Comstock Lode
The Comstock Lode is a lode of silver ore located under the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range in Virginia City, Nevada (then western Utah Territory), which was the first major discovery of silver ore in the United States and named after American miner Henry Comstock.
Mining camps soon thrived in the vicinity, which became bustling commercial centers, including Virginia City and Gold Hill.
Although the miners extended their work in all directions, only "sixteen large and rich ore bodies" were found, most less than 600 feet (180 m) in depth.
After arriving much too early to cross the Sierra, the wagon train camped on the Carson River in the vicinity of Dayton, to wait for the mountain snow to melt.
The camp had no permanent population until the winter and spring of 1852–53, when about 100 men worked part of the year along the gravel banks of the canyon with rockers, Long Toms and sluices.
In an effort to raise funds, Allen, accompanied by an associate, Richard Maurice Bucke,[4] set out on a trek to California with samples and maps of his claim.
Henry Comstock was left in their stead to care for the Grosh cabin and a locked chest containing silver and gold ore samples and documents of the discovery.
Upon learning of a strike on Gold Hill which uncovered some bluish rock (silver ore), Comstock immediately filed for an unclaimed tract directly adjacent to this area.
Instead, as ore was removed it was replaced by timbers set as a cube six feet on a side (ribs), front (face) or top (back), all at the same time.
All the inventive genius of the Pacific Coast was called into play, and this resulted in construction of some of the most powerful and effective steam and hydraulic pumping equipment to be found anywhere in the world.
The hot water called for fans, blowers and various kinds of ventilation apparatus, as miners working in heated drifts had to have a supply of cool air.
Compressed air for running power drills and for driving fans and small hoisting engines was adopted in the Comstock mines.
As the depth of the diggings increased, the hemp ropes used to haul ore to the surface became impractical, as their self-weight became a significant fraction of their tensile strength (breaking weight).
When the hemp rope or chains broke, the cage would plummet uncontrolled to the bottom of the shaft, killing its occupants or destroying its load.
While the barrel process was an improvement on the patio, it was found not to be well adapted to the rapid working of the Comstock ores as pan amalgamation.
Lumber and cord wood were harvested with little regard for impact, for housing, commercial building, heating, and steam boilers at sawmills and ore mills.
When the large reduction works of the Ophir Mining Company were in peak operation, lines of teams from one to three miles (5 km) in length moved along the wagon roads, and sometimes blocked Virginia City streets for hours.
When the Central Pacific Railroad line was completed to the Truckee Meadows, this hauling was bi-directional from Reno to Virginia City via the Geiger Grade wagon road, for transfer to rail for delivery to points east and west.
When silver was first discovered on the Comstock, the flow of water from natural springs was adequate to supply the needs of the miners and small towns of Virginia City and Gold Hill, Nevada.
The pipe traversed the Washoe Valley in the form of an inverted siphon, at the lowest point having a pressure of 1,870 ft (570 m) of water,[2]: 120–121 or 810 pounds per square inch (psi) at the design flow.
To overcome these troubles, Adolph Sutro conceived the idea of running a drain tunnel under the Comstock Lode from the lowest possible point.
The Sutro Tunnel was completed from the valley near Dayton through nearly four miles, 20,589 feet, of solid rock to meet the Comstock mines approximately 1,750 ft (530 m) beneath the surface.
As the fire burned, wood timbers collapsed and poisonous gases expanded into the adjacent Kentucky and Crown Point mines.
Meanwhile, through the early years of the 20th century, ownership of mineral rights along the length of the Comstock Lode was consolidated primarily into a handful of companies, most of them privately held.
Comstock's silver mines were criticized for the way that their share prices were manipulated on the San Francisco stock exchanges, and for the way that insiders skimmed the profits to the detriment of the common shareholders.
Four Irishmen, John William Mackay, James Graham Fair, James C. Flood and William S. O'Brien formed a business partnership in 1869 known as the "Bonanza Firm", which dealt in silver-mining shares, and controlled and ran a number of Comstock mines over the years, notably the Consolidated Virginia Mining Company.
Copper King Marcus Daly, a mining engineer, met Hearst while working for John Mackay and James G. Fair.
A young William Wright and Samuel Clemens both tried their hands at mining at Comstock; not prospering at this, they landed jobs at the Territorial Enterprise where they began writing under the pen names Dan De Quille and Mark Twain.
[20] In 1939 the arts section of the Federal Works Agency invited California artist Ejnar Hansen to create a mural for the newly completed post office building in Lovelock, Nevada, as part of the New Deal program.
After a visit to the former mining town, Hansen chose the discovery of the lode as a suitable local subject, treating it in the style of modified realism favored by the Agency.
