Virginia City

Sun Mountain and Old Virginny

Virginia City sits on the slope of Mount Davidson, first called Sun Mountain, at more than 6,000 feet, halfway between Reno and Carson City.^3,5 A monument in the center of town credits the Comstock Lode’s discovery to Ethan Allen Grosh and Hosea Ballou Grosh, followed by Patrick McLaughlin and Peter O’Reilly’s silver find on ground claimed by Henry T.P. Comstock and James Fennimore.² The monument dates the discovery to 8 June 1859 at the head of Six Mile Canyon, while a Chamber of Commerce marker places it in the spring of 1859 at the head of Gold Canyon.^2,6 The settlement was founded in 1859, and its residents named it for an early miner, James “Old Virginny” Finney.³ By April 1860 some 10,000 hopefuls from California had arrived, and Virginia City and Gold Hill had been laid out as cities.⁴ Virginia City was incorporated under the Utah Territory in 1861, and Storey County, organized in 1860, was named for Captain Edward Storey, who was killed in the Pyramid Lake Indian wars.^1,3

Square Sets and the Big Bonanza

In 1860 Phillip Deidesheimer invented square-set timbering, which let miners work large ore bodies at great depth, and a marker notes that he chose not to patent it and encouraged its free use.² By 1863 the town had 15,000 people, and the miners unionized that year; their union won the $4.00 daily rate in 1867 and the eight hour day in 1872.⁴ On April 7, 1869, fire broke out at the Yellow Jacket Mine’s 800-foot level, and by one account perhaps more than forty miners died in that worst incident, many of them never recovered.³ In 1873 Hermann Schussler brought water to the Comstock by inverted siphon from Marlette Lake, some 30 miles to the west.⁷ The state marker says the Virginia and Truckee Railroad first connected Virginia City to Carson City in 1869, while a Daughters of the American Colonists marker dates service to Gold Hill to December 1869 and to Virginia City to 1870.^8,9 On August 24, 1872, Superintendent Henry M. Yerington drove the last spike a mile west of Carson City, which joined Virginia City to Reno by rail.⁸ John Mackay, James Fair, James Flood and William O’Brien gained the Consolidated Virginia and California mines in 1871 by one account and in 1872 by another, and in 1873 they struck the Big Bonanza at the 1,167 foot level.^4,7 The population rose from 11,359 in 1870 to 20,000 in 1875, Chinatown counted more than 1,500 people at its height in the early 1870s, and by 1880 a third of Virginia City was Irish.^3,4 The 1940 state guide tells how Adah Isaacs Menken rode across the stage in Mazeppa wearing pink tights and lashed to an unsaddled horse, and how the camp gave her a bullion bar worth $2000.¹⁰

The Fire of October 26, 1875

Early on the morning of October 26, 1875, someone knocked over a coal oil lamp in a boarding house, and strong winds spread the blaze until thirty-three blocks were leveled.¹¹ The losses included St. Mary in the Mountains Catholic Church, the Storey County Courthouse, Piper’s Opera House, the International Hotel, and most of the business district.¹¹ Contractor Peter Burke began a new courthouse in 1876 and finished it in 1877 for $117,000.00, and the seven foot zinc Statue of Justice for its alcove arrived from New York that year at $236.00.¹ Legend has it that she was one of only a few made without a blindfold, though research has found about 20 such models in the country.¹ The Fourth Ward School opened in 1877 with space for one thousand students; new regulations in 1936 made it a financial burden, and in 1986 it reopened as a museum.^3,12 John Piper bought Maguire’s Opera House in 1875 and rebuilt it after that year’s fire, and when it burned again in 1883 its replacement went up on B Street, where the 1940 guide found it standing.¹⁰

Decline and the Landmark District

Production peaked at more than $38,000,000 in 1876 and fell to only $1,400,000 in 1881, while the population dropped to 15,448 by 1880 and to 9,000 by 1889.⁴ The collapse of the Bank of California and the crash of the San Francisco stock market in 1875 contributed to the decline of the Comstock District, and after a rich lode turned up at Bodie, California, in 1878, thousands of people left.⁵ A marker says the town’s worst years came during the depression of the 1930’s, when only several hundred people lived there.⁷ The Daughters of the American Colonists marker says the V&T closed down in 1939, while the state marker records the last train passing on May 31, 1950.^6,8,9 A dwindling Virginia City held on, in part through a change that followed the premiere of the television show Bonanza in 1959, and from 1959 to 1974 the series put a mythical Virginia City on the screen.^3,13 In 1961 the National Park Service listed the Comstock as the Virginia City Historic Landmark District, which takes in Virginia City, Gold Hill, Silver City, and Dayton, with 400 buildings on 14,750 acres.^3,5 The town’s water still comes from the Marlette Lake source, and water from the mines still drains out at the mouth of the Sutro Tunnel.⁷