Part 7

The first miners at Gold Hill were really at work in a “chimney” of the Comstock, a little hill sometimes called “Gold Hill proper,” to distinguish the hill from the town. Much gold was taken out of the top of this chimney, and at depth it yielded many millions in silver. Although scores of millions have been taken out of the vein beneath the foundations of the town, it is still yielding its millions, and still new ore bodies are being developed in the great vein.

Under the town are situated the world-famous Crown Point, Belcher, Yellow Jacket, Imperial, Kentuck, Confidence, and other mines, while farther down the canyon (under Lower Gold Hill) are the Overman, Alta, Benton, Justice, and several other well-known mines. The mining works in the town are in every respect first-class and are lighted with electric lamps. In the town are many fine buildings, both public and private. There is a handsome Catholic Church, and the High School building is one of the best buildings of the kind in the State. The Miners’ Union have a commodious hall on Main Street, and the other societies and orders have fine halls. Conspicuous among the private residences of the town is that of U. S. Senator J. P. Jones—the “Jones mansion,” as it is familiarly called. The town has an abundant supply of water (from the Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company’s works), and is well supplied with fire hydrants; it also has electrical lights. In 1878 the population was about 8,000, but it is now less than half that number. About the town are many handsome private grounds. Shade and ornamental trees begin to abound, and to the north, towering hundreds of feet above the town, are picturesque castellated piles of bare granite rocks. The Virginia and Truckee Railroad passes through the town.

Silver City.

Silver City is situated on Gold Canyon, a short distance below Lower Gold Hill. The two towns are separated by a rugged ridge of porphyritic rock, through which is a pass only three or four rods wide, known as the Devil’s Gate. About and below Silver City much gravel mining was done by the Johntowners in the early days. It was at Silver City that the first silver mill (Paul’s Pioneer) was built. It had a newspaper—the _Washoe Times_—before a newspaper was published in Virginia, the _Territorial Enterprise_ being then (1860) published in Carson City. At one time it had many big silver mills and promised to be the big town of the State; but the tide turned and all crowded in about the big mines at Virginia City. The town contains at present a population of only about 600. There is a fine public-school building, church, Miners’ Union Hall, and many handsome and comfortable dwellings, with an adequate supply of saloons, stores, and shops.

About the town are an immense number of small veins of gold-bearing quartz that pay from the surface down. Nearly every head of a family in the town has his own mine, and when he wants money he shoulders his pick, goes out to his mine, and digs it, as a farmer in the East digs a “mess” of potatoes. Of late some large veins have been opened up in and about the town—as the Oest, Hawood, and others—and Silver City bids fair soon to become a busy mining center. The people have lived off their home mines for thirty years, and constitute the most thoroughly independent mining community to be found in Nevada.

Dayton.

Dayton, the county seat of Lyon County, lies five miles below Silver City, on the Carson River, at the mouth of Gold Canyon. The beginning of this town was a log building, erected as a dwelling and trading-post by John McMarlin, in the fall of 1849. Being on the overland wagon road passing over the Sierras by the Placerville route, there was a good deal of trade with incoming immigrants, as well as with the miners, who soon began to earn from $8.00 to $12 a day in the gravel bank and bars of Gold Canyon. In 1856, about fifty Chinamen came over the mountains and began mining on the lower part of the canyon, working over the banks and bars left by the white miners. In 1858, nearly 200 Chinamen were at work in the canyon from its mouth up toward Johntown. These had their shanties about McMarlin’s store, and the place took the name of “Chinatown,” by which name it was known at the time of the discovery of silver.

In 1861 an attempt was made (many whites having then settled there) to give the place the name of “Nevada City.” This did not take, as there was already a Nevada City in California, and for a time the town was called “Mineral Rapids,” but this finally gave way to the present name of Dayton. The place grew apace, it being then expected that nearly all the ore of the Comstock would be worked at and near the town in mills driven by water-power. This hope was not realized, though several fine mills were built near the town. It had in 1878 a population of about 1,200, and has since held its own very well. Though not a very large town, it has always been a very pleasant and flourishing one.

The Carson and Colorado Railroad passes through the town, and from this a branch built in 1888 extends down the river to the Rock Point Mill. Here (at Dayton) is to be the scene of the operations of the Carson River Dredging Company, an Eastern incorporation headed by Dr. J. H. Rae. The object is to pump up from the bottom of the Carson River the millions in gold and silver, amalgam, and quicksilver, washed into the river and lost with the tailings running from the many mills. No doubt the “millions” found their way into the river, but whether they can be brought out of its bottom by means of a big suction pump remains to be seen. It is the universal wish that the dredger may prove a success. All will be in readiness to try it this season on a large scale.

Dayton contains good public buildings of all kinds required, both county and town, has several mills, and many handsome private residences, surrounded with gardens and fruit and shade trees. In summer the place is completely embowered.

The acid works of J. M. Douglass & Co. manufacture daily two tons of sulphuric acid. The sulphur used is a native product of Nevada, and is brought from the mine in Humboldt County at a cost of $40 a ton. Dayton is surrounded with a fine agricultural and grazing region. A narrow-gauge railroad five miles long runs down the river from the Douglass Mill to a large tailings reservoir.

Sutro.

Sutro is a town laid off at the mouth of the Sutro Tunnel by Adolph Sutro. Mr. Sutro claimed that his town would kill Virginia City, as all the reduction works would be located there, and all the miners would reside there, passing to and from their work through the tunnel. As there would no longer be any need of anyone remaining in Virginia, the place would be given up to bats and owls—coyotes would sit upon the peak of Mount Davidson and “bay the moon.” Believing Mr. Sutro to have got hold of the mantle of some ancient financial prophet, many persons were induced to flee the “wrath to come” (bats, owls and coyotes), and settle down at the mouth of the tunnel. There was quite a brisk little town there for a few years, but when the tunnel was completed and the miners discharged Sutro’s “bats and owls” came home to roost—they found no rest for the soles of their feet at Virginia. Once the men who had been engaged in driving the tunnel went away, there was nothing more to make or keep up a town than at any other point along the edge of the valley; for the big reduction works promised by Mr. Sutro were never built.

Carson City.

Carson City is the county seat of Ormsby County and the capital of Nevada. It is situated in Eagle Valley, immediately east of the high-timbered hills forming the eastern base of the main range of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Unlike the majority of Nevada towns, it has a dry, level plain for its site. The city was laid out in 1858 by Major Ormsby and others. The streets conform to the cardinal points of the compass. There being no lack of level land, the streets were made sixty-six and eighty feet wide. Previous to 1858 there was no town where Carson now stands, and only one house, which was at Eagle Ranch, which ranch gave its name to the valley in which it was situated. Afterwards this ranch became better known as King’s Ranch.

Carson City grew rapidly from the start, for it was not only pleasantly situated, but also occupied an advantageous position as a center of trade. For several years in its infancy it derived a good deal of benefit from its trade with the great immigrant trains that yearly rattled in across the “plains;” besides, it was a halting-place for people rushing to the silver mines from the California side of the mountains. In nearly all directions it is surrounded by excellent agricultural and grazing lands. With the regular and scientific opening of the mines Carson became the headquarters of an enormous trade in wood, lumber, and mining timbers, a business it still retains. The city has at present a population of about 4,100.

Carson contains many fine and costly buildings, both public and private. The pride of the city is the State Capitol. It is the most striking structure in the place. The building is handsome architecturally, being well proportioned in all its parts. It also has a very substantial appearance, as it is constructed of stone throughout. This stone is a beautiful, fine-grained sandstone obtained from a quarry at the State prison, about a mile and a half east of the town. The building was erected in 1870. The Capitol occupies the center of a square several acres in extent. This square is surrounded with a handsome and substantial iron fence. The grounds are handsomely laid out and well kept. They are well swarded and contain a great variety of shade and ornamental trees, shrubbery, and flowering plants. The whole is a credit to the State.

The U. S. Branch Mint building is a large, substantial, and imposing structure. It is also of stone, from the State Prison quarry. The building was completed in July, 1869. It has done and is still doing a great deal of work.

The State Orphans’ Home is a large and well-arranged building with a small farm in connection therewith. In this institution a great number of orphan children from all sections of the State are cared for. The home is governed in a paternal way, and the children are well clothed, well fed, and well educated both morally and intellectually.

The town contains several churches of leading denominations, excellent school-houses, and a number of halls of various societies, orders, and lodges. There are half a dozen fine hotels, many large fire-proof stores and business houses, with the usual proportion of neat and attractive retail shops of all kinds, saloons, and the like.

The buildings of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad Company are a noticeable feature of the town. The depot buildings are commodious and conveniently arranged, and are always kept neatly painted and in good repair. In the town they have an immense car shop. The building is in large part constructed of iron. In it are a foundry, machine shop, roundhouse, and car manufactory.

Carson has a large box factory and other manufacturing establishments of several kinds. The place has both electrical lights and gas. It is well supplied with pure mountain water, which is led through all the streets under a heavy pressure. The town site has sufficient slope to the eastward to afford good drainage. The city supports two daily newspapers, the _Appeal_ and _Tribune_, and has a good theater.

A fine large brick building has this year (1889) been erected in the town by the United States Government. It will contain several public offices. It fills a gap in the center of the town that long stood as a staring vacancy—supplies a “long-felt want.”

There are pleasant drives in all directions from Carson, with smooth and level roads. A mile west of town are Shaw’s Hot Springs, with every convenience for either bathing or swimming. The swimming bath is 60 by 24 feet, 4½ feet deep at one end and 5½ at the other.

All visitors to the town of a scientific turn of mind will wish to visit the State prison and grounds, situated a mile and a half east of the place. A portion of the building now occupied as a State prison was built for a hotel by Col. Abe Curry (of whom the State purchased the property), and was of stone, two stories high, 32 feet wide, and 100 feet long. Colonel Curry also excavated and walled up the magnificent swimming bath now connected with the prison and fed by warm springs.

In the floor of the quarry, beneath from fifteen to twenty feet of strata of sandstone, is a stratum of fine-grained stone that is filled with the tracks of all manner of animals and birds, and even one set of tracks supposed to have been made by some prehistoric giant of the human species. There are tracks of elephants, horses, deer, lions, tigers, panthers, giant cranes, and all manner of creatures. The tracks supposed to be human present the appearance of having been made by a large man wearing moccasins of the undressed hide of some animal. All the tracks tend toward a common point, which must have been a spring or small lake.

Omnibuses run to the Hot Springs and the State prison, and stages leave for Lake Tahoe and Genoa on the arrival of trains.

There are several lumber flumes near Carson that are worthy of inspection.

Empire City.

This town is situated on the banks of the Carson River, three and a half miles east of Carson, and on the line of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad. Empire is pre-eminently a milling town. Here are located the Mexican, Morgan, Brunswick, and Merrimac Mills, all first-class silver reduction works. The town is in Ormsby County, and contains about 700 inhabitants. Each year thousands of cords of wood floated down the Carson River from Alpine County, California, are taken out here. Formerly no fewer than 150,000 cords of wood came down to this town in the drives of a single season. On account of these wood drives Empire was jockularly termed the “seaport” of Nevada. The wood “drives” and the landing of them for a time each year gave employment to a great number of men and teams.

The town contains a number of handsome residences and a few good public buildings.

Genoa.

Genoa is the oldest town in Nevada, and is the place where the first white settlement was made. These settlers were Mormons, and they established a station there as early as 1848. For this reason the place was long known as “Mormon Station.” For several years most of the settlers in the valley and about the town were Mormons. Genoa is the county seat of Douglas County, and is situated in Carson Valley, at a point about 13 miles south of Carson City. Although in a beautiful valley it lies close in against the Sierras, at an altitude of 4,335 feet above the level of the sea. To the westward the main timbered Sierra Nevada Mountain Range rises to a great height, while above its ridge tower many bald, granite peaks. Among these (to the southward) Job’s Peak rises to the height of 10,639 feet.

The town contains a fine court-house, and other handsome public buildings, as school-houses, churches, and halls. There are in the place several good, substantial stores, and business houses and shops. There are many neat dwellings and cottages surrounded with fine gardens and grounds. In the town is published the Genoa _Courier_, a sprightly weekly paper devoted to the interests of the people of the town and county. In this town was first published (in 1859) the _Territorial Enterprise_, the pioneer newspaper of Nevada. The paper was moved to Carson in 1860, and thence in a short time to Virginia City, where it was soon made a daily, and where it has ever since been published as such.

Fine ranches lie up and down the valley. A mile and a half south of the town are Walley’s famous hot springs, of which more particular mention will be found in another place. Lake Tahoe forms part of the western boundary of Douglas, and both Glenbrook and Cave Rock are in the county. The Carson River passes near Genoa and through the heart of the county. Genoa contains about 1,000 inhabitants.

Reno.

Reno, on the line of the Central Pacific Railroad, and pleasantly situated on the banks of the beautiful Truckee River, is the county seat of Washoe County. Reno began to be a town in 1868, and under the influence of the Central Pacific Railroad, it grew very rapidly. The town at once became the shipping-point of all goods, machinery, and supplies destined for the Comstock Mines, and for all parts of Storey, Lyon, Ormsby, and Douglas Counties; also for Susanville, Honey Lake Valley, and a great scope of country to the northward. In the days before the completion of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, Reno was filled with teams and stage coaches. The place was a sort of teamsters’ paradise. This was good for the town, but it could not be expected to last forever. The present ambition of the place is to become a railroad and manufacturing center. It has the Virginia and Truckee Road leading southward, while to the northward the Nevada and California is fast advancing to completion.

Reno is the center of one of the finest agricultural and grazing sections in the State, and is a point for the shipment to California of immense numbers of beef cattle. Although there are in the town large and fine reduction works for smelting refractory ores, and two flouring mills, it may be said that hardly a commencement has been made toward the utilization of the immense water-power afforded by the Truckee River at and near the town.

Here is located the Nevada Insane Asylum, the building and grounds of which do credit to the town and State. The State University is also now located at Reno (having been removed from Elko), and is in a more flourishing condition than ever before. The buildings, and grounds, and teachers are all that could be desired. This institution has recently been made an Agricultural Experiment Station. Here is located Bishop Whitakers’ excellent school for young ladies, and also a similar school, first-class, in charge of the Sisters of Charity. There are, besides, five public schools. The town is well supplied with churches and public buildings of all kinds adequate to present requirements.

The town contains many first-class fire-proof business houses, five depots and railroad buildings, many attractive retail stores and shops, excellent and commodious hotels, “palatial” saloons, and handsome and comfortable private residences. It is lighted with electrical lamps, has good water works, and almost everything else that its public-spirited citizens have thought it necessary to provide. It has two excellent daily newspapers, the _Gazette_ and _Journal_, and a first-class theater. This spring (1889) there has been in the place a boom in town property, and much building is in progress. Not only is the town on the highway of the nations of the world leading East and West, but is on the highway of the Pacific Coast leading North and South, along the great range of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, from Oregon to Arizona. The present population is estimated at 5,000 souls.

OTHER TOWNS IN WASHOE COUNTY.

It may be worth while for the satisfaction of persons traveling southward from Reno on the Virginia and Truckee, to mention some once promising towns in Washoe County that now only exist as sleepy hamlets:—

Washoe City.

Washoe City.—This place is situated at the North end of Washoe Valley, sixteen miles south of Reno. It was formerly the county seat of Washoe County, and contained about seven hundred inhabitants. There was in the town a substantial brick courthouse, Masonic and Odd Fellows’ Hall, Methodist Church, public school building, good hotels, and many stores, shops, and saloons.

Ophir.

Ophir.—This town, three miles south of Washoe City, on the west side of Washoe Lake, at one time contained two or three hundred inhabitants. Here was situated a big seventy-stamp mill erected by the Ophir Mining Company at a cost of over $500,000. To reach this mill with ores from the Ophir Mine a bridge a mile in length was built across the north end of Washoe Lake, at a cost of $75,000. The ores were amalgamated by the barrel or Freyburg process, and everything was on a grand scale, the buildings covering over an acre of ground.

Franktown.

Franktown.—This town, one mile south of Ophir, was originally settled by Mormons (about the same time of the settlement at Genoa). Mormon fashion, it was laid off in four-acre lots, and small streams of water ran through all the streets. Here John Dall had a thirty-stamp water mill, and there were several other mills on Franktown Creek. The town had over two hundred inhabitants in 1869.

At one time there were in operation in Washoe County ten mills (four or five near Washoe City), having an aggregate of 281 stamps, but the completion of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad to the Carson River was sudden death to all the mills, and killed all the towns. All the ore went to the river.

Wadsworth.

Wadsworth, on the Central Pacific, thirty-four miles east of Reno, is a bright and growing little town. It is situated at the “Big Bend” of the Truckee River, a place well known to those who toiled across the plains in the early days. The place contains about 600 inhabitants. In it are the machine shops, round-house, and freight depot of the Central Pacific, and many good and substantial buildings, both public and private. Before the Carson and Colorado Railroad was built, Wadsworth was a shipping-point for many mining towns and camps to the southward. It still has a very fair trade.

Verdi.

Verdi, eleven miles west of Reno, on the Central Pacific, is a pleasant little lumbering town on the Truckee River, at the eastern base of the Sierras. It is a town of saw-mills and of manufactories of articles made of wood. In the way of mills and machinery Verdi contains a large amount of valuable property.

LAKE TAHOE.

Surrounding Objects of Interest.

All visitors to the Pacific Coast who are lovers of the beautiful and picturesque in natural scenery, will endeavor to spend some time at Lake Tahoe. Taking into consideration the surroundings, there is nowhere in the world a more grandly beautiful mountain lake. The lake lies between the eastern and western summit ridges of the main ridge of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, at an elevation of 6,247 feet above the level of the sea. Its length is a little over twenty-one miles, and its width about twelve miles. Roughly it has the form of a parallelogram, lying nearly north and south, about one-third in Nevada and the remainder in California. It has an area of 204 square miles, as is shown by measurements made in four places across its width, and longitudinally (north and south) in three places. Its greatest depth is 1,800 feet.

It is shut in and surrounded on all sides by mountains that rise to a height of from 2,000 to 5,000 feet above its surface. The lake evidently occupies an extinct volcanic crater of great size. Soundings show in the bottom a deep channel or crevice which extends nearly the whole length of the lake in a north and south direction. In this the depth is everywhere from 1,500 to 1,700 feet. The deepest spot (1,800 feet) is toward the south end of the lake, in front of Mount Tallac. The water is of great purity and crystal clearness, and never freezes.