OCR Text |
Show The Exciting Days of the Comstock Now that Nevada is Looming Up Again Through Discoveries at Tonopah, the Past Greatness of Virginia City is Reminiscent and Interesting to Old Timers. The recent death of John Vf. Mac-kay, Mac-kay, and the recording of his will which disposes of his vast fortune, bring vividly to mind the exciting days of the discovery of the great Bonanza mine in the Comstock lode at Virginia City. It will be many a year hence before those days in the early '70s will be forgotten by the mining interests of this country, and, while equally as great deposits of metal have since been found in many places, and especially in Montana and the placer mines of Alaska, none has produced a greater upheaval in financial circles that did the discovery of the great Bonanza. What is without doubt the best and most interesting record of the discovery discov-ery of the Bonanza mine is given by Charles Howard Shinn in his volume entitled "The Story of the Mine," issued is-sued by D. Appleton & Co., as one of their "Story of the West" series. It is from this volume that we quote much of the following article, with the kind permission of the publishers. Among the hundreds who were attracted at-tracted to Virginia City in 1860 was Mackay. He had been placer mining in California since 1852. In that state he had experienced the ups and down that come to virtually all prospectors, and with his lasjt stake he removed to Nevada to try his luck in the new diggings in the Comstock lode. He was Dublin born, but had been in this country coun-try for a number of years, eighteen of which he. had spent in the mining camns of the west. At Virginia City practically all conditions con-ditions were against him, but he had with him his own keen perception, his industry and the good luck that sometimes some-times follows the miner. Within a short time after the arrival of Mackay, William Sharon began the operations that gave him control of virtually all the paying properties in the Comstock lode. He was backed by almost unlimited un-limited means, and played the game with all the audacity of the plunger, and won. He controlled practically everything that was considered valuable valu-able in the mining districts of Nevada, and virtually manipulated the stocks to suit his own convenience. His hand was against all those who were not included in-cluded in his combinations, if he thought there was any possibility of their winning. He paid but little attention at-tention to Mackay and those interested with him, for the reason that he did not expect them to win. Passing over Mackay's early ventures ven-tures and his work in the mines with pick and shovel as an employe of others, let us start him at the beginning begin-ning of that venture which resulted in the discovery of the Great Bonanza and made of him a many- times millionaire. mil-lionaire. With him were associated James G. Fair, James C. Flood, William Wil-liam S. O'Brien and J. M. Walker, though the latter soon sold out his interests in-terests to Mackay. The other four ! became the four "bonanza kings" of the period. There was one stretch of 1,310 feet on the lode that was believed to be unprofitable. It had been operated by assessable stock companies until the stockholders had refused to stand further fur-ther assessment, and this could be bought at a nominal price. Mackay and Fair had both made considerable money out of another venture they had been interested in, principally a matter of speculation, and they, with the other three who became interested with them, could produce quite a sum of money. Together they bought this tract of property, determined to stake all they had upon its exploration -to great depths. The stretch of land had cost them to secure control by buying the majority of the stqck in the mines located upon It, about $100,000, but this gave them three-fourths of all the different dif-ferent stocks.' During 1872 they pushed a drift through at a depth of 1,167 feet, and for months worked without finding any trace of the treasure house for which they were seeking. James G. Fair was the superintendent, and at last his trained eye discovered a narrow nar-row seam of ore not wider than a knife blade. He ordered his men to follow it, and they did so. Overwork upon Fair's part brought on a severe illness, and during this illness ihe miners lost trace of the narrow ore vein, but it was found again when he returned to his place in the mine. The work thus far had cost many thousands thou-sands of dollars: stock assessments had been made until it was thought the outside stockholders would not stand another, and the stock rapidly decreased, de-creased, and the daring operators were said by the public to have come to grief. Sharon and his followers v ere chuckling in their sleeves at the seem- Ing discomfiture of the men. who for a time they feared might find the bonanza bo-nanza they were seeking. While matters were in this condition the narrow metallic film so long followed fol-lowed began to widen until it measured seven feet across. A month more of I work, and the vein was twelve feet wide, and a few weeks more saw thf vein forty feet wide. From this n,nt a new shuft was sunk 17,0 feet in a southeasterly direction, and the Great Bonanza had been tapped; "the very top had been pried off from nature's huge treasure house." hat had the daring prospectors found? We will quote from Mr. Shinn's work to answer the question. First, as to the rise in the value of the mining min-ing stock, which they held, and then as to the value of the ore as estimated by competent men: "... The genera! public hadoeen roused to a sudden fever of excitement excite-ment and the value of the famous mines rose every hour on the stock boards. In December, 1S74, Consolidated Consoli-dated Virginia reached $160 per shar rising again In January to $700, which made the selling value of thf mine $75,600,000. California stock went even higher, for it was said that the bonanza bo-nanza ex tended over the Consolidated Virginia in such a way as to give th California mine the larger part. California Cali-fornia shares worth $37 in September rose to $780 in January, 1875. making the valuation of that mine $84,210,000. The 1,310 feet on the lode which had I j been valued five years before at $40.- I 000 or $50,000, was now worth in the I market, according to stock sales, about 1 i $160,000,000." I Of the estimated value of the ore in sight at this time. Mr. Shinn says: "Now that the Pacific coast was stirred with the great news, estimates of the actual 'ore in sight began to be in order. I have alluded to the first newspaper estimate of about $116,000,000. Next came Mr. Diedes-heimer, Diedes-heimer, the inventor of the 'square-set system,' and one of the most careful mining engineers on the Pacific coast. ' He reported to the directors that there was $1,500,000,000 in sight, and added that each mine ought to pay in dividends divi-dends $5,000 a share under proper management. man-agement. A little later he gave proof of his faith in his own report by putting put-ting every dollar he could raise into shares in the two mines are the highest high-est price. Even the director of the Carson mine, with his assistants, who examined the bonanza, was nnable to fix any definite ';mit to its yield, and thought there was not less than $-00.-000,000 already in sight. Mackay. however, how-ever, a miner of unsurpassed judgment, judg-ment, utterly refused to make any estimate, es-timate, and flatly said it was an impossible im-possible task, because barren masses of rock, porphyry, the difficulty of obtaining ob-taining accurate assays, and many other elements of .uncertainty, made calculation absurd. He 'preferred to mine it out first and then take the milling returns.' " But the days of the great bonanza and, in fact, the whole Comstock lode, are virtually over. Mackay and his associates became millionaries, and he and James G. Fair have since then played prominent parts in other walks of life. They got out of the lode before be-fore the fall came. Of present conditions con-ditions Mr. Shinn says: "After 1S79, the close of the bonanza period came with exceeding swiftness. The stock of the thirty mines on the lode, valued in 1875 at over $393,000,000, sank in February, 1880. to something less than $7,000,000. California sold for $1.25 a share and the Consolidated Virginia Vir-ginia for $1.90, and so on down tho forlorn list. How had the mighty fall- " en! The great Bonanza, after yielding yield-ing in five years nearly $105,800,000, was exhausted, and nothing even approaching approach-ing in value to the earlier group of ore bodies has since been discovered. Hundreds of thousands of tons of low grade rock have been taken out of ! long neglected portions of the mines and worked at a profit; small divi- , dends have been paid by a few mines, and the working efficiency of the ledge has been well maintained. There may be new bonanzas in the depths or new grains of metal hidden in husks of porphyry, but nothing of striking im- portance has since been found. Once J more the endurance of the mine own- j ers and of the towns on the lode is being severely tested. California I ceased paying dividends in 1873; Con- solidated Virginia paid its la..t divi- j dend in 18S0. Fourteen years of bor- I rascaha have ruined successive stock- holders, have caused the decay of once populous mining towns, and have, in i short, come near to breaking the . hearts of the brave old Comstockers." : . I |