Comstock Lode

“ Barstow or Mr. Goodman. My name is Clemens, and I've come to write for the paper."
It was the master of the world's widest estate come to claim his kingdom!
XXI. THE TERRITORIAL ENTERPRISE In 1852 Virginia City, Nevada, was the most flourishing of mining towns. A half-crazy miner, named Comstock, had discovered there a vein of such richness that the "Comstock Lode" was presently glutting the mineral markets of the world. Comstock himself got very little out of it, but those who followed him made millions. Miners, speculators, adventurers swarmed in. Every one seemed to have money. ”

“ This place is about two miles north of Virginia City, and in case of the continuation of the Comstock lode being found in that neighborhood will be likely to be a place of considerable importance. Some excellent “prospects” are being found in the shafts that are being sunk in that direction, and the owners of several mines are confident that at no distant day they will find a big bonanza on their part of the lode. ”

“ Having now given the reader some idea of the topography and physical aspect of the State, with a hasty general view of its mineral and agricultural productions and resources, we shall give a more particular account of the Comstock Lode, in which the first discovery of silver was made; where the deepest shafts have been sunk, and where mining for the precious metals is to be seen on a grander scale than anywhere else in the United States, or anywhere in the New World, taking into consideration the power of the machinery used and the examples of scientific mining engineering to be seen. ”

“ In 1857 some of these Johntown miners struck paying gravel in Six-mile Canyon. This canyon is about five miles north of Gold Canyon, for the greater part of its course, but the heads of the two canyons are only about a mile apart, and both are on what is now known as the Comstock Lode. The pay found on Six-mile Canyon began only about a mile below the massive croppings that tower above the Comstock; still these early miners never once thought of going up to the head of the ravine to look for and prospect the quartz veins; all they thought of was free gold in deposits of earth and gravel. ”

“ Consolidated Virginia stock advanced in about the same ratio, as in the mine of that company the width and richness of the ore was far beyond anything that had ever before been seen on the Comstock lode. In the Ophir mine, the next north of the California, large and rich bodies of ore were being opened, and the stock of that company advanced with almost bewildering rapidity. Persons who happened to have twenty, fifty, or one hundred shares in either of these mines suddenly found themselves rich. ”

“ The mills in which the ores of the Comstock lode are reduced, are all built on the same general plan. When the tourist has visited and examined one mill, he has seen them all, both great and small, so far as regards the processes in use for the reduction of the ore. Some mills are more conveniently arranged than others, however, and while in some machinery is used which is somewhat behind the age, in others will be found in operation in every department machinery of the latest and most approved pattern. ”

“ Workings are still going on, however, above the great adit level, where there yet remain considerable bodies of low grade ore, which can perhaps be extracted with moderate profit, since more economical methods have been introduced both in mining and milling. The yield of the Comstock lode at present, although small as compared with that of its prosperous years, is still much larger than that of all the mines in the Freiberg district of Saxony. ”

“ Presently the water of several tunnels added to the available stock, but as mills and hoisting works multiplied, the demand for water for use in steam boilers became so great that it was impossible to supply it without creating a water famine among the people of the two towns, now thousands in number, with hundreds 64 of new arrivals every week. In this emergency the Virginia City and Gold Hill Water Company was formed. Outside of mining companies it is the oldest incorporation on the Comstock Lode. ”

“ The lower sink is about twenty miles long and from four to eight miles wide. Its waters, particularly toward the north end, where it is very shallow, are strongly alkaline. These lakes are at times resorted to by great flocks of all kinds of water fowl. It is a poor place for fish. Trout are not plentiful, and the other kinds—suckers and chubs—are soft and insipid.
The Carson River affords water for the irrigation of immense tracts of land in Douglas County, in Carson Valley, and other valleys below, and power for running many large quartz mills that work the ores of the Comstock Lode. ”

“ There are clean level east and west cuts through ranges of mountains running north and south. The only difficulty to be encountered in railroad building in Nevada is in running roads to special points (as to mines) high above the general level of the country, as in the case of the Virginia to Truckee when it leaves the valley region to climb the Mount Davidson Range to the Comstock Lode. The whole plateau through which was upheaved the north and south ranges of mountains has a mean elevation of 5,000 feet above the level of the sea in all central Nevada ”

“ More mines on the Comstock are at the present time producing paying ore than ever before in the history 95 of the lode. The following mines are now ore producing: Consolidated California and Virginia, Gould & Curry, Occidental, Ophir, Andes, Savage, Hale & Norcross, Chollar, Potosi, Confidence, Challenge, Yellow Jacket, Belcher, Crown Point, Alta, Justice, Overman, Baltimore, and Kentuck. Several other companies who own mines on the lode have quartz that yields promising assays in the precious metals, and are liable at any time to find paying deposits. ”

“ Once people became convinced of the richness, extent, and permanency of the ore deposits on the Comstock, towns were built up on the lode and at points in the valleys as if by enchantment. Machinery was brought over the Sierras under all manner of difficulties by teams, and soon mills for working the ores were built by scores. In 1859 the Americans, as a people, knew nothing about silver mining. At that time there were probably not a dozen American miners on the Pacific Coast who had ever even seen a sample of silver ore. ”

“ Most of those in the country at that time were engaged in farming and cattle growing, in trade with the emigrants, or in gambling and running off stock; only about 200 were engaged in mining, and all these were working gold placers. A number of ranchers from surrounding valleys took up claims on the line of the lode when they heard that it was a silver vein, but neither the placer miners, the ranchers, nor any one else that was in the country at the time the great discovery was made, ever got more than a few hundreds or thousands of dollars out of it. ”

“ Even when no more large deposits of rich ore are to be found on the Comstock, there are immense and almost inexhaustible areas of low-grade ore upon which to fall back. In working these small bonanzas are sure to be encountered—scattered plums in the pudding—which will assist in sending up the average. New processes for working and concentrating ores are constantly being discovered, new methods in mining are being introduced, and new labor-saving machinery is almost daily being invented. Water-power, steam, compressed air, and electricity are fast taking the place of muscle. ”

“ The town contains at present a population of only about 600. There is a fine public-school building, church, Miners’ Union Hall, and many handsome and comfortable dwellings, with an adequate supply of saloons, stores, and shops.
About the town are an immense number of small veins of gold-bearing quartz that pay from the surface down. Nearly every head of a family in the town has his own mine, and when he wants money he shoulders his pick, goes out to his mine, and digs it, 102 as a farmer in the East digs a “mess” of potatoes. ”

“ When silver was first discovered on the Comstock, the flow of water from natural springs was sufficient to supply all the wants of the small communities then constituting the towns of Gold Hill and Virginia City. As the population increased, wells were dug in many places (distant from springs) , and the domestic needs of many families were for a long time supplied by water-carts that peddled the water of both wells and springs. ”

“ It has also been found that the free milling ores of the lode do not require to be roasted.
Philip Deidesheimer, a German who had been appointed superintendent of the Ophir Mine, however, invented a method of timbering in “square sets,” which is perfect in every respect, and which is still in use in all Comstock mines. By this method of building up squares of framed timbers an ore vein of any width may be safely worked to any height or depth; a vein 300 feet in width may as rapidly be worked as one only 10 or 20 feet wide. ”

“ In the meantime (while the big bonanza of the Consolidated Virginia and California companies was being worked out) most of the leading companies had exhausted their second bonanzas. Instead of prospecting further in their immediate neighborhood, they all determined to go still farther east, sink a new line of shafts, and tap the vein at a still greater depth. This time they went out about 2,000 feet beyond their second line of hoisting works, or 3,000 feet east of the croppings of the lode. ”

“ Along the Comstock the mining companies are sometimes in bonanza and sometimes in borrasca. So long as they are in the great fissurefissure, however, and have a good width of “vein-matter” they are not utterly cast down even though they may be drifting in barren rock—they are liable to run into ore at any time and often do so when such good fortune is least expected. Some have compared the vein-matter of the lode to a great pudding into which has been stirred raisins, currants, and plums ”

“ At first the water with which the Comstock miners had to contend was cold, but it was not long before the deeper workings cut into parts of the vein where were tapped heavy flows of hot water—water actually hot enough to cook an egg, or to scald a man to death almost instantly. Several miners have lost their lives by falling into large tanks, or sumps, of this water, hot from the vein. The hot water called for fans, blowers, and all kinds of ventilating apparatus, as men working in heated drifts had to have a supply of cool and fresh air sent in to them. ”

“ Under the town are situated the world-famous Crown Point, Belcher, Yellow Jacket, Imperial, Kentuck, Confidence, and other mines, while farther down the canyon (under Lower Gold Hill) are the Overman, Alta, Benton, Justice, and several other well-known mines. The mining works in the town are in every respect first-class and are lighted with electric lamps. In the town are many fine buildings, both public and private. There is a handsome Catholic Church, and the High School building is one of the best buildings of the kind in the State. ”

“ The vivid composite he creates of the manners and habits of this society is surpassed only by the astounding wealth of facts and figures 160 he provides on the mining companies’ record-breaking profits, the lengths and depths of the Comstock veins, and the multitude of methods utilized for extracting and refining crude silver. ”

“ Independence, 267 miles from Mound House, with the farms in its immediate neighborhood, has a population of about 400. The town stands in the midst of a fine farming, grazing, and fruit-growing region. Bordering the valley are mountains in which 150 are many good mines of the precious metals, though these have been but little worked and many have not been opened at all, the settlers in the valleys who discovered them being devoted to agricultural pursuits. ”

“ Carson has a large box factory and other manufacturing establishments of several kinds. The place has both electrical lights and gas. It is well supplied with pure mountain water, which is led through all the streets under a heavy pressure. The town site has sufficient slope to the eastward to afford good drainage. ”

“ The soldier was the one who had accosted Ruth; Andy knew him at once.
"Dear me! dear me!" cried the master, querulously, "after seeing us pass to and fro so often, one would not think it necessary to resort to such rudeness. Pray, good fellow, is not this his Majesty's highway, and free to all?"
"No," grumbled the sentinel, lowering his weapon; "what's your business?"
"Schoolmaster."
"I do not mean that. I see you prodding around rocks and weeds with your noses in books, but I want to know what you mean on this road?"
"I desire to take a walk on it. I have no weapon, I am a peaceful person. ”

“ Andy, they look—they look magnificent!" Ruth was quivering on her perch. Janie flung prudence and dignity to the winds, and climbed to Ruth's side, and, being taller, gained a portion of the crack above the girl's head.
"I can see no one but the General!" she said. "The crack is over-narrow for such doings!"
"There is no one but Washington!" breathed Andy, and he lifted his head proudly.
"Yes, there are others," whispered Ruth, misunderstanding, "and if you run your eye up and down the crack quickly, you can catch a sight of them. The crack is wider in some parts." ”