Pioneer Pieces: Greater than the Comstock

Comstock from the very start was the standard to which all others were compared.  "Greater than the Comstock" became THE phrase when overnight established towns emptied out, always in haste across the mountains and desert in search of the next big prospect of wealth.

First used in 1860's,"Greater than the Comstock" was heard in mining circles, and in speculator's circles - reportedly sending the market into a see saw. Long after the Comstock itself was no longer, new prospects at such places as Rawhide, Bullfrog, Rhyolite brought many with only the belief that this was the "big one".

Those who belonged to this group ranged from the top hats on Nob Hill in San Francisco with their millions in discovered gold and silver, to the poor pioneer who, after a lifetime of searching,  had only his mule and his pride left. Banks financed these bonanza fevers, even shady stock promoters like those that swindled millions out of British investors and brought relations between the US and Britain to an all time low in the 1800s.

Was anything "Greater than the Comstock"?  Next time...

Pioneer Pieces: The Shadows Fall

Many believe  the Comstock mines finally gave out as the 1800s came to a close, but the facts say that's just not true.  The vast ore deposits remained deep inside Mount Davidson, but the problem was the cost for mining this remaining ore was not economically justified - and it was extremely dangerous to do so.  So the mines didn't give out - they just became unworkable.

As the shadows descend over the Nevada desert, old-timers (aka "hot water plugs") moved to California to escape the severe winters of Nevada.  Businesses closed, railroads were torn up, houses were dismantled and moved to new towns in California.  New discoveries offered new wealth opportunities to die-hard miners, something known in history as "Greater than the Comstock"...next time.

Pioneer Pieces: That's Quite a Guest List!

Virginia City was "the place to be" in the later decades of the 1800s.  The names of national significance were many from the Pullman's who arrived by train of course, to Civil War General Sherman,  They came in private palace train cars and stately carriages and became so common place that no one seemed to notice them anymore.

President Grant, Baron Rothschild, and Artemas Ward arrived, dined and attended Piper's Opera House without anyone bothering to note it in the newspapers.  After all the help Nevada provided the Union during the Civil War, they were old friends :)

Senators William W Stewart and John Perceival Jones were the first "silver senators" whose flamboyant natures stirred up the social scene in Washington.

The first two women to live on the Comstock were Julia Bulette, a courtesan,  whose later murder was quite the topic throughout the West, and Elley Orrum, a washwoman AND Nevada's first millionaire.

Marcus Daly, the copper king of Montana and George Hearst, of the newspaper dynasty, made their first strike on the Comstock.

Adolph Sutro, cigar maker, and the most popular of San Francisco's later mayors, first found his fortunes when, against all odds and popular opinion, he built his mine tunnel into the lower mines.

Senator William Sharon whose wealthy ways even shocked San Franciscans who were used to such displays, had his beginnings in Virginia City where he was the manager of Darius Ogden Mill's Bank of California.

Along with many great performers, these "old time celebrities" made up a good percentage of the culture in Virginia City.

Next time we look at frontier newspapers...

Pioneer Pieces: Virginia City Culture?

Virginia City, Nevada was like any other mining town with its hotels, saloons, fire stations, brothels and residents rising rapidly.  But Virgina City had something the rest of the mining towns didn't - culture.

The best road companies in theater played at Piper's Opera House and the Allambra of Virginia City.  It is recorded that at one time six Shakespearean plays were playing in the city, along with minstrel shows, tent shows, raree shows, and dog and pony shows.

Until 1875, Virginia City a mining town that had grown to 25,000 people, was THE place to be in the Old West.  Celebrities were frequent visitors and nothing was spared to celebrate the riches of Nevada's silver mines.

Next time...what happened in Virginia City in 1875?

Pioneer Pieces: The Cosmopolis of the West

In the space of a few weeks in the early 1850s, Virginia City grew from a flophouse and saloon to a bustling community of  5000-15,000 people.  Like any mining town, it was a rough sort.  Most legends involve a character of sorts in the Old West.  With Virginia City however, there was a group of characters that have made their mark in Nevada mining history.

In Virginia City, the fire companies were thought of as a "aristocratic group" that was part military, part social, and part political.  In this case, the fire company of Virginia City was a great asset to the Union Army during the Civil War.  Their job? To keep the residents of Virginia City from developing any southern sympathies to the Confederacy.  They secured the loyalties to the Union of all of Virginia City's population - at least that's the legend that survived.

More about Virginia City next time...

Pioneer Pieces: Over the Mountains and Through the Sage Brush...

Well, we have overstayed our welcome in San Francisco, so let's move back East over the Sierra Mountains where the availability of recoverable riches were soon to make NV the center of the world's attention.

From the shadows of Mt Davidson, the wealth produced in the mines in Nevada impacted the economy of the country and once again took hold of the pioneer spirit.

Prior to 1859 Nevada held little place in American history.  Green valleys along the High Sierras had been settled by the Mormons but by that time Morman Station (once the area of Deseret and later named Genoa) had become nothing more than a staging station where stages and freight traveled through on the Pony Express route.  Mormon Station consisted of a blockhouse, stables and scattered dwellings by 1859.

The Old Immigrant Trail along the banks of Carson Water was a station for changing the stage horses of George Chorpenning and Absolan Woodward.  Dayton, a four corner township known as "Pause and Ponder" was known as a place where pioneers could pause and make up their mind whether to take a chance on digging for riches in Gold Canyon or travel on to the proven Mother Lode across the mountains in California.

For a decade, poor pioneers earned their Saturday night whiskey in Gold Canyon but little more.  During that decade they mined the five miles of sage brush toward Gold Hill to make a discovery that would change the entire course of history in the West.

Next time...There's Gold in Them Hills!