Years ago when we lived in Reno, Nevada (which was my time in purgatory as far as I am concerned) we enjoyed going to Virginia City.  As much as a tourist trap as it is the history can easily be found and admired.

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Miner working in the Comstock Lode

The Comstock Lode was the first major U.S. deposit of silver ore, discovered under what is now Virginia City, Nevada on the eastern slope of Mt. Davidson, a peak in the Virginia range. After the discovery was made public in 1859, prospectors rushed to the area and scrambled to stake their claims. Mining camps soon thrived in the vicinity, which became bustling centers of fabulous wealth.

The excavations were carried to depths of more than 3200 feet (1000 m), until the inflow of hot water brought operations to a halt. Between 1859 and 1878, it yielded about $400 million in silver and gold, equivalent to approximately $500–600 billion in 2005, as a relative share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

It is notable not just for the immense fortunes it generated and the large role those fortunes had in the growth of Nevada and San Francisco, but also for the advances in mining technology that it spurred. The mines declined after 1874. Wasteful exploitation of the deposits is often blamed for their rapid decline.

The discovery of silver

The discovery of silver in Nevada (then western Utah Territory) in 1858 caused considerable excitement in California and throughout the United States. The excitement was the greatest since the discovery of gold in California ten years earlier at Sutter's Mill. According to Dan De Quille, a journalist of the period, "the discovery of silver undoubtedly deserves to rank in merit above the discovery of the gold mines of California, as it gives value to a much greater area of territory and furnishes employment to a much larger number of persons".

Gold was discovered in this region in the spring of 1850. It was discovered in Gold Canyon, by a company of Mormon emigrants on their way to the California Gold Rush. After arriving too early to cross the Sierra, they camped on the Carson river in the vicinity of Dayton, Nevada, to wait for the mountain snow to melt. They soon found gold along the gravel river banks by panning, but left when the mountains were passable, as they anticipated taking out more gold on reaching California. Other emigrants followed, camped on the canyon and went to work at mining. However, when the supply of water in the canyon gave out toward the end of summer, they continued across the mountains to California. The camp had no permanent population until the winter and spring of 1852–53, when there were 200 men at work along the gravel banks of the canyon with rockers, Long Toms and sluices.

The gold from Gold Canyon came from quartz veins, toward the head of the vein, in the vicinity of where Silver City and Gold Hill now stand. As the miners worked their way up the stream, they founded the town of Johntown on a plateau. In 1857, the Johntown miners found gold in Six-Mile Canyon, which is about five miles (8 km) north of Gold Canyon. Both of these canyons are on what is now known as the Comstock Lode. The early miners never thought of going up to the head of the ravines to prospect the quartz veins, spending their time on the "free" gold in the lower elevation surface deposits of earth and gravel.

Credit for the discovery of the Comstock Lode is disputed. It is said to have been discovered, in 1857, by Ethan Allen Grosh and Hosea Ballou Grosh, sons of a Pennsylvania clergyman, trained mineralogists and veterans of the California gold fields. Hosea injured his foot and died of septicaemia in 1857. In an effort to raise funds, Allen, accompanied by an associate Richard Maurice Bucke^], set out on a trek to California with samples and maps of his claim. Henry Tompkins Paige Comstock was left in their stead to care for the Grosch cabin and a locked chest containing silver and gold ore samples and documents of the discovery. Grosch and Bucke never made it to California, getting lost and suffering the fate of severe hardship while crossing the Sierran trails. The two suffered from gangrene and at the hands of a minor-surgeon lost limbs through amputation, a last ditch effort to save the lives of the pair. Allen Grosch died on December 19, 1857.  R.M. Bucke lived, but upon his recovery returned to his home in Canada.

When Henry T. P. Comstock learned of the death of the Grosch brothers, he took it upon himself to claim the cabin and the lands as his own. He also examined the contents of the trunk but thought nothing of the documents as he was not an educated man. What he did know is that the gold and the silver ore samples were from the same vein. He continued to seek out diggings of local miners working in the area as he knew the Grosch brothers' find was still unclaimed. Upon learning of a strike on Gold Hill which uncovered some bluish rock (Silver Ore), Comstock immediately filed for an unclaimed area directly adjacent to this area.

The four miners that discovered the Gold Hill outcropping were James Fennimore ("Old Virginny"), John Bishop ("Big French John"), Aleck Henderson and Jack Yount. Their discovery was actually part of the Comstock Lode, but not a main vein. The four men are therefore credited with the rediscovery of the mine previously found by the Grosch brothers.

Tragic fates of the discoverers

^{Those who discovered the famous mine were ignorant and not well educated in mineral sciences. The "blue stuff" kept clogging the rockers, and eventually the men grew frustrated and discouraged from their gold mining.}

^{Patrick McLaughlin sold his interest in the Ophir claim for $3,500 which he soon lost. He then worked as a cook at the Green mine in California. He died working at odd jobs.}

^{Emanuel Penrod sold his share of the interest for $8,500.}

^{Peter O'Riley held on to his interests collecting dividends, until selling for about $40,000. He erected a stone hotel on B Street in Virginia City called the Virginia House, and became a dealer of mining stocks. He began a tunnel into the Sierras near Genoa, Nevada, expecting to strike a richer vein than the Comstock. He lost everything, went insane and died in a private asylum in Woodbridge, California.}

^{Comstock traded an old blind horse and a bottle of whiskey for a one-tenth share formerly owned by James Fennimore ("Old Virginny"), but later sold all of his holdings to Judge James Walsh for $11,000.  He opened trade good stores in Carson City and Silver City. Having no education and no business experience, he went broke. After losing all his property and possessions in Nevada, Comstock prospected for some years in Idaho and Montana without success. In September 1870, while prospecting in Big Horn country, near Bozeman, Montana, he committed suicide with his revolver.}

Big Bonanzas