The Bonanza King

by Gregory Crouch

  Some owners became willing: “By Magnetic Telegraph,” Daily Alta California, December 12, 1859, quoting Territorial Enterprise of December 10, 1859; also, “The Washoe Mines,” Sacramento Daily Union, December 27, 1859, citing correspondence from Virginia City written on December 18, 1859.

  “forty-nine prices”: “From Genoa,” Sacramento Daily Union, December 19, 1859.

  After that, they ran out: “Early Days on the Comstock,” New York Times, and Grant Smith Collection, UCB, Box 4, Folder 1, p. 37.

  “You boys come”: Grant Smith, citing an interview with William E. “Billy” Sharon (a Comstock mine superintendent and nephew of the William Sharon who will play a large part later in this story), Grant Smith Collection, UCB, Box 4, Folder 1, p. 40.

  isolation seemed to diminish: “Our Washoe Correspondence, April 4, 1860,” Daily Alta California, April 15, 1860.

  Local developments held more: “Recovering,” Sacramento Daily Union, December 22, 1859; Hearst’s sale and purchase: “From Carson Valley,” Sacramento Daily Union, November 29, 1859.

  “a very heavy”: “Our Washoe Correspondence,” Daily Alta California, March 14, 1860.

  “a lump [of silver]”: “State Summary,” California Farmer and Journal of Useful Sciences, January 6, 1860.

  fifty-eight thousand ounces: “The Influence of Washoe on the Exchanges of the World,” Daily Alta California, February 10, 1860.

  “hard fisted men”: San Francisco Weekly Bulletin, February 25, 1860, article transcribed in the Ellin Berlin Collection, UNR, 90-87/VI/6 “Washoe.”

  “Go where you”: “Washoe and Fox-Lox,” Daily Alta California, February 19, 1860.

  “Are you going”: “Letter from Washoe,” Marysville Daily Appeal, February 29, 1860.

  talk in all the saloons: “Dottings [SIC] of the Times,” Marysville Daily Appeal, March 2, 1860.

  “the Ho!”: “The Washoers,” Marysville Daily Appeal, March 8, 1860.

  proposed trans-Sierran rush: Other Washoe rush sources: “California Gossip, February 20,” New York Times, March 12, 1860; “From California, February 20, 1860,” New York Times, March 12, 1860; “The Mines of Washoe,” New York Times, March 13, 1860; “From California, March 2, 1860,” New York Times, March 22, 1860; “From California, March 9, 1860,” New York Times, March 30, 1860.

  “heartrending”: “Cattle Dying in Carson Valley,” Daily Alta California, January 29, 1860.

  fifteen thousand horses: “Our Washoe Correspondence. A Fearful Winter,” Daily Alta California, May 1, 1860; also, “Letter from Washoe,” Sacramento Daily Union, May 8, 1860; severe winter conditions in Carson Valley, Virginia City, and Gold Hill, winter of 1859–60: “Interesting news from the land of silver,” Daily Alta California, January 18, 1860; San Francisco Herald, January 20, 1860; “Cattle Dying in Carson Valley,” Daily Alta California, January 29, 1860; “Letter from Carson Valley, Virginia City, Jan. 20, 1860,” Daily Alta California, February 1, 1860; “Carson Valley Correspondence,” Sacramento Daily Union, February 3, 1860; “Letter from Carson City,” Daily Alta California, February 10, 1860; “Carson Valley,” Visalia Weekly Delta, February 11, 1860, quoting a letter to the Iowa Hill Patriot; “The Other Side About Washoe,” Daily Alta California, February 16, 1860; “Letter from Carson Valley,” Sacramento Daily Union, February 20, 1860; “More Testimony Against the Bulkhead,” Daily Alta California, March 16, 1860; “Our Washoe Correspondence,” Daily Alta California, April 15, 1860; “Our Washoe Correspondence—A Fearful Winter, April 24,” Daily Alta California, May 1, 1860.

  “freezing and starving”: “Honey Lake News—Indians Freezing and Starving,” Sacramento Daily Union, December 24, 1859.

  alleviate the native misery: Ibid.; “Interesting News from the Land of Silver,” Daily Alta California, January 18, 1860; San Francisco Herald, January 20, 1860.

  “The recent discoveries”: “The New Silver Mines,” Sacramento Daily Union, November 10, 1859.

  CHAPTER 4: THE RUSH TO WASHOE—AND AN INDIAN WAR

  “an article of faith”: J. Ross Browne, “A Peep at Washoe,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, December 1860, p. 10.

  “execrable brandy, warrented”: “A Returned Washoeite’s Narrative,” Daily Alta California, March 16, 1860.

  “stopping now and”: Browne, “A Peep at Washoe.”

  “like a great”: Ibid., p. 12.

  to reach the new mines: On the rush to Washoe, see “A Returned Washoeite’s Narrative,” Daily Alta California; San Francisco Herald, March 23, 1860, quoted in Grant Smith Collection, UCB, Box 1, Folder “Comstock Notes 1858–1863”; Adolph Sutro, “A Trip to Washoe,” Daily Alta California, April 11, 1860; “Notes of Washoe,” Sacramento Daily Union, April 27, 1860 (a letter written on April 18, 1860); “Letter from Washoe, April 28, 1860,” Sacramento Daily Union, May 8, 1860; Browne, “A Peep at Washoe.”

  a lone rider galloping toward them: Adolph Sutro, “A Trip to Washoe, Continued,” Daily Alta California, April 14, 1860; the Pony Express leaves San Francisco: “The Pony Express,” Daily Alta California, April 4, 1860.

  averaged eight miles per hour: “Starting of the Pony Express,” Sacramento Daily Union, April 5, 1860.

  “a primitive wilderness”: “A Returned Washoeite’s Narrative,” Daily Alta California.

  “the concentrated energy”: “Our Washoe Correspondence, April 4, 1860,” Daily Alta California, April 15, 1860.

  “corralled” all of the: Ibid.

  “good tidings from”: “The Present Effect of Washoe Upon Business,” Daily Alta California, March 22, 1860.

  one Mr. Peck: “The Mineral Rod Man,” Territorial Enterprise, February 10, 1871, article transcribed in the Ellin Berlin Collection, UNR, 90-87/Box 6.

  Mr. Winn, who owned: “Washoe Items,” Daily Alta California, April 26, 1860.

  one man in fifty: “Our Washoe Correspondence, April 4, 1860,” Daily Alta California, April 15, 1860

  “Endless chaffering”: Ibid.

  “made good use of”: Ibid.; see also Adolph Sutro, “A Trip to Washoe,” Daily Alta California, April 11, 1860.

  thickening ore vein: “From California, February 6, 1860,” New York Times, February 27, 1860; San Francisco Herald, March 23, 1860, quoted in Grant Smith Collection, UCB, Box 1, Folder: “Comstock Notes 1858–1863”; “Interesting from the Washoe Country,” Marysville Daily Appeal, April 26, 1860.

  large returns expected: On Virginia City, Gold Hill, and Comstock lode conditions, April 1860: “A Letter from Washoe, April 2, 1860,” Sacramento Daily Union, April 9, 1860; Frank Soule, “Our Washoe Correspondence, April 4, 1860,” Daily Alta California, April 15, 1860; Adolph Sutro, “A Trip to Washoe (written April 8, 1860),” Daily Alta California, April 11, 1860; “A Trip to Washoe, Continued (written April 8, 1860),” Daily Alta California, April 16, 1860; Frank Soule, “Our Washoe Correspondence, April 15, 1860,” Daily Alta California, April 21, 1860; “Washoe Items,” Daily Alta California, April 26, 1860

  “under-current”: “Washoe,” Daily Alta California, April 22, 1860.

  “It makes a difference”: “Pecksniff Papers, No. 1,” Daily Alta California, March 17, 1860; “Later from Washoe,” Marysville Daily Appeal, September 28,1860, confirms the site of the Uncle Billy Rogers mine.

  The practice ruined several: “Our Special Washoe Correspondence, May 8, 1860,” Daily Alta California, May 15, 1860.

  “a view toward maintaining”: “Our Washoe Correspondence, April 4, 1860,” Daily Alta California, April 15, 1860.

  “entirely out of”: Ibid.

  “laboring, panting, staggering”: “Our Special Washoe Correspondence, May 3, 1860,” Daily Alta California, May 12, 1860.

  “ten kegs of”: “Our Washoe Correspondence, April 4, 1860,” Daily Alta California, April 15, 1860.

  “two bits a glass”: “Our Washoe Correspondence, April 4, 1860,” Daily Alta California, April 15, 1860. Other articles commenting on the quantity of whisky in camp and its “renewable” characteristics: Frank Sou
le, “Our Special Washoe Correspondence, April 15, 1860,” Daily Alta California, April 21, 1860; Frank Soule, “Our Special Washoe Correspondence, April 24, 1860,” Daily Alta California, May 3, 1860; Frank Soule, “Our Special Washoe Correspondence, May 3, 1860,” Daily Alta California, May 12, 1860; also, J. Ross Browne, “A Peep at Washoe (second paper),” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, January 1861, pp. 150–51.

  dust devil whirlwinds: “Our Special Washoe Correspondence, May 6, 1860,” Daily Alta California, May 13, 1860.

  first westbound Pony Express rider: “Arrival of the Central Overland Pony Express at Carson City,” Sacramento Daily Union, April 13, 1860.

  “Only those who”: “City Items—Arrival of the Pony Express,” Daily Alta California, April 13, 1860.

  an inch, at any price: “A Letter from Washoe,” written April 2, 1860, Sacramento Daily Union, April 9, 1860; “Our Washoe Correspondence,” written April 4, 1860, Daily Alta California, April 15, 1860; Frank Soule, “Our Washoe Correspondence,” written April 9, 1860, Daily Alta California, April 16, 1860; Adolph Sutro, “A Trip to Washoe, Concluded,” Daily Alta California, April 14, 1860; “California Gossip, April 20, 1860,” New York Times, May 15, 1860.

  refused an offer of $150,000: “Interesting News from the Washoe Country,” Marysville Daily Appeal, April 26, 1860.

  “plenty as blackberries”: “A Returned Washoeite’s Narrative,” Daily Alta California, March 16, 1860.

  “many very rich”: Tennessee letter to San Francisco Herald, April 23, 1860, David Thompson, ed., The Tennessee Letters from Carson Valley, 1857–1860, p. 134.

  county mining records do show: 5 feet to C. B. Land of California on February 24; 20 feet to A. E. Kennedy on May 9; 15 feet from John L. Newman on June 14; 15 feet to E. Said on July 8: Margaret M. Quinlan, Office of Storey County Recorder and Auditor to Grant Smith, August 19, 1930, Grant Smith Collection, UCB, Box 1, Folder 18.

  “ore of rich”: “Washoe Items,” Daily Alta California, April 26, 1860.

  “a company owning”: “California Gossip, April 20, 1860,” New York Times, May 15, 1860.

  “five days in every week”: Margaret M. Quinlan, Office of Storey County Recorder and Auditor to Grant Smith, August 19, 1930, Grant Smith Collection, UCB, Box 1, Folder 18.

  Indian massacre at Williams Station: “From California, May 21, 1860,” New York Times, May 21, 1860; Frank Soule, “Our Special Washoe Correspondence, June 1, 1869,” Daily Alta California, June 9, 1860, says four whites were killed; Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1883), p. 71, says that when her people saw [the girls’] condition, “they at once killed both brothers and set fire to the house.”

  “not fond of”: Hopkins, Life Among the Piutes, p. 51.

  “There is no”: Angel, ed., History of Nevada, p. 151.

  “That sovereign cure”: “From California, May 21, 1860,” New York Times, May 21, 1860.

  “chastise the savages”: “Our Washoe Correspondence. Carson City, May 9, 1860,” Daily Alta California, May 15, 1860.

  “a vast deal”: Frank Soule, “Our Special Washoe Correspondence, May 8, 9, and 10, 1860,” Daily Alta California, May 15, 1860.

  “clean out the”: “The Carson Valley Massacre,” Sacramento Daily Union, May 15, 1860.

  “truly amusing”: Tennessee letter to San Francisco Herald, May 13, 1860, Thompson, ed., The Tennessee Letters from Carson Valley, 1857–1860, p. 135.

  “an Indian for”: Angel, ed., History of Nevada, p. 153.

  “toughs”: William Stewart, Reminiscences of Senator William M. Stewart of Nevada, p. 124.

  “hollow and threatening”: Frank Soule, “Our Special Washoe Correspondence, May 11, 12, and 13, 1860,” Daily Alta California, May 18, 1860.

  “high glee”: Samuel S. Buckland, “Indian Fighting in Nevada,” Nevada Historical Society Papers, Vol. I, 1913–1916, p. 172.

  “heavy wind and snow”: “The Fight Near Pyramid Lake,” Sacramento Daily Union, May 21, 1860, reprinted from San Francisco Bulletin.

  “No, sir, it”: Ibid.

  “Don’t kill me”: Angel, ed., History of Nevada, p. 157.

  “returned heroes”: “Another Version of the Battle,” Sacramento Daily Union, May 24, 1860 (sarcasm drips from the usage).

  55 white deaths: J. B. Trask, “The Western Utah Massacre,” Sacramento Daily Union, June 8, 1860, reprinted from San Francisco Bulletin; 39 returned alive: “From California, May 21, 1860,” New York Times, June 13, 1860; Ferol Egan, author of Sand in a Whirlwind: The Paiute War of 1860 (New York: Doubleday, 1972), p. 155, claims 70 white dead; Ronald M. James, The Roar and the Silence: Virginia City and the Comstock Lode (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1998), p. 40, claims 76 whites died.

  “too numerous for”: “Our Washoe Correspondence. Carson City, May 18, 1860,” Daily Alta California, May 22, 1860.

  and two slain horses: First Battle of Pyramid Lake: Angel, ed., History of Nevada, pp. 145–65 (much of Angel’s account was compiled from the Indian perspective; Angel’s brother, Eugene Angel, died in the fight); Samuel S. Buckland, “Indian Fighting in Nevada,” Nevada Historical Society Papers, Vol. I, 1913–1916, pp. 171–74; Dennis Cassinelli, “The Pyramid Lake Indian Wars, Part 2: The First Battle,” https://denniscassinelli.com/2014/04/05/pyramid-lake-indian-wars-first-battle/, accessed August 13, 2016; Ferol Egan, Sand in a Whirlwind: The Paiute Indian War of 1860; Hopkins, Life Among the Piutes, pp. 70–75; William C. Miller, “The Pyramid Lake Indian War of 1860: Commentary, Notes, and Transcription,” Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, Summer Issue, September 1957, pp. 37–53; De Quille, History of the Big Bonanza, pp. 73–84; Stewart, Reminiscences of Senator William M. Stewart of Nevada, pp. 123–25; Scott R. Trepel, “The Impact of Indian Attacks on the Pony Express in 1860,” PDF downloaded August 11, 2016, https://siegelauctions.com/enc/Pony_Indians.pdf; Sally Zanjani, Devils Will Reign: How Nevada Began, pp. 126–41; contemporary newspaper accounts: “City Items,” Daily Alta California, May 14, 1860; “The Indian Massacre,” Sacramento Daily Union, May 14, 1860; “The Latest from Carson Valley,” Sacramento Daily Union, May 14, 1860; Frank Soule, “Our Special Washoe Correspondence, May 8, 9, and 10, 1860,” Daily Alta California, May 15, 1860; “Our Washoe Correspondence. Carson City, May 9, 1860,” Daily Alta California, May 15, 1860; “Latest Dispatches from Carson Valley,” Sacramento Daily Union, May 15, 1860; Frank Soule, “Our Special Washoe Correspondence, May 11, 12, and 13, 1860,” Daily Alta California, May 18, 1860; “From California, April 16, 1860 (a misprint, must be May 16, 1860),” New York Times, June 8, 1860; Frank Soule, “Our Special Washoe Correspondence, 2 P.M., May 13, 1860,” Daily Alta California, May 17, 1860; “Facts of the Battle,” Tennessee Letter to San Francisco Herald, May 18, 1860, Thompson, ed., The Tennessee Letters from Carson Valley, 1857–1860, pp. 138–41; “From California, May 21, 1860,” New York Times, June 13, 1860; “The Fight Near Pyramid Lake,” Sacramento Daily Union, May 21, 1860, reprinted from San Francisco Bulletin; “Another Version of the Battle,” Sacramento Daily Union, May 24, 1860, reprinting from Nevada Democrat; “The Indian Fight at Pyramid Lake,” Sacramento Daily Union, May 26, 1860, reprinting from San Francisco Herald; “Letter from Carson Valley [From a Lady Correspondent], May 29, 1860,” Sacramento Daily Union, June 4, 1860; “The Western Utah Massacre,” Sacramento Daily Union, June 8, 1860; “War with the Indians,” New York Times, June 12, 1860, quoting “The Carson Enterprise,” presumably Territorial Enterprise, May 15, 1860.

  “war of extermination”: “The Indian Massacre,” Sacramento Daily Union, May 14, 1860.

  “agog”: “City Items,” Daily Alta California, May 14, 1860.

  “in full war paint”: “From California,” New York Times, May 21, 1860.

  “clearing out Carson Valley”: “The Latest from Carson Valley,” Sacramento Daily Union, May 14, 1860.

  The Territorial Enterprise estimated: “From California, May 21, 1860,” New York Times, June 1
3, 1860, reported Territorial Enterprise estimate.

  “females and children”: “The Latest from Carson Valley,” Sacramento Daily Union, May 14, 1860.

  a jackass caught: “From California, May 21, 1860,” New York Times, June 13, 1860; “The Late Fight Near Pyramid Lake,” Sacramento Daily Union, May 19, 1860.

  “It is deplorable”: “Our Washoe Correspondence,” Daily Alta California, May 22, 1860, almost certainly written by Frank Soule.

  “frightened hombre”: “Map Traps of Virginia,” Daily Alta California, July 17, 1862.

  Major Daniel E. Hungerford: I. I. Murphy, The Life of Colonel Daniel E. Hungerford; Ellin Berlin, Silver Platter: A Portrait of Mrs. John Mackay; William Downie, Hunting for Gold, pp. 180–86; Grant Smith, “The Hungerford Family,” Grant Smith Collection, UCB; “Colonel Daniel Hungerford,” Ellin Berlin Collection, UNR, 90-87/III/3.

  “look after some”: Edmund Bryant to My Dear Father, May 31, 1860, John B. Reid and Ronald M. James, eds., Uncovering Nevada’s Past: A Primary Source History of the Silver State (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2004.), pp. 14–15; Bryant is also mentioned in “From California, May 21, 1860,” New York Times, June 13, 1860.

  “the protestations of”: “Matters in Washoe,” Sacramento Daily Union, May 26, 1860.

  heads of the astonished soldiers: Frank Soule, “Our Special Washoe Correspondence,” Daily Alta California, June 9, 1860.

  “plenty of sign”: “The Indian War—Letters from an Officer of the Volunteers,” Daily Alta California, June 16,1860.

  Second Battle of Pyramid Lake: Frank Soule, “Letter from the Indian Country, May 28, 1860,” Daily Alta California, June 7, 1860; Frank Soule, “Our Special Washoe Correspondence,” Daily Alta California, June 9, 1860; “The Washoe War,” Sacramento Daily Union, June 12, 1860, reprinted from San Francisco Bulletin; Frank Soule, “Our Special Washoe Correspondence: The Chase After the Redskins,” Daily Alta California, June 15, 1860; “The Indian War—Letters from an Officer of the Volunteers,” Daily Alta California, June 16,1860.