Grant H. Smith The History of the Comstock Lode 1850-1920, Geology and Mining Series No. 37, University of Nevada Bulletin: Reno, Nevada, vol. XXXVII. 1 July 1943, no. 3, (revised 1966), Ninth printing, 1980. 305 pp., 1860s
[p. 64] Chapter VIII The Law Governing Mines-Litigation
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[p. 65] "The Comstock mines were located under district mining rules similar to those of California . . . When an ore body pitched through an end line into an adjoining claim (as when the Gould & Curry bonanza passed into the Savage, and the Crown Point bonanza into the Belcher) that portion of it became the property of the mine into which it extended . . .
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[p. 66] "It was largely upon the basis of the regularity of the strike and dip of the Comstock Lode that Senator Stewart was enabled-with the support of other western Senators and Congressmen-to pass the congressional mining laws of 1866 and 1872, which perpetuated the extralateral right and provided for the patenting of mining claims. Until 1866 the miners were without any legal rights upon the public domain throughout the West.
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[p. 80] Chapter X The Early Bonanzas-The Ophir, The Gould & Curry, The Savage, The Chollar-Potosi, The Yellow Jacket, and The Original Gold Hill Bonanzas
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[p. 82] "The Ophir bonanza was rich but comparatively small . . .
[p. 82] "The control of the Ophir passed into the hands of successive groups of speculators and the stock was one of the most active on the market for many years. In all its history the mine did not create a single millionaire.
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[p. 84] The Gould & Curry Bonanza
[p. 84] "The mine was a consolidation of the Gould claims . . . and the Curry claim . . . Both claims . . . passed into the hands of twelve men, chiefly San Franciscans, who organized the Gould & Curry Silver Mining Company on June 25, 1860, with 4,800 shares, four to each of the 1,200 feet of the Lode which they claimed at the time. Among the incorporators and trustees were George Hearst, Lloyd Tevis, John O. Earl, Alpheus Bull, Thomas Bell, A.E. Heard, B.F, Sherwood and William Blanding, all of whom became California millionaires after making a good beginning in the Gould & Curry . . .
" . . . It was not until the end of 1861, when the "D" Street tunnel penetrated 40 feet of rich solid ore that the mine began to overshadow the Ophir and arouse hopes of future greatness that turned to ashes in the course of a few years. Instead of continuing downward the ore body pitched southward into the Savage where it was equally productive. Neither the Gould & Curry nor the Savage found another ore body in all its history, the exception of those which the Savage shared with the Hale and Norcross from 1866 to 1869.
[p. 85] " . . .
[p. 85] " . . .The ore body was mined over a length of 500 feet and a width of 100 feet, at its best, including parallel sheet and stringers, and at the depth of 500 feet passed entirely into [p. 86] the Savage.
[p. 86] The Savage
[p. 86] "The Savage was a child of fortune. Its first great ore body was found for it by the Gould & Curry, and the next, four years later by the Hale & Norcross, its neighbor on the other side.
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[p. 86] "The Savage . . . did not commence to produce until April 1863. For the next two years it was in bonanza . . . [p. 87] At the height of the "Boom of 1863" the leading stockholders sold out and wisely invested in San Francisco real estate . . . At the end of 1865 the mine was in decline . . . Further development work, however, soon disclosed the extension of the ore body and the discovery of the rich little "Potosi strike," . . . Another stroke of fortune was the discovery by the Hale & Norcross of a fine ore body on the 600-foot level in December 1865, one half of which proved to be in Savage ground.
[p. 87] "Then followed three years of large production, during which the Savage was the great mine of the Comstock . . . the last [dividends] in 1869 . . .
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[p. 48] Chapter V. The Depression of 1864-Arrival of William Sharon-Civil War Spirit-Nevada Becomes a State-Stewart Elected United States Senator.
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[p. 48] " . . .The [mining stock] market needed but a push to bring it down and that was furnished by reckless, bloody extravagant Aurora, early in 1864, when its stocks crashed following the failures of . . . its ore . . . bodies . . .
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[p. 52] Stewart Elected United States Senator
[p. 52] "The year 1865 opened with a new State of Nevada fully organized, including the selection of two United States Senators. The dominating personality of William M. Stewart overshadowing all other candidates. He was not only the foremost lawyer, but an all-round dictator, including the leadership of the Republican party. When the first State Legislature met on December 13, 1864, he was promptly elected. Former Governor James W. Nye was chosen as his associate. Thereafter, during bonanza days, those honors were sought by men of great wealth and became bargain-counter affairs.
[p. 52] "Stewart was as able and diligent a United States Senator as he had been as an attorney and was reelected in 1869. One of his early accomplishments was to secure the passage of the first Federal Mining Act, known as "The Law of 1866." . . . He ceased to be the ruler of the Comstock after his first election to the Senate. His mining and milling enterprises had not been profitable, there was no longer any mining litigation of importance, and his interests lay in Washington.
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[p. 49] " . . . the panic of 1865 blasted their hopes . . .
[p. 50] "Alvinza Hayward, who joined Sharon and Mills in the Comstock venture in 1867, had already made a fortune through the ownership of the famous Eureka gold mine at Sutter Creek, California. He was a fine-looking, agreeable man, who remained faithful to his associates and shared in their good fortune until he and Superintendent J.P. Jones conspired to take control of the Crown Point away from them soon after its bonanza was discovered.
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" . . . In June of [1867] Sharon, Ralston, Mills, and Hayward took over the mills and formed the Union Mill and Mining Company. Two years later they controlled all the leading mines and had seventeen mills.
". . . "the Bank Crowd," in that . . . depressing year of 1870 . . . ruin threatened them and the bank. They had loaned three-fifths of the bank's capital on the Comstock and attendant industries, in obtaining complete personal control-and the luck discovery of the Crown Point bonanza toward the end of the year was all that saved them.
[p. 137] Chapter XVI The Crown Point-Belcher Bonanza-The Gold to Silver Ratio-The Silver Question.
[p. 142] The Silver Question
[p. 142] "The great flow of gold from California in 1849 and 1850 alarmed the bankers of Europe. Holland and Belgium, in 1850, began to sell their gold and stock up with silver. Other nations followed, especially after the great gold discoveries in Australia, beginning in 1851, and silver rose in price throughout the world. The countries of Europe, with the exception of Great Britain and France, were practically on a silver basis until 1871 when [p. 143] Germany adopted the gold standard after receiving a large amount of gold from France in payment of the war indemnity. Japan and the United States demonetized silver in 1873, and Denmark, Sweden, Norway, France and Holland soon followed. All of those countries threw quantities of silver upon the market, with a resultant decline in price.
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[p. 143] "Silver sold at a premium from 1859 until demonetization in 1873, when it would no longer be coined free at $1.29 an ounce, 1/16 the value of gold. The market price was $1.36 an ounce in 1859, from which it declined slowly to $1.32 early in 1873, although the coinage value was $1.2929 an ounce. During 1873, when silver was demonitized, the average market price continued to decline until it reached $1 in 1886. After that the decline was rapid.
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[p. 241] Chapter XXIV Miners' Wages and Hours-Heat and Ventilation-Giant Powder, Burleigh and Diamond Drills-Lumber and Firewood-The V Flume.
[p. 241] "Comstock miners were the lords of labor and gloried in it. They were the pick of the world; their wages were the highest, their hours the shortest; they were men among men. Independent-minded, like the rest of the community, they resisted all attempts to reduce wages below $4 a day, and first organized for that purpose as early as 1863. During the hard times of 1865 and 1866 they submitted to a reduction by some of the mines, but were quick to unite again in 1867 with only partial success until 1872.
"While in 1864 and again in 1867 the miners organized and marched in bodies to assert their demands, there was no violence nor any destruction of property. John Trembath, the Cornish foreman at the Uncle Sam mine, who was bound to the hoisting cable and jerked up and down, might question the statement that there was no violence. [Lord's Comstock Mining and Miners, pp. 183-190, 266-268]
[p. 241] "Shinn says [The History of the Mine, p. 250 (1896).] that "On one occasion a superintendent (Charles Bonner of the Gould & Curry) who had attempted to cut wages, was concealed in the house of a priest (Father Manogue) or he would have been torn limb from limb by the indignant miners." An overstatement, no doubt.
"Ten hours was a shift during all of the early years, but, as conditions underground became more intolerable, the hours of men working in such places were reduced to eight. In 1867 the constitution of the newly formed Miners' Union provided that all men working underground should receive $4 for an eight-hour shift. That rule was not enforced, it appears, until 1872 . . .
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[p. 249] Chapter XXV Fire in the Stopes-Low-Grade Operations in the Bonanza Mines-The Comstock Milling Monopoly-The Last Washoe Process Mill-Losses in Tailings-Tailings Reworked
[p. 253] The Comstock Milling Monopoly
[p. 253] "The costly and unprofitable mills of the Ophir, the Gould & Curry, the Savage, and the Mexican during the early '60s caused these mines to send much of their lower-grade ore to custom mills. But those mills ran into debt during the lean years, chiefly to the Bank of California. When the time was ripe Sharon's Union Milling Company took them over and a new system was created whereby the productive mines ceased to own their own mills, except in small part, and had their ores reduced in mills belonging to the men in control of the mines.
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[p. 291] Appendix Table of Production of Comstock Mines from 1859 to January 1, 1882. Notes on Table. Comstock Production and Profits from 1859 to 1882. Table of Production of the Comstock Mines from 1882 to 1919, Inclusive.
[p. 293] Crown Point (1864-1878) 842,552 tons; $29,814,507 yield; $35.39 yield per ton; $11,588,000 dividends; $2,623,370 assessments; last dividend, 1875
[p. 294] Notes on Comstock Production from 1859 to 1920
[p. 294] "The foregoing statement of the production of the Comstock mines is as close an estimate as can be made. The production during the '60s and '70s is fairly dependable . . .
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[p. 295] "The production up to 1871 was approximately 60 percent silver and 40 percent gold. . . .
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