The Discovery of Gold and Silver That Defined Nevada's Comstock Era

In 1859, when the discovery of silver ore in Virginia City, Nevada was announced, a rapid influx of people moved into the area to seek their fortune and take a share of the Comstock Lode. The rich ores contained silver and gold, although more silver was actually produced, giving Nevada the title of the Silver State. In 1850, a group of Mormon travelers heading west to the California Gold fields, stopped in the winter in Nevada near what is now Carson City. They passed the time, while waiting for the snowy Sierra Mountains to thaw, by panning for gold in the Carson River. It didn't take them long to find gold, but since they were concentrating on California, they abandoned the river as soon as the mountains were passable.

Other travelers also found gold in the river, but did the same thing as the Mormons and continued on to California as soon as they could. A few years later, a camp of several hundred men sprung up. These men started to investigate around the area in several nearby canyons and found more gold. Then a couple of brothers, the Grosch brothers, struck a vein of quartz that produced the gold ore. The brothers traveled to California to sell their claim, but died on the way. A man, Henry Comstock, who they had left in charge of their ore samples, heard of their death and found their claim. He knew that the gold and silver ore the brothers had left came from the same vein. He soon made his own claim near another man's claim. Later, he sold his claim and opened a merchant shop.

The Virginia City mines were honeycombed underneath the city as far down as over 3,200 feet and produced an incredible amount of both gold and silver from 1859 to 1898. The mines were closed down from either safety issues or problems with the production of metal from the ore. During the time of the mines, more than $400 million worth of silver and gold was brought up to the surface.

During the heyday of the Comstock era, various techniques were used. There was always the sluice method where flumes of water were used. Dirt and gravel was placed in the sluice or at the end of the sluice and rushing water would flush away the lighter materials. The heavy gold would settle out. This is similar to gold panning, only on a larger scale. The ore in the Comstock was somewhat soft, so many miners were able to remove it by hand, using shovels. The harder ores were blasted loose with dynamite and special drills. While mining was a very dangerous profession, and many miners lost their lives, there were also a lot of people who became very rich and made Nevada the Silver State.