Souvenir of the Comstock. Embracing the principal views of Virginia City, Gold Hill, Silver City and Sutro

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JOUVENIR OF

THE eOMSTOGK.

Embracing the Principal Views of Virginia City, Gold Hill,

Silver City and Sntro.

Photographed ami Copyrighted, i8go, by Jas. H. Crockwell, Virginia City, Nevada.

TheAlbertypoCo., N. Y.

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In presenting this Souvenir Album 0/ the Comstock — the compiling of which has been no little
task — / am indebted to the well-knowti Dan. Dc Quille of Virginia City for the following
historical sketch. The views are made by sun-light, electric light and flash light, all of my own
work, and I trust that the parties interested in the various views presented will overlook any part
that does not f idly conform to what they might have preferred in the Album.

Very respectfully,

J. H. CROCKWELL,

J'I/0 TOGRA PHER,
VIRGINIA CITY, NEVADA.

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THE 8omsto6k Silver //Unes.

IRGINIA City, the pioneer silver mining town of Nevada and the United States, is perched on the
Eastern face of Mount Davidson, the culminating peak of the range of mountains in which lies the
famous Comstock silver lode. The altitude of the city above the level of the sea is about 6,000 feet.
•j It was founded in 1859, when the silver mines were discovered. Beginning as a town of tents and
" shanties, it soon became a city of substantial structures, many of which were of brick and iron.

Gold was first discovered in Nevada in the spring of 1850. It was found in what is now known as
Gold Canyon by a company of Mormon emigrants on their way to California. From $5 to $8 a day could
be made by mining the gravel of the canyon, but this seemed small wages to men who expected to gather
gold by the pound in California, therefore all but one or two families went on across the mountains.

Following up this gold in after years lead to the discovery, in 1859, of the rich deposit of gold where
now stands the town of Gold Hill. This gold in a vein that afterwards became famous as the Comstock
silver lode, but at Gold Hill it was gold-bearing on the surface.

At and about Silver City, below Gold Hill, are many mines of gold-bearing quartz (both above and
below the Devil's Gate) which contributed their share to the gold dust found in Gold Canyon.

In 1857 gold in paying quantities was found in Six-mile Canyon, above the Sugar Loaf Mountain,
and following up the discovery led to the striking of silver at a point just above the head of the Canyon,
where Virginia City now stands. The great discovery was made in 1859 by Peter O'Riley and Patrick
McLaughlin. While engaged with rockers in washing for gold they dug down into the decomposed top
of the silver lode, afterward world-famous.

Virginia City lies along the Comstock lode (which runs north and south) for a distance of over a
mile, and is united on the south with the town of Gold Hill, which is also situated on the Comstock
silver vein.

The huge hoisting works erected over the mining shafts (from 2,000 to over 3,000 feet in depth) are
seen strung along through the two towns for a distance of over two miles, their great size and their tall
iron smoke-stacks making them prominent objects. The immense "dumps" of waste rock seen below all
these hoisting works tell of the vastness of the underground workings, and at once arrest the attention of
all visitors. There are at present in the city few mills for working the ores mined, ?nost of the reduction
works now being on the Carson River, where is almost unlimited water power; though the Nevada mill,

in the city, is run in part by a Pelton water wheel (water being taken from the city works) and in part by
electricity. The electrical current which drives the water in the mill, is furnished by six Brush dynamos,
situated in a great subterranean chamber at the level of the Sutro Tunnel, 1,630 feet below the surface.
Each dynamo is driven by a small Pelton water wheel, under a verticle pressure of over 1,600 feet.

The towns of the Comstock are connected with the Central Pacific, and the world's great highways
of traffic by the Virginia & Truckee Railroad. This road transports ores to the river mills and brings
back to the mines supplies of wood, lumber and mining timbers from the pine forests of the Sierra
Nevada Mountains.

At one time— in the "bonanza" days — there was claimed for Virginia City a population, transient and
permanent of 20,000 souls, and for the sister town of Gold Hill of 10,000. Now by the census of 1890,
Virginia City has a population of no more than 6,337 and Gold Hill 1,072.

Virginia City has fine water works, (water being piped from the Sierras, near Lake Tahoe, thirty
miles away) also has both electrical and gas lights, with all other modern conveniences now considered to
be the necessary adjxmcts of the civilization of the age. There are several fine churches; school-houses
that cost from $20,000 to $60,000; hospitals and asylums; a fine theatre, and numerous large public halls.

Virginia being "a city set on a hill," (and a very high hill) offers grand views over the interior
mountain ranges and valleys in all directions, but to the westward, where Mount Davidson rises above
the town to a height of near 2,000 feet. Both Virginia City and Gold Hill stand upon ground that has
been excavated to the depth of from 1,500 to 3,000 feet, forming catacombs surpassing by far, in extent,
those of Rome, and containing more pine timber than all the buildings in the largest city on the Paclic const.

A great work is the Sutro drain tunnel which, starting at the Carson River, has a length of nearly
four miles. It taps the lode at a depth of 1,600 feet and drains all the mines of both towns. Its con-
struction lasted eight years and cost about §4,500,000, being $2,000,000 more than the cost of the great
works of the Virginia City and Gold Hill Water Company.

The mines of the Comstock lode, from the discovery of silver to the present time, have yielded
between $350,000,000 and $400,000,000; of this, two-thirds 'was silver and one-third gold. The California
and Consolidated Virginia mines alone (in which lay the immense bodv of rich ore, known as the "Big
Bonanza" ) have yielded about $120,000,000 and have paid about $80,000,000 in dividends.

The mines are still worked to a good profit, though most of the ore is at present of a low grade,
and each month there are paid out to employees from $180,000 to $200,000 as wages. Miners are paid
$4.00 a day for eight hours' work.

There are on the Comstock lode many large areas of virgin ground still to be explored, and great nnd
rich bonanzas may yet be found. The " Big Bonanza, '" the greatest ever found in the United States, was
hit upon at a time when all on the Comstock was at a low ebb, and when many were deserting t he two
towns utterly discouraged.

VIRGINIA CITY, FROM CEDAR HILL

TOP OF MT. DAVIDSON.
VIRGINIA CITY FROM TOP OF MT. DAVIDSON. VIRGINIA CITY AND MT. DAVIDSON.

C. & C. PAN MILL, SHOWING VIRGINIA CITY AND MT. DAVIDSON.

UTAH.
SIERRA NEVADA.

COMBINED VIEW, SHOWING OEIOER GRADE.

HOISTING WORKS OVER MINES.

UNION.
CONSOLIDATED VIRGINIA.

GOULD & CURRY.

HALF. & NOKCROSS.

HOISTING WORKS.

SAVARE.

CHOI.l.AR,

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C. & C. 1I0ISTINC, WORKS,
C. & C. WIRE ROPE ROOM.

C. & C. WASTE DUMPS.
INTERIOR C. & C. PAN MUX.

NEVADA MILL, RUN BY ELECTRICITY.

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DYNAMO ROOM 1630 FEET UNDER Mli.l., PHOTO MADE BY ELECTRIC f.IGUT.
PAN ROOM.

ROOMS OF NEVADA MILL

STAMP ROOM".
MOTOR ROOM.

UNION PUMP ENGINE.
BURLEIGH DRILLS AT WORK, MADE BY FLASH-LIGHT.

CHAMBER IN' C. & C. AT THE 1650 FOOT LEVEL, BY FLASH-LIGHT.
INTERIOR UNION WORKS-DRAFT WHEEL WHEIGIIING I IO TONS.

JACKF.T.

ALI'lf.

CROWN POIN'l

BKLCHER.

HOISTING WORKS AT COLD HILL.

KENTUCK.

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AI.TA MINE AND MILL,
FULTON FOUNDRY.

WOODVII.LE MINE AND MUX.
DEVIL'S GATE.

SUTRO TUNNEL. SUTRO TUNNEL AND MULK TRAIN*.

ADOLI'H SUTRO, FOUNDER OF THE SUTRO TUNNEL.
SUTRO FROM THE TUNNEL. SUTRO MANSION AND MACHINE SHOP.

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Till-'. C. C. STEVENSON.
THE EUKEKA.

THE BRUNSWICK.
THE VIVIAN.
CARSON RIVER MILLS.

THE MEXICAN.
THE MORGAN.

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COM) llll. I. SCHOOL.

COURT HOUSE.
SAVAliK OFFICE.

FOURTH WARD SCHOot.

VIRGINIA & TRUCKKE ORE TRAIN.
CROWN POINT TRESTLE, 84 PEBT HIGH.

VIRGINIA & TRUCKEE R. R. EXPRESS ANl) DEPOT.
EARLY DAY SCENE IN GOLD CANYON WHEN GOLD WAS FIRST DISCOVERED IN NEVADA IN 1850.

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IOWA RAVINE,

SUGAR I.OAK MOUNTAIN, SIX MII.F. CANYON.

sisters' hospital;

TAN Mil. I., SIX MII.F. CANYON.

ot'IHR MINE. THREE BICKELt. BROTHERS WHO i.OST THEIR LIVES

IN THE EIRE IN GOLD HILL MINE, APRIL 7th, 1869.

MINERS OF THE COMSTOCK, AS THEY WORK UNDER GROUND

COULD & CURRY MINE.
CHOI.I.AR MINE.

PIUTES OF NEVADA.

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