GOLD MINING IN THE UNITED STATES 179 



of the Territory of Utah. It is just south of the emigrant trail over 

 which many early explorers of California had passed, but the region was 

 a dry, inhospitable desert, destitute of vegetation and inhabited only 

 by a few half-starved Indians, so that the pioneers had given it but 

 little attention. Shortly before the discovery of the Comstock, however, 

 some placer gold was found in that vicinity and a small settlement 

 started, which later became Carson City. In 1857 two brothers named 

 Grosh discovered the Comstock lode itself, but they died shortly after- 

 wards, and the next year it was worked in a small way by others. 

 Large bodies of ore, however, were first found in 1859, and then the 

 news of the discovery spread rapidly and a great rush of people com- 

 menced, among them Henry Comstock, for whom the lode was named. 

 The town of Virginia City sprang up from the desert and became a 

 flourishing community. 



The Comstock lode is an immense vein about four miles in length 

 and several hundred feet in width, enclosed in igneous rock. Its great 

 size admitted the locating of numerous mines along its course, many 

 of which later became famous, such as the Consolidated California and 

 Virginia, the Yellow Jacket, Crown Point, Hale and Norcross, Ophir, 

 Belcher, Chollar and many others. Virginia City was at that time more 

 accessible from San Francisco than from any other city, and hence the 

 latter place became the supply point for the wants of the Comstock 

 mines. San Francisco capital and energy poured into the district; the 

 Comstock mining stocks were listed and dealt in on the San Francisco 

 exchange, and San Francisco grew rich with the Comstock's millions. 

 The gold discoveries in California had given San Francisco its first 

 boom and had raised it from an obscure village to an active, bustling 

 seaport; the discovery of the Comstock advanced it still further to a 

 great city and one of the most important seaports in the world. 



Mining progressed at a rapid rate at Virginia City, the mines 

 reached great depths, and the water and heat increased at an abnor- 

 mally rapid rate. It was then that Adolph Sutro commenced the great 

 tunnel which bears his name, with the object of draining the mines and 

 making an easier outlet for the ore, but before the project was com- 

 pleted the great " bonanzas " were largely exhausted, and by 1880 the 

 production of the district had greatly declined. For a long time after 

 that, mining consisted mostly in going over the old workings and waste 

 dumps where the haste of the early days had left many rich pickings, 

 but in recent years some entirely new development work has been 

 started, and some of the old mines have taken a new lease of life. 



The ore of the Comstock lode carried both gold and silver, with 

 silver in the preponderance. In the haste and excitement of early days, 

 accurate records of production were often neglected, but the total out- 

 put of the Comstock mines to date has probabaly been between $400,- 



