THE SEARCH FOR GOLD.
Gold was first discovered in Nevada in the spring of 1850, by some
Mormon emigrants. They had started for California, but so early in the
season that when they arrived at the Carson River they learned that the
snow on the summit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains was still too deep to
allow of their being crossed. This being the case, the party encamped on
the Carson to await the opening of the road.
Having nothing else to do, some of the men of the party began
prospecting for gold. Their camp on the river being at no great distance
from the mouth of the Gold Cañon, the largest cañon in the neighborhood,
they were naturally attracted to it and there began their prospecting
operations.
Although they knew but little about mining, and had only pans with which
to wash the gravel, they found gold sufficiently plentiful to enable
them to make small wages. It does not appear, however, that the
discoverers worked them longer than until they were able to continue
their journey to California.
Other emigrants coming in and encamping on the river learned of the
discovery of gold in the cañon, and, being anxious to begin gold-digging
as soon as possible, did some prospecting along the bed of the ravine.
But the gold being fine (_i. e._, like dust—in fine particles), and the
quantity not being up to their expectations, nearly all pushed on to
California, where they expected to make fortunes in a few weeks or
months; as all believed, that they, through their superior acuteness,
would find places in some of the dark and secret gulches of the Sierras
where they would be able to gather pounds of golden nuggets.
Finally, Spofford Hall, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, arrived across the
Plains and, thinking it a good point at which to establish a permanent
station, erected a substantial log-house at a point not far from the
mouth of the Gold Cañon. This was for some time known as Hall’s Station.
Afterwards it was known as M^cMartin’s Station, the property having been
purchased by James M^cMartin, a man who came across the Plains with Mr.
Hall. This house stood on ground now covered by the town of Dayton and
was still being used as a store at the time of the discovery of silver,
it being then owned by Major Ormsby, killed at Pyramid Lake, in 1860, in
the first battle with the Piutes.
This discovery of gold at the mouth of Gold Cañon was undoubtedly that
which led to the discovery, some years later, of the Comstock lode—the
first step, as it were, to the grand silver discovery of the age. At the
head of Gold Cañon are situated a number of the leading mines of the
Comstock range.
In the spring of 1852 a considerable number of men began working on the
lower part of Gold Cañon, most of them using rockers in their mining
operations. As these men did well, making from $5 to $10 per day, the
number of miners on the cañon was considerably greater in the winter and
spring of 1853, there being as many as two or three hundred men at work.
As there was little water in the bed of the cañon except during the
winter and spring months, few miners were to be seen at work in
summer—seldom more than forty or fifty.
As the miners worked their way up the cañon from bar to bar, a new town
was eventually founded at a point a few miles above the first settlement
at its mouth. This was a little hamlet of a dozen houses of all kinds,
and was christened Johntown. In this little town or “Camp,” as such
places are usually styled in mining countries, lived Henry Comstock, who
gave his name, some years later to the great silver lode; also, Peter
O’Riley and Patrick McLaughlin, the discoverers of the Comstock vein.
“Old Virginia” (James Finney, or Fennimore), in whose honor Virginia
City, the great mining town of Nevada, was named, was also a resident of
Johntown in the early days, as were several other persons who are now
classed among the worthies of the Comstock range.
[Illustration: “OLD VIRGINIA” AT HIS ROCKER.]
From about 1856 up to 1858, Johntown was the “big mining town” of
Western Utah—at least was the headquarters of most of the miners at work
in the country. All told, the camp contained only about a dozen
buildings, some of which were mere shanties, but many of the miners
preferred to camp out during the spring and summer months—they had no
use for houses.
A large number of Chinamen being at work at the mouth of the cañon, near
where the gold was first discovered, that place finally became known as
“Chinatown,” a name which it long retained, though the whites who
settled there did not much fancy the name. They gave the place the name
of Mineral Rapids, but this did not take; then there was danger of it
being christened Nevada City, but the citizens rose in their might and
at a meeting, held November 3d. 1861, the name of Dayton was unanimously
adopted, and Dayton it has ever since remained.
The Chinamen mentioned, forty or fifty in number at first, were brought
over from California, in 1856, to work on a big water-ditch, by means of
which water was to be brought to the Gold Cañon mines from the Carson
River. Finding they would be allowed to mine in certain places, others
followed, and at one time not less than one hundred and eighty
Mongolians were at work at the lower end of the Cañon.
The Celestials probably found very good pay, even in the places where
they were allowed to plant their rockers, as it is said that the bars
for some miles up the cañon paid well when first worked, there being
places where an ounce per day was taken out.
The cañon continued to pay pretty fair wages for some years, and was
still being worked at the time of the discovery of silver and the grand
silver excitement which immediately followed.
Literature was not neglected at this early period in the history of
Washoe. There were, even in the early days when Johntown was the great
mining centre of the country, two spicy weekly papers published in the
land. They were written on foolscap, often several sheets, and, by being
assiduously passed from hand to hand, were widely circulated in the
several settlements. These papers were everywhere eagerly read. One,
called the _Scorpion_, was published at Genoa, and was edited by S. A.
Kinsey; the other was published at Johntown and was edited by Joe Webb.
It was called _The Gold-Cañon Switch_. These papers were both published
between the years 1854 and 1858.
The people of Johntown, though not numerous, were jovial. They were fond
of amusements of all kinds. Nearly every Saturday night a “grand ball”
was given at “Dutch Nick’s” saloon. As there were but three white women
in the town, it was necessary, in order to “make up the set,” to take in
Miss Sarah Winnemucca, the “Piute Princess” (daughter of Winnemucca,
chief of all the Piutes). When the orchestra—a “yaller-backed
fiddle”—struck up and the ‘French four’ was in order, the enthusiastic
Johntowners went forth in the dance with ardor and filled the air with
splinters from the puncheon floor. When a Johntown “hoss” balanced in
front of the “Princess” he made no effort to economise shoe-leather.
[Illustration: THE PRINCESS SARAH WINNEMUCCA.]
Even in those early days and in that primitive community, the “beast of
the jungle” was known in the land. The “boys” were not allowed to
languish for want of amusement. When their sacks of gold-dust became
painfully plethoric, and too heavy to be conveniently packed around,
Jacob Job, the leading merchant of the place used to deal faro for them
“out of hand;” that is, he took the cards from his hand and laid them
out on the table, instead of drawing them from a box such as is used in
the game by regular “sports.”
Billy Williams, a man who had a ranche up in Carson Valley, occasionally
came down to Johntown in seasons of great auriferous affluence, and
dealt for the boys a little game called “Twenty-one.” Faro, out of hand,
and Twenty-one, with Williams at the helm, usually sent all the male
Johntowners back to their toms and rockers, each man financially a total
wreck.
About 1857-58 the diggings along Gold Cañon showed signs of failing, all
the best bars and banks being pretty well worked out. It was only
occasionally that a rich spot could be found, and most of the miners
were only making small wages. That this was the case is evident from the
fact that about this time the Johntowners, the mining men of the land,
began to scatter out through the country and make prospecting raids in
all directions among the hills.
[Illustration: JACOB JOB’S LITTLE GAME.]
In 1857, several men from Johntown, struck gold-diggings on Six-mile
Cañon. This cañon heads on the north side of Mount Davidson, while Gold
Cañon, in which gold was first found, heads on the south side of the
same mountain. The heads of the two cañons are about a mile apart, and
through the eastern face of Mount Davidson, across a sort of plateau,
runs the Comstock Silver lode. The lode (or lead), extends across the
heads of both cañons, and the gold that was being mined in both came
from the decomposed rock of the croppings of the vein.
Thus, it will be seen, these early miners were approaching the great
silver lode from two points—on Gold Cañon towards the south, and on
Six-mile Cañon toward the north side of Mount Davidson. But not a man
among them knew anything of what was ahead. They were only working for
gold and were looking for that nowhere but in the gravel of the ravines;
none of them having thought of looking for gold-bearing quartz veins.
The men who were mining on Six-mile Cañon first struck paying ground, at
a point nearly a mile below the place where silver ore was afterwards
found in the Ophir mine. The gold was in clay, which was so tough that
before it could be washed out in rockers it was necessary to “puddle”
it—that is, put it into a large square box or a hole in the ground, and
dissolve it by adding a proper quantity of water and working it about
with hoes or shovels. Even working in this way, the men were able to
make from five dollars to an ounce per day. The gold found at this
distance down the cañon was worth about $13.50 per ounce.
The miners on Six-mile Cañon sold their dust in Placerville, California.
Being acquainted with some California boys who were mining in a place
called ’Coon Hollow, our Washoe miners were in the habit of buying a
certain quantity of fine dust of them, which they mixed with the gold
from Six-mile Cañon, when they were able to sell the whole lot at such a
price as was equal to fifteen dollars per ounce for their own dust. As
they worked further up the ravine, toward the Comstock lode, the gold
deteriorated so rapidly in weight, color and value, that this game could
no longer be played. The gold-buyer looked upon the mixture of Six-mile
Cañon and ’Coon Hollow products and pronounced it a delusion and a
snare.
[Illustration]