand and laid them out on the table, instead of drawing them from a box such as is used in the game by regular “sports.”

Billy Williams, a man who had a ranche up in Carson Valley, occasionally came down to Johntown in seasons of great auriferous affluence, and dealt for the boys a little game called “Twenty-one.” Faro, out of hand, and Twenty-one, with Williams at the helm, usually sent all the male Johntowners back to their toms and rockers, each man financially a total wreck.

About 1857-58 the diggings along Gold Cañon showed signs of failing, all the best bars and banks being pretty well worked out. It was only occasionally that a rich spot could be found, and most of the miners were only making small wages. That this was the case is evident from the fact that about this time the Johntowners, the mining men of the land, began to scatter out through the country and make prospecting raids in all directions among the hills.

JACOB JOB’S LITTLE GAME.

In 1857, several men from Johntown, struck gold-diggings on Six-mile Cañon. This cañon heads on the north side of Mount Davidson, while Gold Cañon, in which gold was first found, heads on the south side of the same mountain. The heads of the two cañons are about a mile apart, and through the eastern face of Mount Davidson, across a sort of plateau, runs the Comstock Silver lode. The lode (or lead), extends across the heads of both cañons, and the gold that was being mined in both came from the decomposed rock of the croppings of the vein.

Thus, it will be seen, these early miners were approaching the great silver lode from two points—on Gold Cañon towards the south, and on Six-mile Cañon toward the north side of Mount Davidson. But not a man among them knew anything of what was ahead. They were only working for gold and were looking for that nowhere but in the gravel of the ravines; none of them having thought of looking for gold-bearing quartz veins.

The men who were mining on Six-mile Cañon first struck paying ground, at a point nearly a mile below the place where silver ore was afterwards found in the Ophir mine. The gold was in clay, which was so tough that before it could be washed out in rockers it was necessary to “puddle” it—that is, put it into a large square box or a hole in the ground, and dissolve it by adding a proper quantity of water and working it about with hoes or shovels. Even working in this way, the men were able to make from five dollars to an ounce per day. The gold found at this distance down the cañon was worth about $13.50 per ounce.

The miners on Six-mile Cañon sold their dust in Placerville, California. Being acquainted with some California boys who were mining in a place called ’Coon Hollow, our Washoe miners were in the habit of buying a certain quantity of fine dust of them, which they mixed with the gold from Six-mile Cañon, when they were able to sell the whole lot at such a price as was equal to fifteen dollars per ounce for their own dust. As they worked further up the ravine, toward the Comstock lode, the gold deteriorated so rapidly in weight, color and value, that this game could no longer be played. The gold-buyer looked upon the mixture of Six-mile Cañon and ’Coon Hollow products and pronounced it a delusion and a snare.

CHAPTER III.
ADVENTURES OF EARLY PROSPECTORS.

Two young men who were mining in Gold Cañon, suspected the existence of silver-mines in the country at least five or six years before silver was actually discovered. These men were Hosea B. and Edgar Allen Grosch, sons of A. B. Grosch, a Universalist clergyman of considerable note, and editor of a Universalist paper at Utica, New York. The Grosch brothers were well educated and had considerable knowledge of mineralogy and assaying.

They came to Gold Cañon in 1852, from Volcano, California, and engaged in placer-mining. In 1853 and 1854, they appear to have become convinced that there was silver to be found in the country, and did a good deal of prospecting in various directions among the neighboring mountains, doubtless in search of silver ore.

In their cabin, which stood near the present town of Silver City, about a mile above Johntown, they are said to have had a library consisting of a considerable number of volumes of scientific works; also chemical apparatus and assayer’s tools.

They did not associate with the miners working on the cañon, and were very reticent in regard to what they were doing. They, however, informed a few persons that they had discovered a vein of silver-bearing quartz and it was well known among the miners that they had formed a company for the purpose of working their mine. The majority of the members of their company were understood to be in California (about Volcano), and in one of the Atlantic States. Mrs. L. M. Dettenreider, one of the early settlers of the country, and a lady who had befriended the brothers, was given an interest in their mine, and at one time had in her possession a piece of ore from it. This ore, they assured her, contained gold, silver, lead, and antimony.

Mrs. Dettenreider, who is a resident of Virginia City, says she always understood that the mine discovered by the Grosch brothers was somewhere about Mount Davidson, and thinks they may have obtained their ore somewhere along the Comstock lead.

In 1860, I saw their old furnaces unearthed, they having been covered up to the depth of a foot or more by a deposit of mud and sand from Gold Cañon. They were two in number and but two or three feet in length, a foot in height and a foot and a half in width. One had been used as a smelting and the other as a cupel furnace. The remains of melting-pots and fragments of cupels were found in and about the furnaces, also a large piece of argentiferous galena, which had doubtless been procured a short distance west of Silver City, where there are yet to be seen veins containing ore of that character, some of which yield fair assays in silver.

In the spring of 1857, Hosea Grosch, while engaged in mining, stuck a pick in his foot, inflicting a wound, from the effects of which he died, in a few days. In November of that year, while on his way to Volcano, California, Allen, the surviving brother, was caught in a heavy storm in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and had his feet frozen so badly that amputation was necessary, from the shock of which operation he died. With the brothers was lost the secret of the whereabouts of their silver-mine; if they ever discovered any silver except that contained in the ore of the veins of argentiferous galena I have mentioned.

After the discovery of the old furnaces of the Grosch brothers in 1860, there was much search by miners in the neighborhood for the mine they had been prospecting, but no mine was ever found.

In a sort of sink on the side of a large mountain, at the foot of which stood the cabin and furnaces of the brothers, was found an old shaft. Here was supposed to be the spot where they had worked, and the place was “located” (“claimed” or “pre-empted”), and called the “Lost Shaft.”

About the first discovery made by the locators, when they began cleaning out the shaft, was the body—a sort of mummy—of a Piute squaw, who had been murdered some years before by members of her tribe, who had tumbled her remains into the old shaft.

After finding this “dead thing,”[thing,”] the owners of the claim let a contract for the further sinking and exploration of the old shaft. The men who took the contract soon gave it up. They said they could not work in the shaft; that stones were falling out of its sides without cause. Others took the contract, and each party of miners that went to work in the shaft gave it up, saying that their lives were endangered by the stones which suddenly and at unexpected times, jumped out of its sides. A tunnel was then started to tap the ledge on which the old shaft was supposed to have been sunk, but it was never completed. It is now well known that the old shaft was sunk by a party of Gold Cañon miners in 1851, they having taken it into their heads that from this curious-looking pit or sink in the side of the mountain came all the gold found below in the cañon.

There was also a story current among the miners, in 1860, that before starting on the trip over the Sierras which resulted in his death, Allen Grosch boxed up the library and all the chemical and assaying apparatus, and cached the whole somewhere about Grizzly Hill, the mountain at the base of which stood the cabin occupied by the brothers. There was much search by curious miners in the neighborhood for this supposed deposit of valuables. They crawled under the edge of shelving rocks, peered into crevices among the cliffs, and probed all suspicious-looking stone-heaps, but no bonanza of scientific apparatus was ever discovered. When Allen Grosch left to go over the mountains to California, Comstock was placed in charge of the cabin, and it is very probable that whatever books and apparatus there may have been were carried away by such visitors as took a fancy to them, and thus were scattered and lost.

In the summer of 1860 I was camped on a branch of Gold Cañon, near where the old stone-cabin of the Grosch brothers stood. I had a score or more of neighbors, whose tents were pitched on the banks of the ravine, or who, having no tents, made the willows on the bars their shelter. One hot day in July, one of the men, a big, long-legged Missourian, started up the mountain to see what he could find. One object probably was to look for the Grosch scientific “bonanza,” but, being a man who had no more knowledge of ores and minerals than a Piute, he was quite sure to make some remarkable discovery, no matter in what direction he traveled.

He had been absent some hours when, looking up towards the summit of Grizzly Hill, we saw a cloud of dust moving down the face of the mountain. In the midst of this whirling cloud, we caught occasional glimpses of a man, bounding along like a wild goat. Rocks disturbed by his feet, rolled down the steep slope of the mountain, adding greatly to the dust and commotion. All in camp were soon out gazing at the unusual spectacle, and all wondered what had happened to “Pike,” who by this time had been recognized by his long legs and reckless manner of handling them.

Some thought that a bear or some other wild beast was in pursuit of Pike, as he charged down the steep mountain in a manner so reckless that it was very evident he was taking no thought of the risk he ran of breaking his neck.

Over jutting ledges and through huge patches of loose, sliding rock, bounded Pike, and soon he came rushing wild-eyed into camp.

Rivulets of perspiration were coursing down his dust-covered cheeks; dust whitened the ends of his long black locks, and dust seemed to fly from his nostrils as, puffing and blowing, he made his way into our midst.

In both hands he held a quantity of black-looking rock. As soon as he could get his breath he said: “Boys, I’ve struck it! There’s millions of tons of it! Millions on millions—enough to make the whole camp rich!”

“Well, what is it Pike?” asked some one. “Is it silver, gold, or what?”

“It is what none of you fellers would ever have found: it’s the stuff they make compasses of!”

“Make compasses of! What do you mean?” asked the men.

“Mean! I mean just what I say, that it is the stuff they make compasses of—surveyors’ compasses, mariners’ compasses, and all them kind of compasses that pint to the North Pole. None of you would ever have found it; you wouldn’t have knowed what it was!”

“Well, where is it? Where is this big thing?”

“Way up yander on top of the mountain,” said Pike, pointing towards the summit of Grizzly Hill. “There’s a whole ledge of it—a ledge fifty foot wide!”

“But how do you know that the stuff is good for anything?” asked the boys. “How do you know that it is what compasses are made of?”

“How do I know? Easy enough. Just look here, will you!”

Pike then took a piece of the rock weighing about five pounds, and placing one end of it in the midst of a handful of smaller pieces, ranging from the size of a pea to that of a hulled walnut, the whole mass of small fragments was lifted up and remained clinging to the larger lump of rock.

“See that!” cried Pike, glancing at one and another of the men about him: “What did I tell you? and there is millions more where I got this!”

All were now really a good deal interested in the rock found by Pike, and in the powerful magnetic qualities it exhibited, as the large lumps would pick up and hold suspended fragments weighing over an ounce.

“The way I come to find it,” now explained Pike, “was this: I found the big ledge of black, heavy rock, and taking up a chunk of it began trying to break off a slice from the main ledge. As I hammered away, I noticed that all the little bits of rock pounded loose stuck to the chunk I held in my hand. I thought at first that there was pine-gum on the chunk, but could find none, then it all at once flashed into my mind, and I said—‘I’ve struck it! This is the stuff they make compasses of!’ Then you just ought to have seen me make tracks down the mountain.”

“We saw you!” said the men.

Pike then went on to say, that his discovery was one of the most important, in many respects, that had been made in modern times. It would be of incalculable advantage to navigation and would increase the navies of the world a thousand-fold. He even went so far the next morning (which showed that his brain had not been idle during the night) as to assert that hereafter there would be no difficulty about reaching the North Pole. All that would be necessary, he said, would be to place a block of about ten tons of his rock on the bow of a ship, when, without the aid of sail or rudder, and in spite of adverse winds and ice-floes, the vessel would plough its way up through the oceans of the north and never stop until its nose rested against the side of the Pole.

Pike had several assays of his “find” made, and it was weeks before he could be made to believe that it was not something of more value than magnetic iron ore.

Some years after Pike’s great discovery, a prospector who had been roaming through the Pahranagat Mountains, the wildest and most sterile portion of southeastern Nevada, brought back with him a great curiosity in the shape of a number of traveling stones. The stones were almost perfectly round, the majority of them as large as a hulled walnut, and very heavy, being of an irony nature. When scattered about on the floor, on a table, or other level surface, within two or three feet of each other, they immediately began traveling toward a common centre, and then huddled up in a bunch like a lot of eggs in a nest. A single stone removed to a distance of a yard, upon being released, at once started off with wonderful and somewhat comical celerity to rejoin its fellows; but if taken away four or five feet it remained motionless.

The man who was in possession of these traveling stones said that he found them in a region of country that, though comparatively level, is nothing but bare rock. Scattered about in this rocky plain are a great number of little basins, from a few feet to two or three rods in diameter, and it is in the bottom of these basins that the rolling stones are found. In the basins they are seen from the size of a pea to five or six inches in diameter. These curious pebbles appeared to be formed of loadstone[loadstone] or magnetic iron ore.

CHAPTER IV.
WHAT THEY DISCOVERED.

To return to the notions of the early miners and others, in regard to the existence of silver in Nevada. Few, it would seem, besides the Grosch brothers, and one or two of their intimate friends, ever dreamed of there being any silver-mines in the country. Had there been anything said about the existence of silver, those who made predictions that it would be found, would not have been slow to remind their friends of the fact as soon as the first discovery of silver was made. Some of the Johntowners say that, in 1853, a Mexican who was hired by them and who worked a few days in Gold Cañon, tried to tell them that he was of the opinion that there were silver-mines in the mountains above them. The man spoke no English, therefore was unable at that time to make himself understood; now that the silver-mines have been found, all seems plain enough.

Pointing to the large fragments of quartz rock lying along the bed of the cañon, the Mexican said: “Bueno!”—good! Then pointing toward the mountain peaks about the head of the cañon, and giving his hand a general wave over them all, he cried emphatically: “Mucho plata! mucho plata!” “Much silver! much silver! all above you in those hills,” was what the Mexican said by word and gesture.

The men who were at work with the Mexican remember this, because during the two or three days he was at work with them he several times uttered the same words and went through the same pantomime. All that the miners understood of what the fellow was driving at was, “lots of money, gold,” somewhere above them in the mountains.

The fact is, that silver was so little in the minds of the early miners, and they knew so little about any ore of silver, that when they at last found it, they did not know what it was and cursed it as some kind of heavy, worthless sand of iron, or some other base metal, that covered up the quicksilver in the bottom of their rockers and interfered with the amalgamation and saving of the gold they were washing out. They damned this stuff from the rising of the sun till the going down thereof, and worked in it for a considerable length of time before anybody knew what it was. Until after an assay of the “blasted blue stuff” had been made, the miners were all working in blissful ignorance of silver existing anywhere in the country.

In the spring of 1858, which the snow was going off and water was plentiful, the men who had worked in Six-mile Cañon the year before, with a number of other miners from Johntown, returned to their diggings. The newcomers set to work on the cañon above the claims of those who had mined there the previous year, planting their rockers wherever they found a spot of ground that would pay wages.

Among those who came to mine on Six-mile Cañon at this time were Peter O’Riley and Pat McLaughlin, the discoverers of the Comstock silver lode, and “Old Virginia” who gave his name to Virginia City, under the streets of which now lie the bonanza mines.

Nick Ambrose, better known in that country as “Dutch Nick,” also moved up to Six-mile Cañon, following his customers in their exodus from Johntown. Nick came not to mine, but to minister to the wants of the miners. He set up a large tent and ran it as a saloon and boarding-house. The boys paid him $14 per week for board and “slept themselves;” that is, they were provided with blankets of their own, and rolling up in these, they just curled down in the sagebrush, wherever and whenever they pleased.

The liquid refreshment furnished these miners by Nick was probably the first of that popular brand of whisky known as “tarantula juice” ever dispensed within the limits of Virginia City. When the boys were well charged with this whisky it made the snakes and tarantulas that bit them very sick.

At this time, H. T. P. Comstock was engaged in mining on American Flat Ravine, a branch of Gold Cañon, a short distance above the point where Silver City now stands. He was working with a “tom” (a contrivance for washing auriferous gravel which combines the principles of the rocker and the sluice-box), and, the water used in the tom being some distance below where his “pay-dirt” was found, he had a number of lusty Piute Indians employed in packing the dirt to where he was engaged in washing it and supervising things in general, as became the proprietor of the “works.”

The ground worked was not so rich as to greatly excite anyone, it being about, as the Chinamen say, “two pan, one color,” therefore it is not likely that the Indians received wages that gave them a very exalted opinion of mining as a regular business.

At that time Comstock, whose name is now heard in all parts of the world in connection with the great silver lode bearing his name, was familiarly known to the miners of Johntown and neighboring mining camps as “Old Pancake.” This name was given him by his brother miners because he was never known to bake any bread. He always had—or imagined he had—so much business on hand that he could spare no time to fool away in making and baking bread. All of his flour was worked up into pancakes. And even as, with spoon in hand, he stirred up his pancake batter, it is said he kept one eye on the top of some distant peak and was lost in speculations in regard to the wealth in gold and silver that might rest somewhere beneath its rocky crest.

Meantime, while “Old Pancake” was thus toiling in American-Flat Ravine, and utilizing the native muscle of the land in his struggles with the stubborn matrix of auriferous deposits, the miners on Six-mile Cañon were steadily working along the channel of the same, picking out the richer places, and the gold extracted was gradually becoming lighter in color and weight, consequently less valuable; a condition of things that puzzled them all not a little. As, at that time, the presence of silver was not suspected, the miners could not imagine what was the matter with the gold, further than that there seemed to be some kind of bogus stuff mixed with it in the form of an alloy. This light metal, whatever it might be, seemed gradually taking the place of the gold and changing the color of the dust. As a small percentage of silver alters the color of a great quantity of gold, the value per ounce was not so much reduced as one would have supposed from looking at it; but in the value there was a slight but steady decrease.

The miners on Six-mile Cañon worked on in the fall of 1858 with tolerable success—making small wages—until it became so cold that the water they had been using in rocking was frozen up, when all hands broke up camp and returned to Johntown, to go into winter quarters.

In January 1859, there came a spell of fine weather, when some of the Johntowners struck out in various directions, for the purpose of prospecting; water being plentiful in all the ravines, owing to the melting of the snow.

On Saturday, January 28, 1859, “Old Virginia,” H. T. P. (Pancake) Comstock, and several others struck the surface-diggings at Gold Hill, and located a considerable number of claims. They claimed the ground for placer-mining but had no idea of there being a rich vein of gold and silver-bearing quartz underlying the whole region upon which they were staking off their gravel-mines.

GOLD DIGGINGS OF 1859.

They had struck upon the little knoll to which the name of Gold Hill was soon after given, which knoll stood at the north end of the site of the present town of Gold Hill. Although at first mistaken for placer-diggings, the ground forming this hillock was in reality nothing more than a great mass of the decomposed croppings of the Comstock lode. This discovery was made at a point on the head of Gold Cañon about a mile south of where, a few months later, silver was discovered in the Ophir mine, at the head of Six-mile Cañon. John Bishop, one of the men who made this strike, thus describes the manner of it. I give his own words:

“Where Gold Hill now stands, I had noticed indications of a ledge and had got a little color. I spoke to ‘Old Virginia’ about it, and he remembered the locality, for he said he had often seen the place when hunting deer and antelope. He also said that he had seen any quantity of quartz there. So he joined our party and Comstock also followed along. When we got to the ground, I took a pan and filled it with dirt, with my foot, for I had no shovel or spade. The others did the same thing, though I believe that some of them had shovels. I noticed some willows growing on the hillside and I started for them with my pan. The place looked like an Indian spring, which it proved to be.

“I began washing my pan. When I had finished, I found that I had in it about fifteen cents. None of the others had less than eight cents, and none more than fifteen. It was very fine gold; just as fine as flour. Old Virginia decided that it was a good place to locate and work.

“The next difficulty was to obtain water. We followed the cañon along for some distance and found what appeared to be the same formation all the way along. Presently Old Virginia and another man who had been rambling away, came back and said they had found any amount of water which could be brought right there to the ground.

“I and my partner had meantime had a talk together and had decided to put the others of the party right in the middle of the good ground.

“After Old Virginia got back we told him this, but were not understood, as he said if we had decided to ‘hog’ it we could do so and he would look around further; but he remained, and when the ground was measured off, took his share with the rest.

“After we had measured the ground we had a consultation as to what name was to be given the place. It was decidedly not Gold Cañon, for it was a little hill; so we concluded to call it Gold Hill. That is how the place came by its present name.”

The new diggings were discovered on Saturday, and the next day (Sunday) nearly all the male inhabitants of Johntown went up to the head of Gold Cañon to take a look at and “pass upon” the new mines. The majority of the sagacious citizens of the then mining metropolis of the country did not think much of the new strike. They had placer-mines near at home, five miles below, that prospected much better. However, “Old Pancake” and some of others interested in the new diggings, blowed about them as being the big thing of the country.

Although the prospects at first may not all have been as large as stated by Bishop, who is quoted above, yet Comstock, Old Virginia, and party soon reached very rich dirt—very much richer than Comstock had ever found in any part of his American Ravine claim, where he worked the braves of the Piute tribe. Starting in at about $5 per day, they were soon making from $15 to $20, and for a time even more to the man. Believing they were working placer-mines, they were at times moved too far away from the main deposit of decomposed croppings, when they made small wages until they got back and started again on the right track.

It was not long before most of the Johntowners had moved to Gold Hill, camping under the trees at first, then building shanties and eventually putting up substantial log-houses.

Thus was first discovered, located, and worked that portion of the Comstock lode lying under the town of Gold Hill, and containing the Belcher, Crown Point, Yellow Jacket, Imperial, Empire, Kentuck, and other leading mines of the country—mines that have yielded millions upon millions[millions] in gold and silver bullion.

It was not, however, until these mines had been worked for two or three years, that they were positively known to be silver-mines and a continuation of the Comstock lead, then being so successfully mined upon a mile north, at Virginia City.

CHAPTER V.
DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT COMSTOCK MINE.

In the spring of 1859, a considerable number of miners returned to Six-Mile Cañon, to work. They now made their headquarters at Gold Hill, where two or three log-houses including a large log boarding-house, had been erected.

Peter O’Riley and Pat M^cLaughlin set to work well up at the head of the ravine, where the ground began to rise toward the mountain. They used rockers and found small pay. They continued to work at this point until about the 1st of June, 1859, gradually extending their operations up the slope of the hill, in the hope of finding something better. They had started a little cut or trench up the hill and were washing the dirt taken from this in their rockers. Before they started the cut they were making only from $1.50 to $2 per day; in the cut their pay was even less. They were becoming discouraged, and were thinking of going to Walker River to try their luck, placer-mines having been found in that region the year before, but concluded to work on where they were a few days longer—probably in the hope of being able to raise money with which to go to Walker River.

Having but a small stream of water, it became necessary for them to dig a hole as a sort of reservoir, in which to collect it for use in their rockers.

They set to work a short distance above the little cut in which they were mining, to make the needed reservoir or water-hole, and at a depth of about four feet, struck into a stratum of the rich decomposed ore of the Ophir Mine, and of the now world-famous Comstock silver lode.

The manner in which the grand discovery was made, was much less romantic than in the case of the discovery of the celebrated silver-mine of Potosi, Peru. What our miners found, was not glittering native silver, but a great bed of black sulphuret of silver—a decomposed ore of silver filled with spangles of native gold. This gold, however, was alloyed with silver to such an extent that it was more the color of silver than of gold.

The gold dug in the placer-mines of California, is worth from $16 to $19 per ounce, whereas, the gold taken from the croppings of the Comstock was worth no more than $11 or $12 per ounce.

When the discoverers struck into the odd-looking, black dirt, they only thought that it was a sudden and rather singular change from the yellowish gravel and clay in which they had been digging. As any change was welcome, the luck in which they had been working considered, they at once concluded to try some of the curious-looking stuff in their rockers.

The result astounded them. Before, they had only been taking out a dollar or two per day, but now they found the bottoms of their rockers covered with gold as soon as a few buckets of the new dirt had been washed. They found that they were literally taking out gold by the pound.

However, as the gold they were getting was much lighter in color and weight than any they had found below on the cañon, or even on the surface in their cut, they began to fear that all was not right. They thought that, after all, what they had found might be some sort of “bogus stuff”—base metal of some new and strange kind.

It is not strange that these impecunious miners, tinkering away there on the side of a lone, sage-covered mountain, with their rockers, should have felt a little alarmed on account of the great quantity of gold they were getting, as in a few weeks after the discovery had been made—and the work had been advanced further into the croppings of the lode—they were taking out gold at the rate of $1,000 per day. This they were doing with the rockers. Taking the harder lumps left on the screens of the rockers, one man was able to pound out gold at the rate of $100 per day in a common hand-mortar.

COMSTOCK DISCOVERING SILVER.

In the evening of the day on which the grand discovery was made by O’Riley[O’Riley] and M^cLaughlin, H. T. P. Comstock made his appearance upon the scene.

“Old Pancake,” who was then looking after his Gold Hill mines, which were beginning to yield largely, had strolled northward up the mountain, toward evening, in search of a mustang pony that he had out prospecting for a living among the hills. He had found his pony, had mounted him, and with his long legs dragging the tops of the sage-brush, came riding up just as the lucky miners were making the last clean-up of their rockers for the day.

Comstock, who had a keen eye for all that was going on in the way of mining in any place he might visit, saw at a glance the unusual quantity of gold that was in sight.

When the gold caught his eye, he was off the back of his pony in an instant. He was soon down in the thick of it all—“hefting” and running his fingers through the gold, and picking into and probing the mass of strange-looking “stuff” exposed.

Conceiving at once that a wonderful discovery of some kind had been made, Old Pancake straightened himself up, as he arose from a critical examination of the black mass in the cut, wherein he had observed the glittering spangles of gold, and coolly proceeded to inform the astonished miners that they were working on ground that belonged to him.

He asserted that he had some time before taken up 160 acres of land at this point, for a ranche; also, that he owned the water they were using in mining, it being from the Caldwell spring, in what was afterwards known as Spanish Ravine.

Suspecting that they were working in a decomposed quartz vein, M^cLaughlin and O’Riley had written out and posted up a notice, calling for a claim of 300 feet for each and a third claim for the discovery; which extra claim they were entitled to under the mining laws.

Having soon ascertained all this from the men before him, Comstock would have “none of it.” He boisterously declared that they should not work there at all, unless they would agree to locate himself and his friend Manny (Emmanuel) Penrod in the claim. In case he and Penrod were given an interest, there should be no further trouble about the ground.

After consulting together, the discoverers concluded that, rather than have a great row about the matter, they would put the names of Comstock and Penrod in their notice of location.

This being arranged to his satisfaction, Comstock next demanded that 100 feet of ground on the lead should be segregated and given to Penrod and himself for the right to the water they were using—he stoutly asserting that he not only owned the land, but also the water, and, as they had recognized his right to the land, they could not consistently ignore his claim to the water flowing upon it. In short, he talked so loudly and so much about his water-right that he at last got the 100 feet, segregated, as he demanded. This 100 feet afterwards became the Spanish or Mexican mine, and yielded millions of dollars.

Comstock would probably not so easily have obtained what he demanded, had the men who made the discovery been fully aware of its great value. They, however, did not know that the “blue stuff” (sulphuret of silver), which they had dug into, was of any value, and even the gold itself seemed altogether too plentiful as well as a good deal “off color.”

Comstock had probably at some time posted up a notice claiming 160 acres of land, somewhere in that neighborhood, as a ranche, but if he did so he never had his notice recorded. Men in those days, while roving about the country, very frequently wrote out and stuck up notices claiming land, springs, the water of streams, quartz veins, gravel deposits, or anything else that they might for the moment think valuable, but unless such claims were properly recorded and worked they could not be held, as all miners and others well knew—a mere notice expiring at the end of ten days, when the property might be taken up, recorded and held by the first man that came along. Comstock had some show of right to the water and to the placer-mines along the upper part of Six-mile Cañon, as the year before, he, Old Virginia and Penrod, had bought of old Joe Caldwell a set of sluice-boxes and the water of a spring. However, the possession of a set of sluices on the cañon and a right to use water from a certain spring in the neighborhood, by no means gave Comstock or his friends the right to lay claim to a vein of quartz found in a hill somewhere in their section of the country.

John Bishop, who bought Old Virginia’s interest in the sluices, gravel-diggings and water, got no share of the quartz vein discovered by Pete O’Riley and Pat M^cLaughlin, though he managed to get in on the lead, locating the mine known as the Central No. 1; now a part of the California, one of the bonanza mines with millions of ore in sight.

Bishop put up the first arastra ever built on the lead, starting it up two or three days before that of the Ophir folks began running. He sold his interest in the Central No 1.[No 1.] for $4,000 and shortly afterwards the purchasers sold the same ground for $1,800 per foot—now (as incorporated in the California mine) the ground is selling at over $50,000 per foot, and John Bishop still works, as a miner, at Gold Hill.

After Comstock had managed to become largely interested in the new discovery, and after the gold taken out by O’Riley and M^cLaughlin had been carried down to Gold Hill and exhibited and examined, there was at once a great local excitement in regard to the new diggings, and all were anxious to get an interest in the claim, or on the lead as near to the original discovery as possible.

Those who were finally recorded in the Ophir notice as original locators were the following persons: Peter O’Riley, Patrick M^cLaughlin, H. T. P. Comstock, E. Penrod, and J. A. (“Kentuck”) Osborne. The men named had one-sixth each of 1,400 feet of ground on the lead and, in addition, Comstock and Penrod had 100 feet segregated to them, making 1,500 feet taken up by the party.

The 100 feet of Comstock and Penrod, though in the midst of the 1,400 feet of ground, was not reckoned as a part of the Ophir claim and was soon sold and worked as a separate mine, under the name of the Mexican or Spanish mine.

The Ophir claim was the first that was located, as a quartz claim, at any point on the Comstock lode, though as early as February 22nd., 1858, Old Virginia made a location on a large vein lying to the westward of the Comstock. This vein is known as the Virginia lead or Virginia croppings. It has never yielded much ore, but contains vast quantities of base metal of various kinds.

At one time it was thought by some that this would prove to be the main or “mother” lead of the range, as at the surface, and for a considerable distance below the surface, the Comstock vein dipped west toward it. Parties bought Old Virginia’s claim, and began suit against the Ophir Company, asserting that the lead on which they were at work was the same as that located, in 1858, by Old Virginia. It was a sort of speculation on the part of those who brought the suit, and it is understood that they succeeded in obtaining $60,000 from the Ophir Company.

At the beginning of this suit it was necessary, if possible, to produce the original notice placed upon the croppings of the lead by Old Virginia, but the parties to whom he had sold his claim could never get him sufficiently sobered up to show where it could be found. Growing desperate, they at length seized the old fellow one evening, and thrusting him into the mouth of a big tunnel, closed and locked upon him a heavy iron gate. The next morning when they went to the tunnel they found Old Virginia sober, but very savage.

He would say nor do nothing until they had taken him down town and given him half a tumbler of whisky. This swallowed, he was ready for business. He marched directly up the side of the mountain, and going straight to a large tower of croppings, drew out a small block of rock, and lo! behind it was seen snugly stowed the much-desired notice.

It was probably on account of his having made this location that Old Virginia was given the credit of having been the discoverer of the Comstock lode, his interest in which he was said to have sold for an old horse, a pair of blankets, and a bottle of whisky. He sold a third interest in the sluices, water, and diggings in the cañon to John Bishop, for $25.

James Hart, who had an interest in the sluices, and diggings in the cañon, sold his right to be “considered in” on the big discovery to J. D. Winters, of Washoe Valley, for a horse and $20 in coin. In this way Winters got into the Ophir as one of the locators, and from this came the “old horse” story that has always been saddled upon Old Virginia—to fix it still more firmly upon the old fellow, the bottle of whiskey was added.

CHAPTER VI.
THE DISCOVERY OF SILVER.

Once Comstock got into the Ophir claim he elected himself superintendent and was the man who did all of the heavy talking. He made himself so conspicuous on every occasion that he soon came to be considered not only the discoverer but almost the father of the lode. As it was all Comstock for a considerable distance round the Ophir mine, people began to speak of the vein as Comstock’s mine, Comstock’s lode, and the lead throughout its length and breadth came to be known as the Comstock lode, a name which it bears to this day; while the names of O’Riley and M^cLaughlin, the real discoverers, are seldom heard, even in the city that stands on the spot where they first opened to the light of the sun the glittering treasures of the vein.

Even after the Ophir claim had been duly recorded and its owners had gone regularly to work upon it, they had no idea that the ore contained anything of value except the gold that was found in it.

For some weeks they dug down the rich decomposed silver ore, washed the gold out of it, and let it go as waste—throwing it anywhere to get it out of the way of the rockers. They not only did not try to save it, but they constantly and conscientiously cursed it.

Being very heavy, it settled to the bottom of their rockers, covered up the quicksilver they contained, and prevented the thorough amalgamation of the gold. The miners all thought well of the diggings, but for this stuff. It was the great drawback. In mining on Gold Cañon, they had been bothered with a superabundance of black sand and heavy pebbles of iron ore, but this new, bluish sand was a thing which they had never before encountered anywhere in the country.

Notwithstanding their trouble with the sulphuret of silver, they were taking out gold at the rate of a thousand dollars or more per day; their dust selling at about $11 per ounce. In some spots they obtained from $50 to $150 in a single pan of dirt.

About this time some ladies from Genoa visited the mine, attracted by the reports which had reached their town of its great richness. Comstock was delighted, showed them everything and very gallantly offered each lady a pan of dirt, a piece of politeness customary in California in the early days when ladies visited a mine. “Old Pancake” was anxious that each of the ladies should get something worth carrying home, therefore by means of sly nods and winks gave one of the workmen to understand that he was to fill the pans from the richest spot.

One of the ladies was young and very pretty. Although the other ladies had each obtained from $150 to $200 in her pan, Comstock was determined that something still handsomer should be done for this one. Therefore, when her pan of dirt was being handed up out of the cut (i. e. the open drift run into the lead), he stepped forward to receive it, and as he did so, slyly slipped into it a large handful of gold which he had taken out of his private purse. The result was a pan that went over $300, and “Old Pancake”[Pancake”] was happy all the rest of the day.

Although Comstock had a passion for possessing rich mines, and appeared to have a great greediness for gold, yet no sooner was it in his possession[possession] than he was ready to give it to the first man, woman, or child that asked for it, or to recklessly squander it in all directions. Anything that he saw and took a fancy to he bought, no matter what the price might be, so long as he had the money. The article to which he had taken a momentary fancy, once purchased, he presented it to the first person that appeared to admire it, whether that person was white, red, or black.

As work progressed, and the opening made in the hillside penetrated further into the lead, the silver sulphuret, which had at first been found in a decomposed condition, began to grow more firm. In order to work it in the rockers it was necessary to pulverise much of it by beating it with the poll of a pick or sledge-hammer. Even then there were many lumps which it was necessary to pound in a mortar, and soon much of the ore began to assume the form of a tolerably firm rock, when it became necessary to work it in arastras—an old Mexican contrivance for grinding up gold and silver-bearing quartz.

AN ARASTRA.

NAMING VIRGINIA CITY.

As soon as the grand strike had been made at the Ophir mine by O’Riley and M^cLaughlin, there was a great rush to that neighborhood; not only of miners from Johntown, Gold Hill, and Dayton (then known as Chinatown), but also from the agricultural sections of the country—from Washoe Valley, Tracker Meadow and from Carson and Eagle Valleys.

Claims were taken up and staked off for a great distance north and south of the Ophir mine in the direction the lead was shown to run by the huge croppings of quartz that came to the surface, and towered far above the surface, in various places.

It was not long before other companies had found pay, and soon there was in the place quite a lively little camp, the miners living in brush shanties, houses made of canvas, or camping in the open air in the sage-brush flats.

At this time the camp was spoken of, in documents placed upon the records, as “Pleasant Hill” and as “Mount Pleasant Point;” in August, 1859, it was designated as “Ophir” and “the settlement known as Ophir,” and in September, as “Ophir Diggings.” In October the place is first mentioned as “Virginia Town,” but a month later it was proposed to “change the name of the place from Virginia Town to Wun-u-muc-a, in honor of the chief of the Py-utes.” Old Winnemucca, chief of all the Piutes was not so honored, and in November, 1859, the town was first called Virginia City, a name it has ever since retained.

Comstock says the way the place came to take the name of Virginia City was this:

“‘Old Virginia‘ was out one night with a lot of the “boys” on a drunk, when he fell down and broke his whisky bottle. On rising he said—‘I baptize this ground Virginia.’[Virginia.’]”

For a time the old settlers had the new diggings all to themselves and were hard at work with their rockers, saving only the gold and paying no further attention to the silver than to curse it for interfering with their operations; but in a few weeks after the discovery had been made, there was suddenly stirred up in California a whirlwind of excitement that swept over the Sierras, and not only overwhelmed these first miners on the Comstock, but swept them almost out of sight.

About the 1st of July, 1859, Augustus Harrison, a ranchman living on the Truckee[Truckee] Meadows, visited the new diggings about which so much was then said in the several settlements. He took a piece of the ore and going to California shortly afterwards carried it to Grass Valley, Nevada county. He gave the specimen, as a curiosity, to Judge James Walsh, a resident of Grass Valley, who took it to the office of Melville Atwood, an assayer in the town. The ore was assayed and yielded at the rate of several thousand dollars per ton, in gold and silver.

All were astonished and not a little excited when it was ascertained that the black-looking rock which the miners over in Washoe—as the region about the Comstock lode was called—considered worthless, and were throwing away, was almost a solid mass of silver. The excitement by no means abated when they were informed by Mr. Harrison that there were tons and tons of the same stuff in sight in the opening that the Ophir Company had already made in the lead. It was agreed among the few who knew the result of the assay, that the matter should, for the time being, be kept a profound secret; meantime they would arrange to cross the Sierras and secure as much ground as possible on the line of the newly-discovered silver lode.

But each man had intimate friends in whom he had the utmost confidence in every respect, and these bosom friends soon knew that a silver-mine of wonderful richness had been discovered over in the Washoe country. These again had their friends, and, although the result of the assay made by Mr. Atwood was not ascertained until late at night, by 9 o’clock the next morning half the town of Grass Valley knew the wonderful news.

Judge Walsh and Joe Woodworth packed a mule with provisions, and mounting horses, were off for the eastern slope of the Sierras at a very early hour in the morning. This was soon known, and the news of the discovery and their departure ran like wildfire through Nevada county. In a few days hundreds of miners had left their diggings in California and were flocking over the mountains on horseback, on foot, with teams, and in any way that offered. Many men packed donkeys with tools and provisions, and, going on foot themselves, trudged over the Sierras at the best speed they were able to make.

CHAPTER VII.
REMINISCENCES OF EARLY MINING DAYS.

When news began to be received in various parts of California from the first parties of these adventurers, upon their arrival in Washoe, their reports were confirmatory of all that had before been said and imagined of the new mines, and an almost unparalled excitement followed. Miners, business men, and capitalists flocked to the wonderful land of silver that had been found in the wilderness of Washoe, beyond the snowy peaks of the Sierras.

The few hardy first prospectors soon counted their neighbors by thousands, and found eager and excited newcomers jostling them on every hand, planting stakes under their very noses and running lines round or through their brush-shanties, as regardless of their presence as though they were Piutes. The handful of old settlers found themselves strangers, almost in a single day, in their own land and their own dwellings.

There were numerous sales of mining claims almost daily, at what then was thought high prices, and the hundreds who were unprovided with money with which to purchase mining ground swarmed the hills in search of ledges that were still undiscovered and unclaimed. The whole country was supposed to be full of silver lodes as rich as the Comstock, and the man who was so fortunate as to find a large unoccupied vein, containing rock of a color similar to that of the Ophir, considered his fortune made.

The Mining Recorder of the district now drove a thriving trade; he could hardly record the locations of mining claims as fast as they were made.

Some of these notices were literary curiosities, particularly those to be found in the old Gold Hill book of records.

V. A. Houseworth, the “village blacksmith,” was the first Recorder at Gold Hill, and the book of records was kept at a saloon, where it lay upon a shelf behind the bar.

The “boys” were in the habit of taking it from behind the bar whenever they desired to consult it, and if they thought a location made by them was not advantageously bounded they altered the course of their lines and fixed the whole thing up in good shape, in accordance with the latest developments.

When the book was not wanted for this use, those lounging about the saloon were in the habit of snatching it up and “batting” each other over the head with it.

The old book is now in the office of the County Recorder, at Virginia City, and is beginning to be regarded as quite as curiosity. It shows altered dates, places where leaves have been torn out, and much other rough usage.

The majority of the notices of location recorded by the early miners are very vague. The first notice recorded in the book is one of the location of a spring of water by Peter O’Riley and Patrick M^cLaughlin. It reads:

“We the undersigned claim this spring and stream, for mining purposes.”

Nothing is said about where the spring is located. For aught the person reading the record can discover, it may be in California or Oregon.

In the book are scores of locations made and recorded in the same loose manner. Many of the recorded notices read:

“We the undersigned claim 2,000 feet on this quartz lead, ledge, lode, or vein, beginning at this stake and running north.”

Not a word is said about where the stake is to be found. No wonder that the lawyers drove a thriving trade in the early days of Washoe!

During the progress of a mining suit in the early days the lawyers quarrelled for nearly two days about a certain stump from which one of the parties to the suit desired to begin the measurement of their claim. They produced witnesses who said they could identify the stump, and the next morning the court adjourned, and jury and all concerned went out to take a look at the landmark in question. No stump could be found. The parties of the opposite side had dug it up the night before and packed it away. Not even the spot where it was supposed to have stood could be found, so completely had the ground been levelled in all directions.

I give the following verbatim copy of the original location-notice of the Yellow-Jacket mine—a mine that has yielded many millions of dollars—as it stands on the old Gold Hill records:

NOTICE.

That we the undersign claim Twelve hundred (1200) feet of this Quartz Vain of of[of of] its depths & Spurs commencing at Houseworth claim & running north including twenty-five feet of surface on each Side of the Vain. This Vain is known as the Yellow Jacket Vain. Taken up on May 1st. 1859—recorded June 27th, ’59.

H. B. Camp.

John Bishop.

J. F. Rogers.

The claim was called the Yellow Jacket because of the fact of the locators finding a nest of yellow-jackets in the surface rock while they were digging about for the purpose of prospecting the vein. Future developments proved this claim to be on the Comstock lode.

What the locators meant by “depths,” in their notice, was dips—no matter in what direction the “vain” might dip, they desired to put on record their right to follow it.

Many notices read—“This vein with all of its dips, spurs, angles, and variations.” The word ‘variations’ was presumed to capture everything in the vicinity.

A practice prevailed among the early miners of locating quartz ledges as “twins.” This was when they found two parallel veins so near together that they feared, in case of their locating but one, that parties would take up the other and give them trouble in some way. None of the twins ever became famous.

The owners of the Ophir, and some of the adjoining claims on the Comstock lead, continued to use rockers and arastras for some time after it was ascertained that what was at first supposed to be worthless, was silver ore of the richest description, but they no longer threw the “blue stuff” away. It was all saved and sacked up for shipment to San Francisco, thence to England for reduction. Many arastras were running, and the camp soon presented quite a bustling appearance. The first house erected in Virginia City, was built by Lyman Jones, who is still a resident of Nevada. It was a canvas structure, 18 × 40 feet in size, and stood near the present corner of B Street and Sutton Avenue, at no great distance from the Ophir Mine.

It was kept as a boarding-house and saloon. Mr. Jones opened his house with two barrels of “straight” whisky, but being of an accommodating disposition and wishing to suit all tastes, he dignified the contents of one of these barrels with the name of brandy. As alcohol was the foundation of nearly all the liquors seen in the country at that time, it made little difference by what name they were announced to the consumer, Mr. Jones had an old sluice-box for a bar, and the bar fixtures were by no means numerous or costly.

At this time the Ophir Company were in the habit of bringing their gold-dust to Mr. Jones’s house, and leaving it for safe-keeping, and frequently he had in his place as high as twenty and thirty thousand dollars.

As the walls of his “hotel” were constructed of nothing more substantial than a single thickness of cotton cloth, safer places might have been conceived of, in which to deposit such an amount of gold. At length, when the grand rush from California came, and adventurers of all kinds swarmed along the lode, Mr. Jones refused to any longer act in the capacity of banker to the Ophir folks, as he did not care to run the risk of having his throat cut for gold not his own,—in fact did not want his throat cut at all.

At first it was almost impossible to procure lumber of any kind for building purposes, and the houses erected were principally of canvas; though a few rough stone-houses were soon built and the miners constructed cabins of the rough rocks lying about on the sides of the hills. Many dug holes a few feet square in the sides of steep banks, and covering these with a roof of sage-bush and dirt announced themselves “at home” to their friends.

As winter came on, not a few who had been living in tents or the open air, betook themselves for shelter to the tunnels they had begun to run into the hills; widening out a place at some distance back from the mouth for bedroom and parlor.

Some of those who thus made habitations of tunnels did their cooking in the open air, under a brush-shed placed in front; others, displaying more industry and ingenuity, made a kitchen some distance back in their underground quarters, working a hole up to the surface of the earth, through which the smoke of their fire found egress, presenting the curious appearance of a small semi-active volcano, when seen at a distance by one who knew nothing of the subterranean lodging-house whence the smoke proceeded.

A Scotchman tunnelled into a hill of dry and soft rock near Silver City and excavated a habitation in which he dwelt for years, and in which he finally died. He worked out several chambers of considerable size in the rock, one of which was his library and contained three or four hundred volumes of books, principally of a religious character.

His place was on a secluded ravine, a mile from the town, and he led the life of a hermit; indeed, his home not a little resembled the rock-dwelling of Robinson Crusoe. He had been educated for the ministry in his youth, and now in his old age, became again a student and gave nearly his whole time to pious meditations. During pleasant weather, in summer, the ladies of Silver City frequently visited the recluse on the Sabbath, when, sitting on a bench at the mouth of his subterranean habitation, he would talk beautiful sermons to them.

In 1859, when the discovery of silver was made, the only wagon-road in all the country was the old Emigrant Road; coming in across the Plains, passing through Carson Valley and thence ascending and crossing the Sierra Nevada Mountains to California, by the way of Placerville.

Virginia City being situated on a sort of sloping plateau, on the eastern face of Mount Davidson, at the height of over 6000 feet above the level of the sea, was a place difficult of access. Wagons could be used in the surrounding valleys, but Virginia City could receive no freight except such as could be carried up the mountain on the backs of pack-mules. Soon after the discovery of silver, however, companies located routes for wagon-roads to the place, and began the difficult work of building them, blasting out passage-ways in many places through solid rock along the sides of cañons shut in by almost perpendicular walls. Men swarmed on these roads during their construction, the explosion of heavy blasts was almost constant along the cañons, and it was not many months before they were completed, when lumber, timber, and many other much-needed articles, that could not be packed on the backs of mules, poured into Virginia City whose streets were soon crowded with huge “prairie schooners”—as the great mountain wagons are called—drawn by long lines of mules or horses, all musical with bells.

The completion of a practicable wagon-road to Virginia City was at that time considered a great achievement, but now locomotives rush and shriek round the mountain steeps up which the patient mules tugged and groaned in former days.

While the wagon-roads were being built, the miners were not idle. Supplies for their use could readily be packed up the mountain, and the rich silver ore, securely sewed up in canvas bags, made convenient return loads for the trains of pack-mules. In a month or two the several companies working on the Comstock discontinued the use of rockers and arastras. The richest of their ore was sacked up and sold for shipment to Europe, and that of a lower grade was piled up in dumps and ore-bins to be worked in mills in the country at some future day.

THE EUREKA MILL—CARSON RIVER.

The following extract from the Territorial Enterprise, then published as a weekly newspaper at Genoa (it is now published as a daily and weekly at Virginia City, and is the leading paper of the city and state), will give some idea of what was being done three months after the discovery. The item was published on Saturday, October 1, under the title of “The Mines:”

“The mines at Virginia Town and Gold Hill are exceeding the most sanguine expectations of their owners. At Virginia Town, particularly, the claims on the main leads promise to excel in richness the far-famed Allison lead in California in its palmiest days.

“Claims are changing hands at almost fabulous prices. No fictitious sales either, but bona-fide business operation. The main lead, on which is the celebrated Comstock and other claims, appears to be composed of ores producing both silver and gold, and the more it is prospected the richer it is proving.

“Donald Davidson & Co., of San Francisco, have purchased 200 tons of the rock, containing gold and silver in conjunction, at $2,000 per ton, and are shipping it to England by way of San Francisco, for assay. (Smelting is meant). Other parties are investing heavily. All that are now interested are but making preliminary arrangements for next spring, when we may expect to find an amount of either dust or ore sent from that section that will astonish some of the now incredulous ones in California.[California.]”

They were not only selling and shipping large quantities of ore at this time, but were also beginning to work ores in mills and water-power arastras on the Carson River, near Dayton. In October, 1859, Logan & Holmes had a four-stamp mill in operation (by horse-power) at Dayton, which crushed four tons of ore per day, and Messrs. Hastings & Woodworth had two water-power arastras running, which reduced three tons each per day. The ore being worked by these mills was from Gold Hill, where the ore of the vein as yet contained only gold, they not yet having penetrated to a sufficient depth to reach the silver.

CHAPTER VIII.
THE FATE OF THE DISCOVERERS.

Although occupying the western portion of Utah Territory, the laws under which the people of the Comstock range were at this time living were of their own making. At a meeting held by the miners of Gold Hill, June 11, 1859, the following preamble and “rules and regulations” were unanimously adopted: