■ ■' I ■■'■ ■'■'■■•'•■■■■■■■ LIBKAJRY Vol d.S.5&?T Class JVo.Ss5'./. Cosi PRESENTED BV TnnTTmmr'.iiiiMiiijinTnnTTrinTiii i nggni: 4^ ^ -if SEP ^ 7 10S4. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2009 with funding from Boston Library Consortium IVIember Libraries http://www.archive.org/details/comstockminingmiOOIord ^DVERTISEMIEI^T. The publications of tlie United States Geological Survey are issued in accordance with the statute, ap- proved March 3, 1879, which declares that — The publications of the Geological Survey shall consist of the auniial report of operations, geological and economic maps illustrating the resources and classifications of the lands, and reports upon general and economic geology and paleontology. The annual report of operations of the Geological Survey shall accompany the annual report of the Secretary of the Interior. All special memoirs and reports of said Survey shall be issued in uniform quarto series if deemed necessary by the Director, but otherwise in ordinary octavo.s. Three thousand copies of each shall be published for scientific exchanges and for sale at the price of publication ; and all literary and cartographic materials received in exchange shall be the property of the United States and form a part of the library of the organization : And the money resulting from the sale of such publications shall be covered into the Treasury of the United States. ANNUAL REPORTS. From the above it will be seen that only the Annual Reports, which form parts of the reports of the Sec- retary of the Interior and are printed as executive documents, are available for gratuitous distribution. A num- ber of these are furnished the Survey for its exchange list, but the bulk of them are supplied directly, through the document rooms of Congress, to members of the Senate and House. Except, therefore, in those cases in whicli an extra number is supplied to this Office by special resolution, application must be made to members of Congress for the Annual Reports, as for all other execiuive documents. Of these Annuals, there have been already published : I. First Annual Report to the Hon. Carl Schurz, by Clarence King, 8°, Washington, 1880, 79 pp., 1 map. — A preliminary report describing plan of organization and publications. II. Report of the Director of the United Slates Geological Survey for 1880-'81, by J. W. Powell, 8°, Washington, 188i, Iv, 588 pp., 61 plates, 1 map. CONTENTS. Report of the Director, pp. i-lv, plates 1-7. ■ Administrative Reports by Heads of Divisions, pp. 1-46, plates 8 and 9. The Physical Geology of the Grand Canon District, by Capt. C. E. Button, pp. 47-166, plates lD-36. Contribution to the History of Lake Bonneville, by G. K. Gilbert, pp. 167-200, plates 37-43. Abstract of Report on the Geology and Mining Industry of Leadville, Colorado, by S. F. Emmons, pp. 201-290, plates 44 and 45. A Summary of the Geology of the Comstock Lode and the Washoe District, by George F. Becker, pp. 291-330, plates 46 and 47. Production of Precious Metals in the United States, by Clarence King, pp. 331-401, plates 48-53. A New Method of Measuring Heights by means of the Barometer, by G. K. Gilbert, pp. 403-565, plates 54-61. Index, pp. 567-588. The Third Annual Report is now in press. MONOGRAPHS. The Monographs of the Survey are printed for the Survey alone, and can be distributed by it only through a fair exchange for books needed in its library, or through the sale of those copies over and above the number needed for such exchange. They are not for gratuitous distribution. So far as already determined upon, the list of these monographs is as follows : I. The Precious Metals, by Clarence King. In preparation, II. Tertiary History of the Grand Canon District, with atlas, by Capt. C. E. Button. Published. III. Geology of the Comstock Lode and Washoe District, with atlas, by George F. Becker. Published. (I) ii ADVERTISEMENT. IV. Comstock Mining and Miners, by Eliot LoVd. Published. V. Copper-bearing Rooks of Lake Superior and their continuation through Minnesota, by Prof. K. D. Irving. In press. VI. Older Mesozoic Flora of Virginia, by Prof. William M. Fontaine. In press. Geology and Mining Industry of Leadville, with atlas, by S. F. Emmons. In preparation. Geology of the Eureka Mining District, Nevada, with atlas, by Arnold Hague. In preparation. Coal of the United Slates, by Prof. R. Pumpelly. In preparation. Iron of the United States, by Prof. R. Pumpelly. In preparation. Lesser Metala and General Mining Resources, by Prof. R. Pumpelly. In preparation. Lake Bonneville, by G. K. Gilbert. lu preparation. Dinocerata. A monograph on an extinct order of Ungulates, by Prof. O. C. Marsh. In press. Sauropoda, by Prof. O. C. Marsh. In preparation. Stegosauria, by Prof O. C. Marsh. In preparation. Of these monographs, numbers II, III, aud IV are now published, viz: II. Tertiary History of the Grand Canon District, with atlas, by C. E. Dutton, Capt. U. S. A. 1882, 4°, 264 pp., 42 plates, and atlas of 26 double sheets folio. Price $10.12. III. Geology of the Comstock Lode aud Washoe District, with atlas, by George P. Becker. 1882, 4°, 422 pp., 7 plaies, aud atlas of 21 sheets folio. Price $11.00. IV. Comstock Mining and Miners, by Eliot Lord. 1883, 4°, 451 pp., 3 plates. Price |1.50. Numbers V and VI are in press and will appear in quick succession. The others, to which numbers are not assigned, are in preparation. BULLETINS. The Bulletins of the Survey will contain such papers relating to the general purpose of its work as do not come properly under the heads of Annual Reports, or Monographs. Each (if these Bulletins will contain but one paper aud be complete in itself. They will, however, be num- bered in a continuous series, and will in time be united into volumes of convenient size. To facilitate this each Bulletin will have two paginations, one proper to itself and another which belongs to it as part of the volume. Of this series of Bulletins No. 1 is already published, viz : 1. On Hypersthene-Andesite and on Triclinic Pyroxene in Augitic Rocks, by Whitman Cross, with a Geo- logical Sketch of Buifalo Peaks, Colorado, by S. F. Emmons. 1883, 6°, 40 pp. Price 10 cents. Correspondence relating to the publications of the Survey, and all remittances, should be addressed to the DiKBCTOR OF THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY, Washington, D. C. Washington, D. C, March, 1, 1883. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR MONOGRAPHS United States Geological Survey VOLUME IV WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT TRINTING OFFICE 18 8,", UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY CLARENCE KING DIRECTOR COMSTOCK MINING AND MINEES By ELIOT T.OKT) WASHINGTOX GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICl 1883 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, United States Geological Survey, New York, March 1, 1882. Sir: I have the honor to transmit for your approval the accompany- ing report upon Comstock Mining and Miners, prepared under the direction of the Hon. Clarence King, late Director of the Geological Survey, and recording the development of this notable district from the first discovery of the precious metals within its borders to the close of the year 1880. Very respectfully, ELIOT LORD. Hon. J. W. Powell, Director United States Geological Survey, Washington, D. C. (vii) FREF^CE. The monograph which I was instructed to prepare upon Gomstock Mining and Miners is not a memoir of merely local importance and inter- est, but the record of a struggle which has materially affected the mining interests of the world. It is the story of the birth of the silver-mining industry in this country, and it portrays as well the most vigorous growth of that industry. The simple narrative is, in truth, not less marvelous than an Arabian tale, recounting, as it does, how a handful of earth tossed away carelessly by a poor immigrant became the loadstone which drew a swarm of men to a desert avoided even by beasts, and how from this clue a thread of gold was traced to its hidden source, and treasures rivaling the fancied store of the young Aladdin were unveiled. Its scenes present the toil of placer miners in an isolated canon, the search of pi'ospectors for gold and silver, the discovery of a world-famous lode, the extraordinary migration called tersely the " rush to Washoe," the life of a turbulent mining camp, and its ultimate crystallization into a thriving city. It is shown, furthermore, how a barren peak, encircled by deserts and mountain ranges, was made the seat of populous towns, well supplied with water, food, and fuel ; and how, in the course of only twenty years, the deepest and most productive silver mines in the world were excavated in a gangue of crumbling rock, in spite of a constant influx of water and an unprecedented increase of heat. By the contest waged in this district against the forces of nature contributions of the first importance to mining science have been furnished; the foremost practical miners of America have been trained, and more than three hundred millions of silver and gold have been wrested from the earth. Through the contention of its rival locators our national mining legislation was mainly shaped, and the colossal lottery (ix) X PEEFACB. of mining-stock speculation grew out of the opportunities here first offered. In the organization of its mines as an autocratic guild, in the maintenance of an arbitrary standard of wages, and in the resultant effect on the industry of the district and the condition of the laboring class, the stu- dent of political economy must needs be interested, and those who seek lucrative investments in mining enterprises may care to learn how the chief silver mines of this country have been controlled and managed, and how the great prizes in mining .are commonly allotted, if this noteworthy instance may indeed be accepted as typical. From this starting point the silver mines of the great inland Territories have been sought out and developed, and no subsequent discoveries can rival the influence of this Lode, though they may perchance excel its yield in richness and magni- tude. To present these varied themes clearly and fairly in a well-joined narrative has been the aim of the writer. No assertion or statement of fact has been made without the citation of authorities. If, in any case, more positive evidence is desirable, its lack may fairly be attributed to the death of witnesses and the absence or destruction of trustworthy records. Cumulative evidence has only been cited when its support was clearly requisite, but all material obtained has been filed for reference among the manuscript records of the United States Geological Survey. No minute examination has been here essayed of subjects which have been elaborately treated in the complementary reports already published and now in press. For strictly technical discussions of the geology, chemistry, physics, and mechanics of the Lode, reference should be made to the standard treatises of Richthofen, King, Church, and Hague, and to the reports of Professor George F. Becker and W. R. Eckart, C. E., form- ing the principal portion of the series of volumes treating of the Comstock Lode as the work was originally planned. It has been judged, however, that the investigation here attempted merits a place in the annals of mining in America, and is fittingly conducted under the direction of the United States Geological Survey. co:^TE]srTS. CHAPTER I. THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. The Eastern Slope of the Sierra Nevada Range — 2 The Native Tribes — 3 The Early Explorers — 4 Annexa- tion of the Pacific Coast — 9 The Californian Gold Discoveries — 9 The Great Overland Migration— 10 First Discovery of Gold in Nevada — 11 The Peon Prospectors — 13 The Famine of 1850 — 13 The Desertion of the Placer — 14 CHAPTER II. THE GOLD CANON PLACER MINING COLONY. A Simple Autonomy — 15 The Miners and their Neighbors — 16 A Patriarchal Government — 17 A Mormon Ukase — 18 Uprooting a Settlement — 18 Daily Life in the Canon — 19 A Distant Supply Market — '21 A Mountain Courier — 21 The Wants of the Prospector — 22 The Exhaustion of the Placer — 24 The Yield of the Placer — 24 The Search for Silver — 24 Allen and Hosea Grosh — 25 The Discovery of Silver — 26 The Death of Hosea Grosh— 29 A Terrible Mid-winter Journey— 30 The Death of Allen Grosh— 31 Loss of the Location Records — 32 CHAPTER III. THE DISCOVERY OF THE COMSTOCK LODK. The Columbia Quartz Mining District— 33 The First Location — 34 The Virginia Ledge — 35 Lax Mining Laws— 35 The Gold Hill Locations— 36 The Fountain Head of The Placers— 37 A Chance Discovery- SB A Successful Impostor — 38 The Right of Entry on Mineral Lands— 39 The Gold Hill Mining Dis- trict— 40 A Miner's Meeting— 40 Anarchic Condition of the Gold Canon Colony— 41 Foundation, Char- acter, and Value of District Mining Laws — 42 The District Code — 48 Its Inherent Defects — 44 Usual Method of Locating Ledges — 45 Typical Ledge Locations — 45 Violations of District Laws — 49 The Method of Recording Locations — 53 The Lode Unveiled — 55 CHAPTER IV. THE MINING CAMP. The Task presented to Capital and Labor — 56 Transformation of the Early Colony — 57 The Influx of Pros- pectors— 57 Position of the First Locators — 59 Transfer of Titles— 60 Early Lode Development — 61 The Winter Camps— 64 The Rush to Washoe— 65 The Indian War— 68 The Rush Renewed— 71 Power- lessness of the District Officials — 74 Estrangement of the Territorial Government — 75 Turbulent Life of the Camps — 75 CHAPTER V. THE FOUNDATION OF A GREAT MINING TOWN. The Foundation of a Great Mining Town — ^77 A Speculative Mania — 77 Development of the Quartz Milling Industry — 80 The Treatment of Silver Ores — 81 Invention of the Washoe Pan Process — 82 The Pioneer Qaartz Mill — 84 Development of the Lode — 88 Unforeseen Difficulties— 89 Square Set Timbering — 90 Unsystematic Mine Working — 91 Virginia Mining District Laws— 91 Life in the Mining Camps— 92 Wages and Cost of I.iiving— 95 The Growing City — 96 (xi) xii CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. THE INEVITABLE LITIGATION. Ownership of the Lode Clahns — 97 Distribution of the Ore Deposits — 98 Conflicting Theories — 98 Parallel Ledge Locations— 99 The District Court— 101 Characteristic Trials — 101 The Rival Judges — 104 A Fortified Claim— 106 An Extraordinary Posse Comitatus — 107 Surrender of the Garrison — 107 Two Judges but no Court — 108 CHAPTER VII. CONSTRUCTIVE AND DISORGANIZING AGENCIES. The Division of Utah — 109 The New Territorial Organization — 109 The First Governor of Nevada — 109 His Reception at Virginia City — 110 A Troubled Province — 110 Reign of Lawlessness — 111 Repression of RuiJianism — 112 The Quartz Milling Industry — 113 Sanguine Mill Builders — 114 A Natural Disappoint- ment— 115 Waste of the Precious Metals — 117 The Washoe Pan Process Perfected — 118 Experiments in the Nevada Mills— 122 Absurd Processes of Reduction — 122 Cosily Mills— 123 Prodigal Ideas of the Time — 125 Wasteful Mine Management — 126 Extraordin.ary Expenses — 128 CHAPTER VIII. INTERMINABLE LITIGATION. Individual and Corporate Ownership of Claims — 131 Opening of the District Court — 132 A Multitude of Mining Suits — 132 The Issue of the Trials — 134 Methods of Prosecution and Defense — 135 The Surest Confirma- tion of Title— 136 The Resort to Force — 136 Underground Contests — 136 Ophir Mining Company vs. Burning iloscow Mining Company — 137 Bitterness and Uncertain Issue of the Litigation— 144 A Note- worthy Plan of Compromise — 145 A Leading Attorney — 145 His Conduct of Mining Suits — 146 His Appeal to a Jury— 147 The Yellow Jacket Mining Companj- vs. the Union Mining Company — 147 The Sierra Nevada Miniug Company vs. the American Jliiiing Company — 148 The Chollar Mining Company vs. the Potosi Mining Company — 151 A Protracted Contest — 154 An Unique Judicial Bench — 157 Con- tradictory Decisions — 159 Popular Indignation — 161 The Resignation of the Territorial Bench — 162 The T^ast Underground Contest — 165 The Parallel Ledge Theory — 163 The Gould and Curry Mining Company m. the North Potosi Miniug Company — 166 Report of the Referee — 168 A Burdensome Litigation — 172 Termination of the Chollar-Potosi Suits — 173 Burning Moscow Mining Company vs. Ophir Mining Com- pany— 174 Result of Four Years Contest — 177 District and Territorial Mining Laws — 178 CHAPTER IX. INDUSTRIAL CONKLICTS. Exhaustion of the Surface Ore Bodies — Itil Prostration of the Mining Industry — 181 Demand for Reduction of Expenses — 182 The Rate of Wages — 182 Attitude of the Miners — 182 The Miners' Protective Asso- ciation— 183 A Convenient Scape-goat — 184 A Successful Strike — 184 A Typical Caucus — 185 The Miners' League — 185 An Insidious Opposiliou—- 18G Untenable Position of the League — 187 An Arbi- trary JIanifesto — 188 Dissolution of the League — 190 Creation of Sierran Highways — 191 Transformation of the Mountaiu Passes — 191 A Macadamized Avenue — 192 Expense of Maintenance — 192 Sierran Freight Trains — 192 A Moving Caravan — 193 Mountain Stages — 195 Incidents of Travel — 196 The Over- land Telegraph— 197 CHAPTER X. THE JIINLKG CITY. Incorporation of Virginia City — 198 Its Distinctive Quarters — 199 Life in the Streets — 199 How its People were fed, clothed, and lodged — 200 Development of Home Industries — 202 Useful Mineral Deposits — 202 The Demand for Fuel — 203 The Search for Coal — 203 The Consumption of Lumber — 205 Establishment of Gas Works — 205 Brick Kilns and Potteries — 205 Uniting Agencies — 205 Establishment of Schools— 206 Foundation of Churches— 207 Effect of the Civil War-207 Characteristic Liberality— 208 Daily Life of the Miners — 209 Their Emotional Temperament — 208 Sudden Revulsions — 209 Molding Conditions —209 The Passion for Gain— 210 Their Daily Perils— 210 Dearth of Amusement— 210 Effect of these Conditions— 210 The Record of Crime — 210 Toils of the Mine — 211 Washoe Amusements — 212 Demor alizing Pleasures — 213 Refining Influences — 213 The Taste for Reading — 213 Dramatic Representa tions — 214 Mouutain Gardens — 215 CONTENTS. Xlll CHAPTER XI. SIX YKARS OF PROGREfS. The Development of the Mines— !il6 Reckless Mhiiiig — 216 Destruction of Mine Workings — 217 Criminal Negligence — 217 Modern and Ancient Safe-guards — 21b Fatal Accidents — 219 Memorable Warnings — 220 Energetic Mining — 220 Earlj' Methods — 220 Substitution of Steam-Power— 221 A Hive of Workers — 221 Hydraulic Mining — 222 A Systematic Plan of Mine Development— 222 The Second Line of Shafts — 223 Method of Exploration — 223 A Record of Progress — 225 The Expaflding Circle of Exploration — 227 Mining Districts of Nevada — 228 Extension of the Search — 228 Discoveries in Utah, Montana, Idaho, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico — 229 CHAPTER XII. THE CONTEST WITH WATER. The Arch Enemy of Miners— 230 The Rock Water Chambers— 231 Flooding of tlie Ophir Mine— 231 An Increasing Plague — 232 General Demand for Relief— 233 An Abortive Scheme — 233 A Noteworthy Enterprise — 233 The Sutro Tunnel — 234 Its Energetic Designer — 234 Organization of the Sutro Tunnel Company— 234 Prosecution of the Tnnnel Scheme— 234 An Unlooked-for Opposition — 237 Grounds of this Opposition— 237 Views of Mine Stockholders — 241 Position of Adolf Sutro— 242 His Apparently Hopeless Undertaking — 243 CHAPTER XIII. A CONTROLLING COMBINATION. Establishment of the Virginia City Branch of the Bank of California — 244 Position of William Sharon — 244 Radical Changes — 245 Reduction of the Rate of Interest upon Loans — 245 Bankruptcy of Mill Owners — 246 A Transfer of Ownership — 246 Organization of the Union Mill and Mining Company — 246 Its Service and Power — 247 A Naturally Suggested Measure — 249 Plan of the Virginia and Trnckee Railroad — 250 The Plan Matured — 251 Its Rapid Execution — 251 Cost of Construction .and Equipment — 254 Utility of the Railroad— 254 Its Monopoly of Freight Traffic— 255 The Wood and Water Supply— 256 Wood Flumes— 257 Primitive Water Works— 258 CHAPTER XIV. A HAZARDOUS TASK. The Business Outlook in 1869 — 263 Hazardous Undertaking of William Sharon .ind Associates — ^264 Their Services to the Comstock Lode — 265 Their Unintentional Support of the Arbitrary Standard of Wages — 266 Formation of Miners' Unions — 266 Enforcement of their Regulations — 267 A Self-inflicted Injury ■ — 268 Position of the Small Capitalists — 268 Responsibility of the Union Mill and Mining Company — 268 Mine Fires — 269 The Crown Point-Yellow Jacket Mine Fire — 269 A Prolonged and Desperate Contest— 270 CHAPTER XV. A FORTUNATE DELIVERANCE. A Liberal Creditor — 278 Mine Supply Conipanies — 279 An Insidious Danger — 279 Exhaustion of all Known Ore-bodies— 280 An Unforeseen Deliverance— 280 The Crown Point Mine— 280 The Search for Ore— 281 The Discovery of Crown Point Bonanza — 283 Results of this Discovery — 285 Insufficiency of Official Reports — 286 Position of Mine Stockholders — 286 Temptations of their Agents — 287 Absence of General Demand for Reform — 287 Objectionable Management of Mines — 288 Immediate HI Effects and Lasting I„jury_i;9t Prevalent Distrust— 291 A Shameful Scandal— 291 A Stock Panic— 292 The Wafer Plague — 294 Prosecution of the Sutro Tunnel Scheme — 297 The Sutro Tunnel Commission — 298 Open- ing of the Tunnel— 300. C HAPTER XVI. THE GREAT BONANZA. Rival Combinations — 301 Mine and Mill Acquisitions — 305 Exhaustion of Hale & Norcross Ore Body — 306 Need of a new Venture — 406 A Barren Section of the Lode — 307 Incompetence and Disheartemnent of its Owners— 307 The Consolidated Virginia Mining Company— 309 A Well-planned Search— 309 The Bonanza Discovered— 310 Astonishing Developments — 311 Stirring Scene in the Mine — 312 The Work- ing Force— 312 A Speculative Mania — 315 An Inevit.able Panic — 316 Censure of the Mine Managers — 317 Development of the Bonanza— 319 Its Yield ;nul Returns to Stockholders— 3;J0 Rapid Ore Extrac- tion and Reduction — 321. XIV CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVII. FEATS OF LABOR. The Demand for Water— 322 The Schussler System of Supply— 323 Au Extraordinary Aqueduct— 324 The Supply Tested— 325 A Mining City in Flames— 326 Destruction of Virginia City— 328 Eebuilding of the City — 328 Comstock Mine Management — 330 Development of the Mines— 331 Extension of the Schussler Aqueduct— 332 Tapping a Sierrau Lake — 332 The Supply of Water — 333 The Supply of Ice — 333 Progress of the Sutro Tunnel — 333 Difficulties Surmounted— 334 Rapid Advance of the Heading — 336 Perils and Pains of the Work — 333 Its Final completion — 339 Controversy with the Mine Companies- 339 A Satisfactory Compromise — 341 Drainage of Adjacent Miues— 342 Cost of the Tunnel — 342 A Great Outflow of Water—342 The "Water Influx— 343 Comstock Mine Pumps— 344 Their Exacting Service— 345 Corresponding Equipment of Jline and Mill Works — 347 Operating Expenses — 349 Consumption of Tim- ber, Fuel, and Supplies— 351 The Mine Workings— 352 Mine Product and Dividends— 353 The Profits of Mining— 353. CHAPTER XVIII. THE LABORERS OP WASHOE. The Arbitrary Standard of Wages— 355 Manifesto of the Miners' Union — 355 Attack upon the Chinese— 356 Success of the Union — 357 A Fortified Monopoly — 358 Origin and Maintenance of the Arbitrary Rate of Wages — 359 Its Eflect upon the Condition of the Miners — 368 Clothing and Lodging of the Miners — 369 Health of the Miners — 374 Their Instruction and Amusement — 375 The Consumption of Liquor — 377 The Criminal Record— 378 The Passion for Gambling— 379 A Select Corps— 380 The Utility of Scaled Wages — 381 Prejudice of the Miners' Union— 38S. CHAPTER XIX. PAINS AND PERILS OF MINING. The Lower Working Levels— 389 Intense Heat of the Atmosphere— 390 Cause of the Increase of Heat — 390 Sufferings of the Miners— 393 Influx of Hot Water— 398 The Loss of Life— 399 Effects of Work in the Hot Levels upon Health — 400 The Dangers of Deep Mining — 401 A Record of Mine Accidents— 404 Effect of the Environment of Peril upon the Miners — 405. CHAPTER XX. A SIGNIFICANT CONTRAST. Present Condition of the District — 407 The Future of Mining on the Lode — 410 The FutUity of Luck — 411 Fate of the Discoverers of the Lode — 412 The Lesson of the Record — 414. APPENDIX. TABLES. Table I. Location of Mines— 415 Table II. Product of the Comstock District from 1860 to June 30, 1880— 416 Table III. Financial Showing of Washoe Mining Companies whose Stocks were dealt in at San Fran- cisco Boards at the close of the Census Year June 30, 1880 — 419 Table IV. Assessments 1880-'81 — 422 Table V. The Highest and Lowest Prices of Comstock Mining Stocks sold in San Francisco Exchange from 1868 to 1879—424 Tables VI, VH, VIH, IX, X. Storey County Hospital— 436 Tables XI, XII. Storey County Coroner's Record of Deaths in 1880-441 Table XIII. Criminal Cases in Courts of Virginia City, 1867, to June 30, 1880—444 Table XIV. Comparative Statement of Tonnage of Virginia and Truckee Rail- road for the years 1874 to 1879, inclusive — 446. LIST OF PLATES. Page. Plate I. Map of Placerville Route 8 Plate IL Map of Carson Valley • 66 Plate III. Map of Washoe District, Showing Mining Claims 352 COMSTOCK MINING AND MINERS. BT ElilOT LORD. CHAPTER I. THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. The cloud banks blown overland from the Pacific are thrown in masses against the bristling teeth of the Sierra Nevada. Repelled at every point, they break in rain, snow, and hail among the mountains. Winter storms tear their way sometimes through this unyielding barrier and bury the hill-tops beyond under eddying snow-drifts, but a covering is rarely cast over the deformity of the deserts below. Looking east- ward from any bare crag above the tree-belt, the eye sees no end to these desolate wastes, and beyond the range of vision they stretch unbroken for hundreds of miles. A few shallow rivers, fed by the mountain snows, wander in narrow beds through the canons and valleys, vanishing at length in alkaline sloughs, or pouring their wasted streams into brackish lakes ; broken fringes of green mark their winding courses — the only relief to the sombre tints of the landscape. Yet, viewed from this distance, the naked barrenness of the land is less obtrusive. The simple outlines of the weather-beaten ridges blend with the enveloping haze and clear-cut shadows fall on the rolling plains. A soft drapery of worn brown velvet, with glinting threads of warmer 2 HISTORY OF THE COMSTOCK LODE. hue, seems to cover the hills, and tracks of clay gleam white, like frozen lakes, in the ashen-hued desert. Over all towers a sky dome of clearest blue, flushed with the splendor of noon or glittering coldly with stars. Descend into the midst of the desert and look closely around. The soft brown slopes are changed to scarred and crumbling heaps of rocks, the shining lakes to beds of alkaline earth seamed with innumerable cracks, and the grey plains to wastes of sand dotted thickly with clumps of sage brush. Here and there at long intervals stalks of bunch-grass thrust their stiff blades out of the arid soil, covered often with clinging crystals of salt which sparkle like frost in the sunlight. Dusky lizards dart about among the blackened rocks of the isolated ridges, and lizards with yellow backs sprawl on the hot sand. A little flock of sparrows may hover about some mountain spring, a coyote sometimes ambles over the hills, and jack-rabbits scurry through the sage brush in ridiculous alarm, but the oppressive stillness is rarely broken by the movement of anything with life. Nature seems to sleep, except when the brooding air is stirred by the passage of clouds and columns of feathery dust borne by eddying whirlwinds over the desert. The sight recalls the words of Marco Polo, describing the deserts about Khubees, "where there is neither fruit nor trees, and the water is bitter and bad, so that a traveler must carry it and food for himself, but the beasts drink that on the road, though very unwillingly." ^ It was over this dreary land that the Mexican guide of Fremont pointed, from the mountain pass at the head of the river San Joaquin. "There," said he, "there are the great llanos. There is neither water nor grass — every animal which goes out upon them dies." The most pitiless of tyrants might hesitate to exile his enemy to such an earthly hell, but the people who have been doomed to live in this deso- late region make no complaint and wish for no better home. To endure their condition without a murmur might well be counted a mark of sur- passing fortitude, but to love a country such as this appears a well-nigh incredible prejudice of patriotism; yet it is said that the tribes who have wandered for an unknown term of years on this American Sahara cling ' Travels of Marco Polo.— (Trans, by Hugh Murray, F. E. S. E., p. 226.) THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 3 to their wretched homes with an instinctive devotion not less intense than the yearnings of the exiled Swiss for the green valleys of the Tyrol.^ It does not lie within the scope of this narrative to speak in detail of the life of the Shoshones and Bannocks, of the Apaches and Navajos, included in the Shoshonian and Athabascan families, the chief stocks holding possession of the Great Basin from the Columbia to the Rio del Grande,^ but their character and condition may be briefly outlined. The published journals of the earlier explorers of the Great Basin are full of high-seasoned descriptions of the native inhabitants, which must be accepted with due allowances for the embellishments of fancy and for errors arising from a limited or unfavorable period of observation. The Apache, for instance, has been pictured as malignant, cruel, and treacher- ous in the extreme, but he is rarely credited with the few savage virtues which he actually possesses, while the Shoshonian tribes have been ac- counted the very dregs of humanity, so depraved indeed that, as Bancroft writes — " there is surely room for no missing link between them and the brutes." => The truth is, that the Shoshones, as compared with the other Indian tribes of this country, fall somewhat below the average in vigor of mind and body, but they are by no means the lowest of the race,* and it is absurd to class them with the Veddas of Ceylon or some of the Australian tribes. Their mode of life had many features in common with the better class of tribes, but the dreary and barren nature of the region where they lived and the hostility of stronger tribes reduced them sometimes to the direst straits, when they were forced to devour lizards, grasshoppers, roots, and grass seeds, and even "in a fiercer agony of hunger to eat the dead bodies of their starved companions or to kill their children for food."^ It is the picture of these unfortunate beings when under the stress of starva- tion which has been handed down as the representative one, and their normal condition has been rarely noted or described with accuracy. If their life had its dark side, it was by no means unrelieved, for seasons of scarcity were followed by seasons of plenty, when the animal improvidence ' Bancroft's Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. I, p. 441. ^ Major J. W. Powell. 'Bancroft's Native Races, vol. I, pp. 427-440. ■* Major J. W. Powell. ^ Bancroft's Native Races, vol. I, pp. 427-440. 4 HISTORY OF THE COMSTOCK LODE. which characterizes their social state led them to revel in the present, which contained for them no reminder of the bitterness of the past or of the sure privations of the future. Yet such is the nature of the region bordering upon the eastern slope of the Sierras, and such the character of its savage inhabitants, that forty years ago no territory in America seemed more unlikely to attract a swarm of colonists. Except along its northern boundary there was nothing to tempt the entrance of the intrepid fur trader, and even the undaunted Jesuit missionaries contented themselves with maintaining the white crosses of their stations on its border line. Thus the outside world knew and cared to know but little of this broad and seemingly worthless tract, and the homes of the Basin tribes would have been secure from intru- sion to this day had it not been for the discovery of the treasures hoarded up in the barren ridges and canons. East of the main chain of the Sierra Nevada, between the parallels of 38° and 41 °, lies a range of hills separated from the great Sierra by three narrow valleys. Low cross spurs near the centre of the range connect it with the mountain chain and form a continuous rim to the shallow basin of the central valley. A miniature lake, fringed with woods in early days, hes in the basin, which received the name of Wash-o, from a distinctive tribe so called, whose fishing grounds were bounded on the north by a conventional line which crossed this valley. The territory north of this line, as far as the cluster of lakes on the parallel of 40°, was held by the Nyumas,^ a tribe of the Shoshonian family, and their lodges were scattered along the hne of a river which flowed down the northernmost of these valleys into the deep green waters of the lake named Pyramid by Fremont, who first caught sight of it, "set like a gem in the mountains," on the 10th of January, 1844.' Near the mouth of the river, among groves of cottonwood, was the main village of the fortunate Nyumas,^who had secured possession of one of the few oases of the Great Basin. Here they lived, well fed and peace- fully, except for an occasional wrangle with the neighboring Wash-o tribe. ' Or Kti-yu-\vi-ti-kut-teh, sucker-eatei-s, (probably a species of carp,) a tribe of the Pai-fi-te nation. Ste- phen Powers, Special Agent Smithsonian Institution. 2 Fremont's Expeditions, p. 216. • ' Fremont's Expeditions, pp. 218, 219. THE DISCOVERY OP GOLD. 5 over whom they domineered as a weaker and ahen people. In mental and physical traits, as well as in language, the distinction between these tribes was strongly marked. The bodies of the Wash-o were short and sturdy, with broad fat hips supported by bowed legs. Heavy cheeks, smeared with red earth, drooped like dewlaps below the sensual mouth and short flat nose. In the pear-shaped face were small deep-set black eyes, sometimes twinkling and merry, sometimes somnolent and bleared. Coarse black hair grew low down on the narrow forehead and fell about the neck and cheeks in a thick mop. The hands and feet were small and shapely, but the form otherwise was clumsy and ungainly. Scanty cover- ings of patched and dirty skins wei'e wound about the copper-colored bodies, but the natural layers of fat were the main protection against the winter winds. The Nyumas, on the other hand, were taller and lighter colored as a class than the Wash-o, their complexion having a peculiar ashen tint. The typical Nyumas of middle age had wide cheek bones and a lean, long face, with sunken cheeks and heavy superciliary ridges over the large black eyes, which stared about with keen, hungry looks, quite different from the tranquil and sensuous gaze of the Wash-o.^ In general habits of life, however, the tribes differed Httle. Their wants were few and easily supplied. With lines of wild flax fiber thrown deftly into the water they caught fish in abundance, and lying on tulle rafts— light bundles of reeds— the Nyumas skirted the shores of the lakes, or, crouching under a screen of bushes, ventured far out on the wind- swept surface.^ From the wild cane growing about the edge of the lake they made floats by which their fishing lines were buoyed in deep water, while the ease-loving natives watched the bobbing specks from the shore. Sometimes the men made short hunting excursions into the Sierran foot- hills in search of bears, elk, deer, antelope, as well as the smaller animals, such as red foxes and squirrels. The sage-covered plains abounded with ' hares, and this little animal was made to play a very important part in the domestic economy of the Shoshonian tribes, for not all among them were ' Manuscript : " The Indians of Western Nevada." Stephen Powers, Special Agent Smithsonian Institution' ' Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, April 3, 1873. (Pyramid Lake and adjacent lakes.) 6 HISTOEY OP THE OOMSTOCK LODE. good hunters, and the larger game offered a less certain supply of food than the hares, which were killed in great numbers by means of the bow and arrow, various snares and traps, and by " surrounds," in which many individuals took part. It was the hide of this animal, with its covering of fur, that, cut into strips and ingeniously sewn together into mantles, served as an admirable protection in winter. In the autumn, before the first frosts touched the pines, the women pulled the green, tight-closed cones from the trees and spread them in layers on the ground. The pitch-smeared husks burned hotly when a few embers were thrown among them, and the roasted nuts rattled out freely as the women struck the opening burs sharply with stones. A few weeks later the ripe nuts were thrashed from the boughs with long poles.^ Their favored position on the line of a stream abounding in fish saved them from the terrible destitution which afflicted other tribes of the Great Basin during the winter season. They, of all others, had reason to trust in the care of a supreme and beneficent Deity, and naturally their ideas of an overruling Providence were more definite and well established. As spring advanced and they could bask as before in the unclouded rays of a desert sun, stretching their fat bodies lazily on the sprouting grass, they bethought themselves of the existence of a spirit whose benign care they had experienced during the past and whose favor during the coming months they wished to gain. At the command of their chief they repaired to the bare top of some neighboring hill and built a circle of rude huts where the ground was most nearly level. In the centre of each of these circular piles of sage brush and pine boughs a small fire was kindled, and outside of each hut a heap of pine boughs blazed up brightly as the sun went down.^ When the light of the burning boughs flashed over the hut-inclosed circle, a ring of men and women was silently formed, dressed in scanty mantles of rabbit skins or short clouts of willow fiber, with a few ragged feathers, it may be, in their coarse black hair. Then, at a given signal, the circle slov/ly revolved like a great water-wheel, from right to left, keeping time to a low monotonous chant, all standing close ' Gold Hill News, September 19, 1873.— Stephen Powers. ° Territorial Enterprise, April 15, 1871. — "Indian religious dance and chants." THE DISCOVEET OF GOLD. 7 together with toes pointing toward the centre of the ring, and bodies circling around as a solid mass, the feet only appearing to move separately as they glided sideways a few inches with each rhythmical beat. From dusk to dawn this dance was kept up, the tired performers dropping out one by one to make room for others, and returning to their places as they became rested. The chants were varied, but all were addressed to the Great Spirit "Pah-Ah," water god or water giver, asking that he would grant them a good crop of pine nuts, or success in hunting and fishing. When the sun rose, the ring was broken, the fires extinguished, and the dancers returned to their every-day occupations of fishing and sleeping. Of this sort, varying in particulars but the same in general nature, were the religious practices of these tribes.^ Such in brief was the life of the people whom Fremont found in the valley of the Truckee, for so he named the river in honor of their white- haired chief. Ascending this river his party crossed a low ridge of brown hills January 17, 1844, and reached the banks of another stream which flowed in a nearly opposite direction.^ He had entered the fairest valley of the eastern slope, and yet how dreary was its aspect. To his right rose the dark, green wall of the Sierras, capped with irregular turrets of snow, and sloping upward steeply from the valley level. On the left, bare, red- dish-brown hills were piled up stiffly, like round-topped sugar loaves, in a broad range, lying nearly parallel with the Sierras. Narrow winding ravines or canons cut this hill chain at intervals, their steep slopes black with dry stunted cedars and underbrush, and between the ranges lay the flat ash-colored tract through which the little river ran, hidden from sight until the explorers reached its bank, though marked by patches of tall sycamores and plume-like poplars in a dotted line through the valley. From the foot of the hills to the river border the valley was a rolling plain of sage brush and sand in no way more fertile than the deserts which partly inclosed it. The little sierran stream ran like a courier from the mountains to the desert, only slackening speed at a few shallow basins 'Territorial Enterprise, April 19, 1871. — "Purport of chants, derived from old residents speaking Pah- Ute language fluently, as well as from members of tribe." Territorial Enterprise, January 16, 1870. — " Pah-Ute religious rite." ° Fremont's Expeditions, p. 319. 3 HISTOEY OF THE COMSTOCK LODE. where it overflowed the land in spring, half submerging the fringe of bushy trees and broad-leaved sedge. In these green marshes birds carolled and twittered gayly, resting, after their flight over the arid plains, in the fresh-leaved thickets or dipping with splattering wings in the cool water ; but when Fremont passed by, the birds had flown and the oases were dreary groves of brown leafless trees, bristling evergreens, and shivering reeds. A few crows, beating the air with heavy wings in their low flight above the bleak stretches of sage brush, only added by their presence to the desolation of the scene. As the explorers passed down the valley they heard no sound except of their own voices and of the sand crushed under the feet of their horses, and they saw no signs of human life except straggling Indian lodges and fish-dams, for the natives had run away in ignorant terror to the hills from which in covert the passage of the little troop was curiously watched.^ Fremont named the valley Carson, in honor of his well-known guide, but did not explore the region thoroughly, as his pack animals were fatigued and foot-sore and he was anxious to cross the Sierras as speedily as possible in order to recruit at the hospitable ranch of John A. Sutter, in the valley of the Sacramento. Besides, there was nothing which tempted him to linger in sight of the barren hills, which were indeed ugly caskets for the deposit of treasure. So far as is known, this was the first party of white men which trav- eled south along the eastern slope of the Sierras, though venturesome trappers had crossed different sections in their wanderings.^ Whatever transient communication may have taken place, it is certain at least that none of the explorers and pioneers had any thought of remaining in this ' Fremont's Expeditions, p. 219. ^ Captain Joseph E. Walker, who followed the course of the Humboldt River in 1833, crossed from its slough directly to the river which bears his name, and climbed the Sierras by the pass at its head.— (Manuscript Records, Bancroft's Library.) The pioneers under Bartleston, who left the Kansas River in May, 1841, followed Walker's route quite closely, and entered the Sieri'as like liim by ascending a branch of the Walker River. — ("A Journey to California," General John Bidwell and Manuscript Records.) Jedediah S. Smith, the first white man who is known to have crossed the Great Basin, passed over the Sierras three times in 1826 and 1827, but crossed in all probability by routes south of Walkei-'s Pass, though, he, too, skirted twice the course of the river now called the Humboldt, to which he gave the name of his Indian wife Mary. — (Manuscript Records, Bancroft's Library, San Francisco, Cal. ; Oration of Edmund Randolph, delivered September 10, 1860, before the Society of California Pioneers.) Fremont noticed that the Indians at the mouth of the Truckee River had a few buttons, which may have been obtained from a former unknown visitor or indirectly from the parties of Bartleston and Walker ^ ! ^. J _ _. _ 1. MAI' III' Till-: i'i..\ri:K\'ii,i.i': liDrri:, THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. g desert region or of interfering with the possessory rights of its native inhabitants. The chance visitations scarcely produced a ripple in the placid current of their lives, and the passage of the train of Fremont was remembered only as a pleasant vision, which the old chief babbled about in his dotage to his grandchildren.^ The march of the Mormon Legion and of the few hundred regular troops who were hurrying forward to grasp the empire of the Pacific coast impressed them only as a novel spectacle. Even on the 2d of February, 1848, the tribe were angling for trout as placidly as ever, ignorant that by the signature of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo their fishing grounds were transferred from one nation to another, and that they were thence- forth the wards of a more jealous guardian. In the natural but slow movement of farmers and herdsmen to the Californian valleys which fol- lowed the annexation of the new territory there was nothing which could alarm them, but the first cloud above their horizon appeared when the great stream of migration began to flow across the continent after positive information in regard to the gold placers of California was given, in the spring and summer of 1848. The train of emigrants which crossed the plains in the following year had no eyes to see the possible riches of the land through which they were passing, for their faces were set steadfastly toward the glittering beacon beyond the Sierras. After leaving Salt Lake, indeed, there was little temptation to straggle out of the beaten path. Rocks and sage brush bounded the horizon on every side. Their provisions were failing, their cattle were worn out, and their only trustworthy guide in the desert was the narrow track of the multitude which had gone on before. They moved between Scylla and Charybdis. "We were cautioned," writes John Bidwell, the chronicler of the Bartleston party, in 1841, "that if we got too far south we would get into the Great Sandy Desert; if too far north, we would wander and starve on the waters of the Columbia, there being no possibility of getting through that way."^ If they loitered by any chance on the road, the story of the horrible fate of the Donner party was dinn ed into their ears and the perils of a late passage ' Sarah Winnemucca. "A Journey to California, p. 15. 10 HISTOEY OF THE COMSTOCK LODE. over the Sierras filled their minds. At every step the white, choking alkali dust rose in clouds. Their faces were burned and sore, their lips cracked and bleeding, and their bodies stiff and aching. The orderly file of white- topped wagons became often a straggling line ; panting oxen dragged their heavy feet through the mire of the Humboldt slough only to fall dying on the sands of the 40-Mile desert, almost within sight of life-giving grass and water. Their wretched bodies were left to the coyotes and crows; wagon after wagon was abandoned, and the broken train crawled on to the valley of the Carson, the last oasis on their route. When the narrow stream with its fringe of grass and trees was reached, men shouted, women laughed and cried, and the dust-choked horses and oxen snorted and lowed with passionate thirst. The cattle rushed headlong into the river bed, and more than one emigrant followed their example and plunged his parched face into the water, drinking by gulps like the horses."^ The narrow stretch of thin grass cut by a winding brook was transfigured by its contrast to the desert which they had crossed. Ten years later Horace Greeley called it as fair a valley as he had seen,^ though he was whirled over the plains by relays of horses, while the emigrants of 1849 moved slowly and painfully with tired cattle. After a few days, however, the contrast appeared less vivid and the emigrants were eager to press on over the mountains to the land of gold. When the winter snows fell, cutting off the approaches, the valley was deserted except by the Indians, who had watched curiously during the summer the passage of this strange procession. Unlike the fiercer tribes to the north and south, the natives of the valley showed no disposition to repel the intruders. Favored ones of their number stalked about attired in white hats or tin basins, the gift of the emigrants, and the tribe quickly learned the three most attractive English words — whisky, tobacco, and bread. The first wagon train which entered the valley in the following spring was a noteworthy little caravan. Leaving Salt Lake in April they found fresh pasturage along the banks of the Humboldt River, and their cattle suffered little, though the heavy canvas-topped wagons were dragged ' David J. Staples, Vice-President of the Society of California Pioneers. San Francisco. 'Letter to New York Tribnne from Placerville, Ca!., October 19, 1859. THE DISCOVERT OF GOLD. H slowly over an untried track, as the beaten trail was flooded by the swollen river.^ The party were nearly all Mormons, led by Thomas Orr, still living (1881), a hale, clear-eyed old man, at Duncan's Mills, Sonoma County, California. They were an orderly if somewhat stolid company, obeying orders without questioning why, drawing up their wagons at nightfall in a circle, and sleeping under the eye of their watchman as composedly as sheep about their shepherd. At the sink of the Humboldt, in sight of the snow-capped Sierras, the wall of the promised land, even this cool-tempered, well-fed caravan began to hasten their steps. Some of the youngest and best mounted men rode forward rapidly to make the first trial of the mountain passes, and the main body followed by crossing the 40-Mile desert and ascending the valley of the Carson. On the 15th day of May they halted for a few hours, at noon, beside a little creek flowing down from the range of hills which bounded the valley on the east. The cattle were turned loose to graze among the sage brush, and the women of the party prepared the simple dinner of bacon and potatoes.^ William Prouse, a young Mormon, meanwhile picked up a tin milk-pan, and going down to the edge of the creek began washing the surface dirt. After a few minutes he returned and showed his compan- ions a few glittering specks on the bottom of the pan.'' The specks were gold dust, worth intrinsically only a few cents, thrown carelessly aside a few moments later,* but they were then transformed into precious and fruitful seed, for this pinch of dust was positive evidence of the existence of gold in the deserts of Western Utah, and that starting point once given, the exploration and development of the mineral resources of the land were assured.' The visionary prospector would willingly turn his back on the known riches of the Californian plains to wander over the alkaline sloughs 'Thomaa Orr, John Orr, Duncan's Mills, Sonoma County, California; Placer Times and Transcript, June 29, ISM. ^ John Orr, Thomas Orr. ^ Diary of William Prouse, entry on May 15, 1859. < William Prouse, living (January, 18S1) in Kanosh City, Millard County, Utah. 5 William Prouse declares that he made a still earlier discovery of gold dust in this same creek bed, in the autumn of 1848, on his return to Salt Lake from the South Fork of the American River. He lingered behind his party in order to prospect, and on coming up with the train again told its members, Joseph Bates, Frank Weaver, and Rufus Stoddai-d, that he would "sliow them a place, if they ever traveled that way again, where they could find gold."— (Letter of William Prouse, December 14, 18S0.) 12 HISTOET OF THE COMSTOOK LODE. and dusty plains of the unknown territory ; the wilderness north, east, south, and west would be searched with greedy eyes, and the threads of gold would be traced up the canon water-courses until the fountain-heads were reached and the hidden treasures of the mountains were brought to light. To the Mormon pioneers, however, the pinch of dust had no such far-reaching significance. They had scarcely heard of quartz mining and saw nothing attractive in the brush-covered hills with their jutting piles of tawny yellow rock — the bones of the land, as a fanciful writer declared,' showing through its rags. The creek sands were not rich compared with the Californian plains which their fancy imaged, and they were impatient to reach the El Dorado of their waking dreams. The train moved on therefore, up the valley again, until they met the advance division return- ing, who had left them at the sink of the Humboldt. The Sierras were reported to be impassable, and the united party accordingly turned back and were perforce content to remain three weeks longer in the valley. John Orr, the son of the Mormon leader, and several others returned to Gold Creek or Canon, as they named the ravine where the first signs of gold were found by Prouse, and resumed prospecting. Orr, with one companion, Nicholas Kelly, worked up the canon rapidly until, on the first day of June, they reached a point where the banks of the rocky ravine approached so near each other that a narrow passage only was left. Through this cleft the water of the creek flowed swiftly, falling over the rocks in tiny cascades. In a crevice at the edge of one of these little falls Orr thrust a butcher's knife and pried off a loose fragment of rock. The running water soon washed out the underlying dirt, and he saw a small golden nugget which the rock had covered. In a moment he held in his hand the first piece of metalliferous quartz from a district which has yielded the great bonanza of the present century.^ Other bits of gold- bearing quartz and gold dust as well were afterward obtained, but the prospectors lacked tools and provisions, and, bent on reaching California, abandoned the canon and crossed the Sierras as soon as the trail was sufficiently free from snow. But meanwhile other emigrants had entered the valley, and the new placer diggings were fairly opened.^ ' The Big Bonanza, p. 18. « John Orr. ^ California Daily Courier, July 8, 1850. THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 13 The news of the discovery of gold spreads from prospector to pros- pector precisely as the discovery of carrion is announced by the flight of vultures and crows. A horseman riding in haste toward some point off the beaten route is an intelligible sign and loadstone. So, for instance, two boys, Wand and Knous, while camping in the valley on the 1st day of August, saw a train of Mexicans plodding over the hills, carrying wooden bowls {batia) ,fAshioned from tree trunks, on their backs, and driving small donkeys loaded with provisions and miners' equipments. Following on the trail of this party the boys came up with them at Gold Canon and found them prospecting industriously.^ The creek was a mere thread of water, but the Mexicans knew how to whirl the dry placer sand in their bowls till the wind blew off the barren dust and the gold specks could be scraped with horn spoons from the bottom of the batia. Don Ignatio Parades was the leader of the expedition, a troop of peon miners whom he had brought from Alamos, Sonora. He had been guided to the canon by two native Californian prospectors and found the placer dirt fairly rich in gold. The peons worked contentedly therefore for some weeks, when they were obliged to abandon the placer, owing to the high price of sup- plies and the difficulties of transportation. The overland movement during this year (1850) was like the march of an army. On June 18, 39,000 emigrants had been registered at Fort Laramie, and it was estimated that 60,000 had set out to cross the plains by the northern or South Pass route aloae.' This mighty procession swept off every green thing in its path like a cloud of locusts, and by the month of August scarcely a blade of grass was to be seen along a stretch of 200 miles, from Martin's Fork to the slough of the Humboldt. For nearly the whole distance the route had become a continuous marsh, in which cattle were miring and dying by the hundreds. Within a radius of fifty miles from Humboldt Lake the country was literally strewn with carcases and the terrible effluvia from the rotting bodies tainted the air for miles around.'* The price of flour rose in Carson Valley to $1.50 per pound 'Thomas N. Wand, San Francisco, Cal. ^ Report of Capt. William Kindley, commanding Company B, U. S. Artillery, under Col. J. C. Fremont, August 29, 1860, to Colonel F. Foreman, Corresponding Secretary Relief Committee. ^California Daily Courier, July 8, 1850. 14 HISTORY OF THE COMSTOOK LODE. and to $2.50 at the sink of the Humboldt.^ Rehef parties were sent out from the California towns, but the privations of the emigrants and the little mining settlements in the valley became extreme. Work was sus- pended and the placer deserted until the following year.^ Thus the con- tinuous existence of a mining camp at Gold Canon may be said to date from the summer of 1851. ' Report of I. Neely Johnson, in charge of expedition sent by Relief Committee from Sacramento to Col. F. Foreman August 9, 1850. ' M. W. Dixon, Harrisburgh, Alameda County, California ; San Francisco Morning Call, February 8, 1880. CHAPTER II. THE GOLD CANON PLACER MINING COLONY. The organization of the early western mining communities was a simple autonomy, and the little colony scattered along the line of this ravine was a model of its kind. The authority of the national government was merely a name. Until September, 1850, the Gold Creek placer was on an unorganized portion of the national domain, and it lay beyond the undescribed circle over which the Mormon governor and priest ruled as caliph, though nominally within the limits of the independent State of Deseret. The miners acknowleged no magistrate or arbiter, and the placer was apportioned according to a rude notion of equity, or prior occupation, or tacit consent. Additions were made to the colony from time to time, and parties set out on exploring expeditions to the headwaters of the Humboldt River and Goose Creek,^ to the Walker River, 30 miles east of Carson Valley, and to the Truckee River, 40 miles north. Reports were brought back of rich surface diggings, but the majority of the miners preferred to remain at Gold Canon. The gravel was worked with rockers and long toms, and yielded from $5 to $10 per day to the man on the average, nearly 200 being at work during the autumn of 1851. Attracted by the opportunities of trading with the overland emigrants and by the fertility of the land along the banks of the Carson River, John , Reese and other Mormon pioneers took up little farms and ranches in the valley during the spring of 1851, and found a ready market for their crops and cattle.^ Their relations with the miners were at first friendly, although they had some cause to regard the placer workers as a camp of Ishmaelites; for when provisions were scanty, in the winter of 1852-3, ' Placer Times and Transcript, September 26, 1851. 'Letter to San Francisco Morning Call, February 2, 1880, from E. M. Barniim, Salt Lake City, in behalf of Colonel John Reese. 15 16 HISTOEY OF THE COMSTOCK LODE. ! 1 the miners held a httle meeting and concluded to supply their wants by the inexpensive method of a foray. Accordingly, a party made a sally from .! their camp and waylaid two trains moving from Salt Lake to Genoa, a little settlement which had grown up since May, 1851, about the farm of John Reese. The bold stand taken by the train men saved their bacon, for the assailants did not expect to meet with armed resistance and retired inglo- i riously.' i The natural line of separation between the peace-loving, stolid Mor- :j mon farmers and the reckless, bustling placer miners was drawn more \ deeply by such acts as this. Besides, the canon workers had little occa- i sion to mingle with the people of the valley. A station house was built . at the foot of the ravine in the winter of 1853-4, where provisions, liquor, \ clothes, and all needed supplies could be obtained, and a combined store, \ saloon, and bowling-alley was erected shortly afterwards at Maiden Bar, \ one and a quarter miles farther up the canon.^ In the autumn, after the summer heat was passed, the creek swelled ? even before any snow had fallen and the seepage from the hills increased. j Then miners began to flock to the placer from California and to work in the bed of the canon and the neighboring ravines. As the water sources grew dry in May or June the placer was then generally abandoned, and only a few miners remained along the slender line of the creek. Whether the colony was large or small, however, miners and farmers stood aloof from each other, though without any positive antipathy. By act of Congress, approved September 9, 1850, the territory of Utah had been established, but the Carson Valley settlers had been left without any district judge or magistrate until the formation of the county of Tooele, (March 2, 1852),^ embracing a tract so extensive that the settlers on its western border found the county organization of but little use. The increasing importance of the valley settlements and their complaint of the lack of all legally constituted authority finally induced the legislative assembly of Utah to pass an act, approved January 17, 1854, organizing • Democratic State Journal, January 11, 1853. Charles Barnard, Correspondent El Dorado News, Decem- ber 20, 1852. ' William Naileigh, Virginia City, Nevada, prospector at Gold Canon, 1853-1860. 'Acts and resolutions, Utah Territory, 1852. THE GOLD CASON PLACER MINING- COLONY. 17 the county of Carson and defining its boundaries, north by Deseret County, east by the 118th parallel of latitude, south by the boundary line of Utah Territory, and- west by California.^ By the same act,^ the territorial gov- ernor, Brigham Young, was "authorized to appoint a probate judge for the county when he shall deem it expedient, and this judge, upon his appoint- ment, shall proceed to organize the county by dividing it into precincts and causing elections to be held by law to fill the various county and precinct offices." Orson Hyde, a prominent Mormon elder, was accordingly assigned to the charge of the county as probate judge, and set out with a small escort from Salt Lake (May 17, 1855) for the valley of the Carson.' By act of the Utah assembly, approved February 4, 1852,* the probate judge, besides discharging the ordinary functions of his office, was empow- ered to exercise original jurisdiction in both civil and criminal cases. He was also constituted chairman of the county commissioners,^ and was intrusted with the arduous duty of conservator of the peace throughout the county.'' There was a provision for an appeal, under bonds, from his decisions to the supreme court of the territory,' but practically Hyde, as probate judge, was the ruling magistrate of the district, though the miners showed no regard tor his commission. But in the valley his arrivaP was heartily welcomed. The life of the simple people whom he there governed was not unlike that of the peasants of Acadie. They labored only to supply their humble wants. Even tempered as their draught oxen, and matching them also in slowness of thought and of action, they built their rude cabins of logs thatched with shakes, tilled their fields along the river banks, gathered their little crops, and troubled their minds about nothing except seed time and harvest. They looked up to Hyde as their spiritual as well as tem- poral director and received with unquestioning faith his inspired teaching. The harvest of 1855 was a meagre one, but the chosen people of Carson were fed by miraculous bounty. Hyde described this special providence ' Acts and Resolutions, Utah Territory, 1854. Section 1. ^ Section 2. 2 Mormon Church Records; Orson Pratt, sen.. Historian of the Church, September 17, 1880. * Acts and Resolutions Utah Territory, 1852, sections 27, 29. 6 Section 34. « Section 43. ' Section 30. « jung X5, 1855. (2 H C) 18 HISTORY OF THE COMSTOOK LODE. in a letter to the Placer American,^ announcing that "honey dew had fallen so bountifully on the small cottonwood along the river banks that the cit- izens were washing the leaves and boiling the syrup into sugar," and interpreted the prodigy by adding: "The people depended on their wheat to get groceries, but when the wheat failed, sugar fell from heaven." A Gentile physician and naturalist, who noted the same phenomenon, wrote to the Sacramento Union that this blessed manna was the "product of secerning tubules opening on the posterior part of the insect termed aphides or plant lice, of the family Hemipterse." The miners laughed at the sugar from heaven, but the pious faith of the Utah peasants remained unshaken.^ Their peaceful life was disturbed somewhat by the entry of a rough unruly set of ranchmen into Washoe Valley and upon lands lying along the Truckee River, who disputed the possession of the grazing pastures with the Mormons and the cattle-owning Indians; but the early settlers held their ground, in most instances, until they were commanded to gather up all their movable possessions, abandon their homes, and repair to Salt Lake City by a ukase of Brigham Young — issued when the safety of his church and people were menaced, as he averred, by the presence of the little army of United States troops under General Albert Sidney Johnson. The message reached the valley by express at nightfall, September 5, 1857. There was no thought of disregarding the summons or of question- ing its necessity. At the bidding of their leader they would have entered the jaws of death with dull obedience, a temper midway between the un- reasoning docility of sheep and the masterful sense of duty which drew on the Six Hundred at Balaclava. Accordingly, on the 26th of September, 1857, the Mormons of the valley, about 450 men, women, and children, all told, abandoned their farms and formed in a well-ordered procession, marshaled by captains of tens and hundreds, driving their cattle before them and carrying their household goods to the city across the desert.' ' Sacramento Union, October 29, 1855. ^ The party of Bartleston, fifteen years before, had eaten of this same tnainia, which the Indians were accustomed to scrape from the weeds and grass and mold into balls, crushing the living insects in their own gluten. — (A Journey to California, p. 16, and manuscript supplement.) 'Mormon Church Records: Orson Pratt, sen., September 17, 1880. THE GOLD CANON PLACER MINING COLONY. 19 « The Probate Judge, Orson Hyde, had gone to Salt Lake in the autumn preceding, leaving Carson Valley November 6, 1856. Shortly after his arrival at Salt Lake City, December 9, 1856, Carson County was attached to Great Salt Lake County for election, revenue, and judicial purposes, by act of the territorial legistature, approved January 14, 1857, and the probate and county court records were delivered over to the order of the probate court of Great Salt Lake County.^ The determining cause of this action is said by the authorized spokes- man of the church to have been the disturbed condition of Western Utah at the time;^ but, perhaps, a more sufficient reason may be found in the distance of the Carson settlement from the Mormon metropolis, the expenses of maintaining a separate county organization, and the unwill- ingness of the judge assigned to the district to cross a desert to hold his court. The miners at Gold Canon knew of the departure of the Mormon settlers and the loss of their judicial privileges, but regretted neither. They had never mingled sociably with the Mormons of the valley, and only a few of the departing settlers had attempted to join them in mining on the cafion.^ No cases were submitted to Judge Styles, and when application was once made to Orson Hyde to adjust a dispute he sensibly remarked that he " didn't propose to mix himself up with any Gentile messes."* The miners, left to their own devices, contrived to live together amicably as a rule. Disputes were settled informally by reference to associates and friends, or each contestant named an arbitrator, and the two referees so chosen selected a few associates to sit with them in judg- ment upon the case. Few occupations are more monotonous and colorless than the work of a scattered colony of placer miners along the line of a creek. The Gold Canon miners toiled in the usual way with long toms and rockers, washing the sand from the various bars, and when the richest placers were exhausted, carrying sacks and buckets of earth from the neighboring ' Sacramento Union, September 28, 1857, October 5, 1857. 'Mormon Church Records; Orson Pratt, sen., September 17, 1880. 'Mormon Church Records: Orson Pratt, sen,, Historian.