The Bonanza King

by Gregory Crouch

  “steadily prosecuted”: “Local Mining Summary for the Week Ending May 4, 1872,” Gold Hill Daily News, May 4, 1872, article transcribed in the Ellin Berlin Collection, UNR, 90-87/Box 6.

  “nothing new”: “The Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, July 10, 1872, citing Gold Hill Daily News, July 6, 1872.

  almost two years before: The San Francisco Chronicle noted that fact in “Stocks,” October 13, 1872.

  “the joke of”: Berlin, Silver Platter, p. 201.

  “dull, heavy”: “APPALLING EXPLOSION,” Gold Hill Daily News, July 15, 1872, article transcribed in the Ellin Berlin Collection, UNR, 90-87/Box 6; “Terrible Boiler Explosion and Loss of Life,” Sacramento Daily Union, July 18, 1872, quoting Territorial Enterprise, July 16, 1872.

  likely place to find ore: “The Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, July 23, 1872, citing Gold Hill Daily News, July 20, 1872. For information on crosscutting west, see “The Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, July 29, 1872, citing Gold Hill Daily News, July 27, 1872.

  “very hard”: “Washoe,” Mining & Scientific Press, September 7, 1872, citing Gold Hill Daily News, August 31, 1872.

  “important development”: “The Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, August 25, 1872, citing Gold Hill Daily News, August 17, 1872.

  Con. Virginia stock gave up: “Financial and Commercial” and “Stock Market,” Daily Alta California, September 12, 1872.

  They turned the main drift: Raymond, Mining Industry of the States and Territories of the Rocky Mountains, Including Quartz, Placer and Hydraulic Mining; Amalgamation; Concentration; Smelting, Etc., 1874, p. 110; Smith, The History of the Comstock Lode, pp. 149–50.

  “No new developments”: “The Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, September 16, 1872, citing Gold Hill Daily News, September 14, 1872.

  “a put up job”: “Stocks,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 18, 1872.

  purchases of Central No. 1: “Stock Market,” Daily Alta California, September 18 and 19, 1872.

  under the Firm’s control: Smith, History of the Comstock Lode, p. 157.

  “jumping up and”: “Stocks,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 21, 1872.

  “confidential whisperings”: “Bulls and Bears,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 29, 1872.

  “confident of finding”: Territorial Enterprise, September 19, 1872, quoted in Smith, History of the Comstock Lode, p. 150.

  Mackay landed in New York: “Passengers Arrived,” New York Times, September 20, 1872. See the first note in this chapter for analysis.

  seven or eight days to reach Nevada: Susan Coolidge, “A Few Hints on the California Journey,” Scribner’s Monthly, May 1873, pp. 25–31, https://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/336RR.html, accessed October 28, 2017.

  assessment on September 26: “Consolidated Virginia Mining Company,” Daily Alta California, September 27, 1872.

  V&T’s first passenger train from Reno: “First Train,” Gold Hill Daily News and “Railroad Trains,” New Daily Appeal (probably meaning the Carson Daily Appeal), October 1, 1872, texts online at virginiaandtruckee.com, accessed October 30, 2017.

  “Why levy an”: “Bulls and Bears,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 29, 1872.

  hoisting through the incline: “The Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, September 9, 1872, citing Gold Hill Daily News, September 7, 1872; September 23, 1872, citing Gold Hill Daily News, September 21, 1872; October 1, 1872, citing Gold Hill Daily News, September 28, 1872; October 28, 1872, citing Gold Hill Daily News, October 26, 1872.

  “in the subterranean”: “What’s in a Name?” Oakland Daily Transcript, November 15, 1872, and “Nevada Items,” Daily Alta California, November 16, 1872, both articles citing Gold Hill Daily News.

  The great contemporary furor: “Unmasked!” San Francisco Chronicle, November 26, 1872.

  “the most gigantic”: Robert Wilson, “The Great Diamond Hoax of 1872,” Smithsonian, June 2004, citing San Francisco Chronicle, text online at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-diamond-hoax-of-1872-2630188/, accessed October 31, 2017; Lavender, Nothing Seemed Impossible, pp. 294–320.

  production had more than doubled: “The Mining Interest in 1872,” Mining & Scientific Press, January 11, 1873; “The Bullion Product of Nevada,” Mining & Scientific Press, February 8, 1873; “Product of the Nevada Mines,” Mining & Scientific Press, March 15, 1873; Raymond, Mining Industry of the States and Territories of the Rocky Mountains, Including Quartz, Placer and Hydraulic Mining; Amalgamation; Concentration; Smelting, Etc., 1874, pp. 108, 120.

  “a high and”: Raymond, Statistics of Mines and Mining in the States and Territories West of the Rocky Mountains, 1874, pp. 178–79.

  Ralston had Mills elected: Lavender, Nothing Seemed Impossible, pp. 294–360.

  it did serve the interests of the Comstock: Milton Friedman, “The Crime of 1873,” Journal of Political Economy, vol. 98, no. 6 (December 1990), pp. 1159–94; Richard White, The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States During Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865–1896 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), pp. 260–64; Lavender, Nothing Seemed Impossible, pp. 331–36.

  “strongest and most durable manner”: “The Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, November 25, 1872, citing Gold Hill Daily News, November 23, 1872.

  “steamed up”: “The Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, December 23, 1872, citing Gold Hill Daily News, December 21, 1872.

  The breakage of an air blower: “The Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, November 18, 1872, citing Gold Hill Daily News, November 15, 1872.

  “excellent indications”: “The Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, September 23, 1872, citing Gold Hill Daily News, September 21, 1872; “Washoe Mining Summary,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 23, 1872.

  “hard, blasting porphyry”: “The Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, October 21, 1872, citing Gold Hill Daily News, October 19, 1872.

  “no extra favorable”: “The Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, October 7, 1872, citing Gold Hill Daily News, October 5, 1872.

  and the Gould & Curry: “S. F. Stock and Exchange Board,” Mining & Scientific Press, December 21, 1872; “Meetings and Elections,” Mining & Scientific Press, January 11, 1873.

  “very rich rock”: “Stocks,” San Francisco Chronicle, March 18, 1873. Although the article was published more than two weeks later, it said that Flood had been making this claim “a few weeks since.”

  “growing rumors of”: “Financial and Commercial,” Daily Alta California, March 9, 1873; also, “The Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, March 10, 1873, citing Gold Hill Daily News, March 8, 1873.

  The other was the tip: Con. Virginia sources, August 1872 to March 1873: “The Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, citing Gold Hill Daily News of two or three days before, August 13, September 9; September 23, October 1, October 7, October 14, October 21, October 28, November 6, November 12, November 18, November 25, and December 2, 1872; January 6, January 13, January 20, January 27, February 3, February 11, February 17, 1873; also, “Washoe Mining Summary,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 23, 1872; “Washoe,” in every issue of the Mining & Scientific Press (a weekly) from August 31, 1872, to March 1, 1873.

  “the withdrawal of”: “The Horse Epidemic,” New York Times, November 1, 1872.

  The epizootic swept: The progress and consequences of the epizootic tracked through searches for “horse disease” and “epizootic” in New York Times’ TimesMachine, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com, between the dates of October 1, 1872, and May 1, 1873, and the same bounded searches made at the California Digital Newspapers Collection, https://cdnc.ucr.edu, both searches made November 2, 2017.

  “like a prairie fire”: “The Epizootic in Virginia City,” Daily Alta California, March 11, 1873; “The Epizootic,” Carson Daily Appeal, March 11, 1873; also, “Washoe,” Mining & Scientific Press, March 15, 1873.

  Mail, express, and staging: “The Horse Disease,
” Carson Daily Appeal, March 12, 1873; “Stopped by the Epizootic,” Carson Daily Appeal, March 13, 1873.

  Con. Virginia stock: A table of “bear market” shrinkage in “Financial and Commercial,” Daily Alta California, March 12, 1873.

  “under the influence”: “Financial and Commercial” and “Stock Market,” Daily Alta California, March 19, 1873.

  “All of which”: “Stocks,” San Francisco Chronicle, March 18, 1873.

  “the most important”: “From Virginia City, March 19th,” Marysville Daily Appeal, March 20, 1873.

  Mackay fired Sam Curtis: Smith, History of the Comstock, p. 152, citing Territorial Enterprise, March 25, 1873.

  Considering the small-town nature: The author is indebted to his son, Ryan, for this observation: “It’s like a small town. All these guys seemed to know each other, or else knew somebody who knew the other guy.”

  fired for talking too much: “Stock Review,” San Francisco Chronicle, March 30, 1873.

  advice from the mine on March 23: “Our Weekly Stock Review,” Mining & Scientific Press, March 29, 1873.

  They’d been aggressively advancing: The Territorial Enterprise mentioned the plan and Mr. Schussler on May 28, 1872: “Nevada Items,” Daily Alta California, May 31, 1872, citing Territorial Enterprise, May 28, 1872.

  “push the work”: “Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company,” Mining & Scientific Press, February 1, 1873, quoting Gold Hill Daily News.

  “the blowing of a whale”: De Quille, History of the Big Bonanza, p. 172.

  “unbounded hilarity”: “Papers Just Received from Virginia City,” Marysville Daily Appeal, August 8, 1873, presumably quoting one of them.

  Water Company were “jubilant”: “Water Flows in Virginia City,” Sacramento Daily Union, August 2, 1873.

  Comstock’s previous supply: “Hydraulic Engineering on the Pacific Slope,” Mining & Scientific Press, December 13, 1873; “Preface,” A General Business and Mining Directory of Storey, Lyon, Ormsby, and Washoe Counties, Nevada, Virginia City, compiled by John D. Bethel & Co., 1875, transcribed in the Ellin Berlin Collection, UNR, 90-87/II/8, pp. 11–15; Lord, Comstock Mining and Miners, pp. 322–25; “The Firm Joins the Water Company, Which Brings a Supply from the Sierras,” Grant Smith Collection, UCB, Box 2: Folder 8; John Debo Galloway, Early Engineering Works Contributory to the Comstock (Nevada Bureau of Mines, 1947), pp. 57–74; James, The Roar and the Silence, p. 110; Mark McLaughlin, “Historic Water Pipeline to Virginia City,” Tahoe Weekly, July 5, 2017, and “Historic Water Pipeline to Virginia City, Part II,” Tahoe Weekly, July 12, 2017.

  “Thus it is”: “Preface,” A General Business and Mining Directory of Storey, Lyon, Ormsby, and Washoe Counties, Nevada, Virginia City, compiled by John D. Bethel & Co., 1875, transcribed in the Ellin Berlin Collection, UNR, 90-87/II/8, pp. 14.

  “Pacific Coasters”: “Pacific Coasters in Paris,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 28, 1873.

  running total of the two mines’ dividends: “Financial and Commercial,” Daily Alta California, June 8, 1873, then adding the $2 million for June.

  $20 and $40 million: “The Two Great Mines of the Comstock,” Mining & Scientific Press, March 22, 1873.

  “surface lumps”: “Financial and Commercial,” Daily Alta California, June 8, 1873.

  proved a perfect failure: “Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, August 18, 1873, citing Gold Hill Daily News, August 16, 1873.

  “Whether it is”: “The Bulls and Bears,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 6, 1873.

  “a brilliant operation”: “Stock Etchings,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 20, 1873.

  “long-forbidden lower”: “Consolidated Virginia,” Daily Alta California, November 1, 1873, citing Territorial Enterprise, October 29, 1873.

  “very rich ore”: “The Consolidated Virginia,” Mining & Scientific Press, April 4, 1874.

  not to attempt: “Notes of Travel in Nevada,” Mining & Scientific Press, October 19, 1872.

  “a frolicsome rat” attempted to jump: “A Singular Accident,” Sacramento Daily Union, November 25, 1873.

  CHAPTER 15: THE BIG BONANZA

  paid $31,000 for a three-story house: Real estate agent William Magee to Grant Smith, June 9, 1930, citing San Francisco Book 724 of Deeds, p. 264, Grant Smith Collection, UCB, Box 1, Folder 18. (The property had changed hands for $7,000 three and a half years before—a price inflation that will feel familiar to modern San Franciscans.)

  list of thirty-seven failed banking: “The Crisis,” New York Herald, September 21, 1873.

  “money scared too”: “Financial and Commercial,” New York Herald, October 5, 1873.

  The crisis dropped the economy: “Cooke’s Crash,” New York Herald, September 19, 1873; “The Crash,” New York Herald, September 20, 1873; “The Crisis,” New York Herald, September 21, 1873; White, Railroaded, pp. 79–87; White, The Republic for Which It Stands, pp. 260–73.

  “endless-wire rope-way”: “Hallidie’s Endless-Wire Rope-Way,” Mining & Scientific Press, February 18, 1871.

  “novel railroad”: “A Novel Railroad,” Mining & Scientific Press, September 27, 1873.

  2,250 passengers per day: “Clay Street Railroad,” Mining & Scientific Press, May 30, 1874.

  “a new Superintendent”: “New Superintendent of the Consolidated Virginia,” Territorial Enterprise, April 19, 1874, article transcribed in the Ellin Berlin Collection, UNR, 90-87/Box 6; “Births,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 19, 1874; “Born,” Sacramento Daily Union, April 20, 1874.

  “looking as fresh”: “Personal,” Territorial Enterprise, May 22, 1874, article transcribed in the Ellin Berlin Collection, UNR, 90-87/Box 6.

  Years later, Alexander recalled: “The Mackay Family in San Francisco and Paris,” Grant Smith Collection, UCB, Box 2, Folder 8, citing a series of interviews with Alexander O’Grady. (Alexander claimed that Colonel Hungerford went with the family to Europe in 1871–73. He is probably conflating memories of the 1871–73 trip with those of later years. Contemporary newspaper articles place Colonel Hungerford in Lower California and San Francisco until April 1874. The first mention of Colonel Hungerford in Europe discovered by the author occurred in December 1875. That makes sense in light of Mackay’s rise. Mackay was a successful miner and mine owner from 1871 to 1873. Not until the opening of the Con. Virginia’s fifteen-hundred-foot level in late 1874 would he become one of the richest men in the world.)

  The reorganization divided: “A New Mining Company,” San Francisco Bulletin, December 31, 1873; “Financial and Commercial,” Daily Alta California, January 1, 1874; “Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, January 5, 1874; “Our Weekly Stock Review,” Mining & Scientific Press, January 10, 1874.

  the Firm owned the lion’s share: Other Comstock historians have decried the California consolidation as a stock market maneuver, generally based on Smith, History of the Comstock Lode, p. 158, footnote 31, which says, “There was no need to divide the bonanza between two companies. The purpose was to create a new mine for the stock market.” That is not true. Smith’s logic depends on future developments. Given what was known about the ore body in late 1873, there was no way to combine the ground between the Best & Belcher and the Ophir into a single entity in a manner fair to existing Con. Virginia stockholders—the Con. Virginia had proven ore, all of it south of the shaft, and the two Central mines did not. The only way to simplify the ownership in a manner fair to Con. Virginia stockholders was to divide the ground into two mines, one with proven ore and one without. And since Con. Virginia stockholders couldn’t be expected to give away the shaft and machinery they’d built, the most logical place to make the break was in unexplored ground just north of the shaft, exactly as was done. It must have been considered fair at the time, since every inch of the consolidation involved high-value mining property and it provoked no howls of outrage.

  What few reports escaped: “Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, February 20, 1874, citing Gold Hill Daily News, February 14, 1874;
other sources for Con. Virginia development in January and early February 1874: “The Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, January 5, 12, 21, 26, February 2, and February 20, 1874, all citing Gold Hill Daily News of a few days before; “Our Weekly Stock Review” and “Washoe District,” Mining & Scientific Press, January 3, 10, 17, 24, 31, February 7, and February 14, 1874; “Pacific Coast Items,” Sacramento Daily Union, January 27, 1874.

  “opening out splendidly”: “Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, April 11, 1874, citing Gold Hill Daily News, April 9, 1874.

  very, very rich: “The Consolidated Virginia,” Mining & Scientific Press, April 4, 1874.

  growing brighter every day: “Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, April 26, 1874, citing Gold Hill Daily News, April 23, 1874.

  $400,000: “Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, May 3, 1874, citing Gold Hill Daily News, April 30, 1874.

  the ore body had doubled: “Washoe District,” Mining & Scientific Press, May 2, 1874; “Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, May 9, 1874, citing Gold Hill Daily News, May 7, 1874; May 18, 1874, citing Gold Hill Daily News, May 14, 1874; May 29, 1874, citing Gold Hill Daily News, May 21, 1874; May 29, 1874, citing Gold Hill Daily News, May 21, 1874; June 1, 1874, citing Gold Hill Daily News, May 28, 1874; June 6, 1874, citing Gold Hill Daily News, June 4, 1874.

  $35 million: “Heavy Yield,” Mining & Scientific Press, February 28, 1874; the Con. Virginia “bids fair” to rival the Crown Point and the Belcher: “The Gold Hill News of last evening,” Carson Daily Appeal, May 10, 1874.

  though the Belcher alone: “The Belcher,” Mining & Scientific Press, September 19, 1874.

  Miners, carpenters: “Nevada Mines,” Daily Alta California, May 29, 1874, citing Gold Hill Daily News, May 21, 1874.

  The new pneumatic tools: “New Machinery at the Consolidated Virginia,” Mining & Scientific Press, June 13, 1874; “Burleigh Drills,” Mining & Scientific Press, August 8, 1874.