X-Nico

9 unusual facts about Comstock Lode


Adolph Sutro

Born in Aachen, Rhine Province, Prussia (today North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany), Sutro, educated as an engineer, at the age of twenty arrived in the United States and in 1850, he introduced himself to William Ralston of the Bank of California and introduced his plans for de-watering and de-gassing the mine shafts of the Comstock Lode by driving a tunnel through Mount Davidson to drain the water.

Ferdinand von Richthofen

Comstock Lode: Its Character, and the Probable Mode of Its Continuance in Depth (1866)

Harbor Hill

Clarence Mackay (1874–1938) was the son of Comstock Lode magnate John William Mackay, and inherited much of an estimated $500 million fortune upon his father's death in 1902 (approximately $13 billion in 2012 dollars).

Numaga

In 1859, the news broke that silver had been found in the huge Comstock Lode in Washoe, a region that was then in the western part of Utah Territory, and that would soon become the territory of Nevada.

The war was caused by an influx of miners and ranchers after silver was discovered in the Comstock Lode near to Carson City.

Reefer ship

One of the more unusual applications of the frozen ice trade was the miners in Comstock Lode in Virginia City, Nevada.

Silver lode

Silver lode, deposit of precious metal found as alloy with gold (electrum) and in ores containing sulfur, arsenic, antimony or chlorine; 1859 Comstock Lode in U.S. state of Nevada was largest for its time, but has been eclipsed by 1990 discovery of Cannington Lode in Australian state of Queensland

Silver standards

Coins were used as a source of silver in the US until 1868, shortly after the discovery of the Comstock silver lodes in Nevada, which provided a significant source of silver.

Walter Cliff Ranch District

It was deemed significant as the only surviving agricultural complex in Washoe Valley that had supplied foodstuffs (fruit, vegetables, dairy products, and hay) to the Comstock Mining District.


Arnold Hague

He then went to California, and spent the winter of 1867/68 in Virginia City, Nevada, studying the surface geology of the Comstock Lode and the chemistry of the amalgamation process as practised there, and known as the “Washoe process”.

Bonanza Kings

In 1871, John William Mackay, James Graham Fair, James Clair Flood and William S. O'Brien, organized the Consolidated Virginia Silver Mine near Virginia City, Nevada, from a number of smaller claims on the Comstock Lode and later added the near-by California mine.

Gold Rush Daze

The scene cuts to a hosiptal, where the seriously injured prospector is under the care of the doctor, but his stethoscope instead turns out to be a telegraph, from which he gets news that they have now found gold in Virginia City (an apparent reference to the Comstock Lode).

John P. Jones

In 1868, Jones moved to Gold Hill, Nevada where he was superintendent of the Crown Point silver mine which was part of the Comstock Lode.

Tahoe National Forest

The forest also serves as the water supply headwaters for the towns of Lincoln, Auburn, Rocklin, California, and Reno and Sparks, Nevada, which receive the water through elaborate canal systems that largely originated during the California Gold Rush and Comstock Lode eras.

Virginia and Truckee Railroad Depot - Carson City

It was created to allow massive movement of gold and silver ore from the Comstock Lode to mills along the Carson River.


see also

Fredric Hobbs

In 1978, with Warren Hinckle, Hobbs wrote and illustrated "The Richest Place on Earth," a history of Nevada's Comstock Lode in the 1860s and '70s, published by Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.