Intro Being a newcomer to Nevada, and having a free weekend, a few friends and myself decided to take a day trip to Virginia City. This day get away is perfect for a day of fun and learning. If you do take a trip up to Virginia city for the day, your experience could go something like this. Immediately when you arrive in Virginia City the ambiance of an old western mining town captivates you. You get transported back into a time with “a strange mix of elegance and tackiness” (Geller). Travelling back in time to the Comstock era you can see that, “there is the classy International Hotel, where champagne flows whenever someone hits pay dirt at the silver mines, and the much rowdier Bucket of Blood Saloon. There are fancy mansions and "coyote holes," where miners sleep if they can't afford to rent a room” (Geller). As you are taking it all in a headline in the paper catches your eye and reads, Extra Extra read all about it gold and silver found in the Comstock in Virginia City. The Comstock Lode was a major event which took place in the United States, specifically Virginia City, Nevada. As you allow yourself to be transported back in time to the year 1859, during the Comstock era in Virginia City, imagine yourself as a miner. Imagine your excitement in the possibility of striking big and being able to be rich beyond your wildest dreams. Now imagine the difficulties and hardships you must endure to claim your prize. Many miners of the day had the same thought process and dream of riches in sight for themselves, but the harsh reality was that their dreams of wealth and prosperity were most of the time never realized. The Comstock era in Virginia City was very promising and alluring with few reimbursements for all the lives and labor that were spent. Yet, from its initial discovery to the dangers that were revealed, to the mining process and tools that were utilized, and the early mining law that was established, the Comstock era represents a time of great importance in the United States. The Discovery of and how the Comstock got its name. Ever wondered how the enormous silver ore discovered in the Virginia City area of Nevada in 1859 got the name the Comstock? Well when I visited Virginia City I wondered exactly that; which is what peaked my interest and initiated my research of Virginia City’s mining history. I found that in the beginning, before silver mining erupted in the area in 1859, the hillsides of Gold Canyon had been worked and reworked to find gold dust but, “Prospects of new discoveries were not encouraging” (Wright 3). In January of 1859 two men, Peter O’Riley and Patrick McLaughlin, discovered a bluish black sand, and putting some of it in their rockers they discovered that gold clung to it. Digging purely for the gold dust they threw the bluish black sand away; little did they know that the bluish black sand was in fact silver. An old man named Old Comstock discovered what these two men had found and declared that he had laid claim to that part of the land previously. Not wanting to cause an uproar with Old Comstock O’Riley and McLaughlin moved a bit further down the way where they continued to find gold dust clinging to the bluish black rock. Some of the bluish black rock was taken to California and discovered to be silver, or “silver chloride” (Drabelle 3). Once the truth about the discovered ore was found out it was impossible to keep it a secret, drawing miners from across the country. When early miners got to the Virginia City area they encountered Old Comstock. Since Old Comstock talked and bragged so much to the newcomers they began to call the discovered silver ore the “Comstock lode”. And that is how the Comstock got its name. The story of how the Comstock got its name sustained my curiosity in Virginia City’s mining history and enabled the continuation of my mining research. What I wanted to know next was how exactly the Comstock era started in Virginia City, and I learned that in the beginning the heart of the Comstock was the Minor Gold Placer district in 1849 until 1859, when prospectors first discovered the rich lode silver ore. Historians say that the Comstock was the, “greatest bonanza in precious metals ever to be uncovered in modern times and probably in all history” (Beebe and Clegg, Legends 9). As the prospectors and miners mined deeper they discovered an overabundance of silver ores. These silver ores were confined to a specific region of northern Nevada. “The Comstock, which was first known as the region of Washoe, embraces three communities, Silver City, Gold Hill and Virginia City, the last of which is located directly above its richest mines and is immeasurably the most famous” (Beebe and Clegg, Legends 9). These three communities in the Washoe region contained a surplus of rich silver mines, but Virginia City was the richest of them all. Virginia City was so rich with silver ore that it, “had become an integral portion of the American legend, a source of wealth and riches beside which the resources of the fabled mines of Solomon pale by comparison” (Beebe and Clegg Legends 13). I found the early mining history in Virginia City to be very interesting which led me to extend my research further into the what the dangers of mining were back. Dangers of mining Throughout my research, I found that mining can be a very profitable occupation, but with it comes many dangers that jeopardize the lives of the miners. The three primary dangers that needed to be avoided to the best of the miner’s ability are mine collapses, fires, and extreme mining conditions. In an effort to remove as much ore as possible in the shortest span of time the orebody was exposed in wide trenches; it was not long before the walls of these excavations began to cave in and attempts were made to dig timbered shafts (Witters). Miners would use timber beams to support the sides of the mine but, “the fewer timbers used, the more economical the project, but also the greater chance of cave-ins” (James 54). The miners would have to decide if it was more worth it for them to be safe but profit less, or profit more but endanger their lives. Although these pillars worked while the miners were mining, after they left the beams began to disintegrate inevitably, causing cave ins which affected the mines next to the collapsed one. The second major mining danger that occurred during the Comstock was fire in the mines. The Yellow Jacket mine fires demonstrate just how real the fear of mine fires were during the Comstock era. Fires in the mine proved to be the deadliest mining danger. When a mine experienced a fire, depending on where it was in the mine, miners would rush to the lift that would pull them back to the surface. Moreover, “Of all disasters, the most dreaded is fire. For fire often means panic, and the panic of a thousand men or more in an airless underground city, whose only exit is one thin shaft with one elevator that has to make a trip of half a mile or more, taking but few men at a time, almost surely means death” (Guide). The Yellow Jacket mine experienced two fires during its time of use, and “when all was over in the first fire- in 1869- thirty-seven men were dead, most of them from suffocation…The fire burned for over a year; and for three years afterward” (Guide). Fires could occur in many ways and in the second fire of the Yellow Jack mine, in 1873, the causation was an explosion (Guide). The last of the three main dangers of mining in the Comstock was extreme mining conditions. In my research I found that extreme mining conditions were a major danger of mining during the Comstock era at Virginia City, and that some mines would reach searing heats and workers would not be able to work for very long, “The incredible heat below the surface caused another problem. The temperature could reach 130 degrees, and sometimes there was steaming hot water to go with it. At times, shifts lasted only one half hour because that was all the men could endure. In between shifts, the men chewed ice. Each man received a daily allotment of 95 pounds of ice! They got a little relief when the owners drilled ventilating shafts, but it wasn't enough” (Gibson). From my research I conclude that mining in the Comstock proved to be both dangerous and profitable, and certain processes and tools utilized enhanced the mining process. Mining process In the beginning of the Comstock era I found that primarily primitive mining techniques were utilized, such as surface excavation, done with picks and shovels, was an early mining method used by the miners to dig “‘glory holes’” (“Online”) or pits to reach the ore body far beneath the surface. Another method I researched that was used at the beginning of the Comstock era was the Washoe Process, which utilized amalgamation. In the Washoe Process, “the raw ore is wet crushed with stamps, the crushed ore is separated from the slurry in a settling tank and then the crushed ore is charged with mercury (approximately 10 percent of the weight of the ore) in the amalgamation pan. The amalgam is separated from the slurry and the silver and gold is separated from the amalgam with a retort” (“Nevada”). Wanting to see if there were any other primitive mining methods I extended my research and found the Merrill-Crow Precipitation Process, a method which is in the refining and classifying stage of mining. “The Merrill-Crowe Process is a separation technique for removing gold from a cyanide solution.” (Eugene). These early Comstock mining methods were extremely crude (Witters).As the Comstock era continued I found other methods that were used to reach the ore bodies beneath the surface, such as dynamite and hydraulic mining. Hydraulic mining, or hydraulicking, is the use of high pressure jets to dislodge rock material and move sediment to get to the gold and silver ores. “Hydraulic mining was particularly successful due to the relatively low labor costs coupled with the fact that many hundreds of cubic yards of gravel could be processed in a matter of hours” (Hayes, Gary). Mining Tools In my research, I discovered a plethora of mining tools utilized during the Comstock era in a Special Collections book called Morse Brothers Machinery and Supply Company on Mining & Milling Machinery of the Comstock Merger Mines and Mills at Virginia City, Nevada: Catalog by the Morse Brothers Machinery & Supply Co. in 1927. Without directly quoting the book I utilized a lot of the information inside the book in my research of mining tools used in Comstock mining, which I will now describe. A few key tools that were used at the beginning of the era were Rockers, long toms, and sluices. Rockers, like a pan in pan mining, was used to wash and sluice concentrates and material cleaned by hand from bedrock. Long toms were shaped like a long trough and a constant flow of water washed and forced gravel into the washing trough from the main box enabling the gold to sink to the bottom of the gravel layer. Sluices, or a sluice box, is a box with barriers at the bottom of the box, riffles, used to trap heavy gold particles as water washed over them and other particles in the box. I found in my research that as the Comstock era progressed new technologies and tools were introduced to make mining easier and safer. Ball Granulators, Crushing Rolls, conveyors, classifiers, refinery equipment, trolley and battery mine locomotives, air compressors, drills, mine cages, and ore cars, to name a few, were more advanced equipment used as mining continued to progress. These mining tools made mining much easier and more efficient than the primitive tools used at the beginning of the Comstock Era. Ball Granulators were used to grind and crush the ore into more uniform and smaller sized particles. Crushing rolls were used to crush smaller ore pieces in to fine particles. Conveyors were utilized to transport ore particles from one place to another in the most efficient way possible. Classifiers were used to differentiate and classify ore particles from other less valuable rock that was previously granulated and brought to the classifiers by conveyor belt. Refinery equipment was used in the Merrill-Crow precipitation process in the Comstock. Trolley and Battery mine locomotives were used to transport the silver ore from its mined site to the place where it will be processed. Air compressors were used to pump air into the mines so that the miners could breathe easier, allowing them to mine longer. Drills made digging up silver ores much easier and faster. Mine cages were used to lower and raise miners in and out of the mine because the miners mind so deep into the earth. Ore cars were also used to transport silver ores to the places they were needed. These mining tools greatly advanced the mining profession and without the Comstock era these mining tools and practices may not have come into fruition. It is evident the Comstock era had major effects on the United States due to its mining. Comstock Mining effects the United States The next subject I discovered while researching my topic was how the transcontinental railroad came to Nevada, and specifically Virginia City. With all the wealth that was being found in Virginia City during the Comstock there needed to be some way to transport the mining findings out of and miners into Virginia City. For these reasons, “in 1869, a railroad was built to link Virginia City with Carson City on the river. It took 30 days to lay out the railroad, but nine months to build it with a crew of 1200 laborers, mostly Chinese. The Nevada line was soon connected to the nation's first transcontinental railway, completed the same year. The railroad brought not only industrial supplies to Virginia City but the Eastern effects of a finer life” ("The Comstock Lode"). Without the discovery of the silver lode the transcontinental railroad may not have come to Nevada at all leaving Nevada to be an underdeveloped state. “Abraham Lincoln’s idealism about the first transcontinental railroad’s forging national unity may have been bound up in political pragmatism and economic ambition, but a core sentiment remains true: as a train crosses borders, the boundaries between its riders dissolve” (Isaacson). Abraham Lincoln was very keen on reaching the riches that lied beneath Virginia City in order to help him win the Civil war. The Comstock Lode played a major role in United States history during Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and the Civil war. As I explored more on my topic I found that, “soon the amount of silver coming out of the mine reached the attention of President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln needed the riches of the Comstock Lode to finance the Union's efforts in the Civil War. He also needed the votes of another state to pass the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery. To meet legal requirements, the Nevada Constitution had to be delivered to Washington D.C. in person. So Nevada officials telegraphed the entire constitution to Chicago, where it would be written out in longhand and delivered to Washington. It was the longest telegraph in history. It took Frank Bell over 12 hours to tap it out and it cost over $4,000 to send! The requirements were fulfilled, and Nevada became a state on October 31, 1864” (Gibson). With the addition of Nevada to the United States Abraham Lincoln received the funding he needed to support and fund the north army during the civil war and ultimately win the war. Without the discovery of the Comstock Lode, the United States may still practice slavery today and South Carolina may have left the union resulting in a broken apart United States. In my research I was surprised to find that the Comstock lode not only produced financial gain for the United States, but an artistic one as well. Samuel Clemens, or Mark Twain was highly inspired by the Comstock era in his writings; which then made him highly influential to the rest of the United States after his Comstock writings. He contracted “mining fever” and set off for Aurora, initially, but found no prosperity there. After writing some humorous letters to Virginia City he was offered a writing job at the Virginia City newspaper and quickly journeyed to the prosperous city. After his arrival in September of 1862 he poked fun at everyone in town as well as enhanced and fabricated mining stories to make the news more exciting. It was in January of 1963 when Samuel Clemens began using the by-line “Mark Twain”, a name that would live on in his works for the rest of time. His real name was soon forgotten and he, “became known both personally and in print by his pseudonym” (McDonald 69). His pieces of literature were discovered by other Nevada and California papers and soon after he was requested to begin writing pieces for prestigious paper companies such as San Francisco’s Golden Era (McDonald 69). In May of 1864 Samuel Clemens left Virginia City for San Francisco where he would continue to write and publish his works under his pseudonym Mark Twain. If it were not for Virginia City and the Comstock Mark Twain may never have been discovered and the world may never have received his masterpieces such as Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and Life on the Mississippi. Therefore, the Comstock was an integral part in affecting the literature that was produced in the United States. Early Mining Law during the Comstock As my research expanded I found that before the first real mining discoveries were made along the Comstock Lode in 1859, there was little effective law in the area. As in other regions, miners drew up their own rules to govern each mining district. These usually proved sufficient until a more established system of laws could be instituted (McDonald 58). It was not until a meeting on November 9th, 1859 that the 17 articles of mining law were adopted. The mining law is broken up into 17 articles that describes what the miners can and cannot do, as well as general rules and regulations applied to the mining area. During my interview with Dr. George Danko I learned that early mining law was centralized around land and mineral claim. Dr. Danko relayed to me that, Mining law originated in the late 1860’s I believe. The laws were very well sought out. The number of people that came to mine and claim was immense. Politicians reacted quickly and they realized a legal set of laws and regulations was necessary to control how claims were being made and regulate the mining overall. (Danko, George). During my research, I found the first 17 articles that were used in early mining law. These laws were published in Territorial Enterprise. To avoid utter chaos with mining in the Comstock Lode the early miners needed to establish laws on where to mine, how much you could mine and which silver lodes belonged to who. Without these early mining laws the Comstock would have been lost to a time of bickering over whose was whose, instead of a rich and innovative time; which was very apparent to me when I visited there. Conclusion The Comstock era in Virginia city has a very rich history and was a very influential time in the United States. The Comstock gave us new mining techniques and tools, gave financial support to the Civil war, introduced Mark Twain into American Literature and made a place in history as one of the most influential and prosperous times in the United States. Could you imagine what the United States would be like today without the discovery of the Comstock lode? Who knows who would have won the civil war, the transcontinental railroad may never have reached Nevada, The University of Nevada Reno would never have been funded because Mackay would have never made his fortune and Mark Twain may have never become a famous American writer and novelist. The Comstock era in Virginia city is a very interesting and was a very prosperous time full of rich stories and riches beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.
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