USA > Colorado > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 16
USA > Nevada > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 16
USA > Wyoming > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 16
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depth below them. In 1863 the Gold Hill and Virginia Tunnel and Mining company began to pierce the Comstock lode at a depth of 800 feet, with a tunnel 6} by 7 feet, and it had been extended 840 feet in May 1864, when the panic consequent on the exhaustion of the Ophir bonanza paralyed, for a time, the mining industry. Before the return of confidence Sutro's enter- prise had been set on foot, and tended to revive the mining interest. Mining Review and Stock Ledger, 1878, 107, 118; S. F. Stock Exchange, March 22, 1877; S. F. Alta, March 12, 1865; Balch's Mines and Miners, 948-53.
27 Bank of California against Sutro Tunnel, Argument and Statement of Facts, 17.
143
THE SUTRO TUNNEL.
through the tunnel on the payment of stipulated tolls. To insure the completion of their work within a rea- sonable time, the tunnel company engaged to secure subscriptions to the amount of $3,000,000 before the 1st of August 1867.
The question was then mooted whether the legisla- ture of Nevada had the power to cede to the tunnel company privileges so valuable as those contained in their charter, and affecting the title to ground belong. ing, as mineral land, to the United States; and the company next undertook to obtain confirmation of their franchise by act of congress, in which they were successful.28 A geological and an engineering survey had been made.29 Nothing remained but to secure the requisite $3,000,000, and Sutro made his first effort in this direction in the city of New York. There certain capitalists agreed to make up the $3,000,- 000 after he should have obtained subscriptions to the amount of a few hundred thousands on the Pacific coast. Before the end of May 1867, $600,000 had been subscribed by mine-owners, and an extension of a year's time obtained in which to secure the remain- der. The Nevada legislature of 1867 also consented to memorialize congress to grant financial aid to the construction of the tunnel, whose completion, it was assured, would increase the nation's revenue.30 The legislature of the state never did anything else but encourage the enterprise. Sutro himself worked un- tiringly, securing a favorable report from the lower house of congress in recommendation of giving mate- rial aid to the tunnel. 31
At the moment when perfect achievement seemed ready to be grasped, the mine-owners on the Comstock
28 H. Ex. Doc., 47, pt 2, 1087-8, 46th cong. 3d sess .; S. F. Alta, July 16, 1866; S. F. Bulletin, July 13, 1866.
29 Richthofen's Comstock Lode : Report to the Sutro Tunnel Company on the geology and structure of the lode. Powell's Land of Silver, 122. R. G. Carlyle made an accurate survey of the work to be done.
30 Nev. Jour. Sen., 1867, app. no. 7.
31 H. Com. Rept, 50, 40th cong. 2d sess .; S. F. Call, July 4, 1868; Elko Independent, Nov. 17, 1869.
144
FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS ON THE COMSTOCK.
withdrew their subscriptions, an act which rendered it impossible for Sutro to call upon eastern capitalists for the promised aid, and the failure of the enterprise seemed imminent, and would have been brought about had the projector possessed less pluck and energy. He appealed to the people to take shares; he wrote letters and books, addressed meetings, legis- latures, and congressional committees. On the 19th of October 1869 ground was broken for the Sutro tunnel,32 at a point on the Carson river north of Day- ton, and Sutro continued his indefatigable labors at Washington and elsewhere. As a result of his per- sistency, congress passed an act on the 4th of April, 1871, authorizing the president of the United States to appoint a commission, consisting of one civil and two military engineers,33 to report upon the "import- ance, feasibility, cost, and time required to construct " the Sutro tunnel. A favorable report was rendered concerning the first two points,34 so far as its value as an exploring work was considered, but its cost, esti- mated at $4,418,329.50, was pronounced disproportion- ably great for the benefit to be derived from drainage and ventilation in the mines.
No committee could make a report upon these matters without consulting the mine-owners on the
32 Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, Oct. 20, 1869; S. F. Call, Oct. 23, 1869. Levi Lamb, master carpenter of the Sutro tunnel, says the work of constructing the tunnel 'was actually commenced in September 1869.' Lamb was born in N. Y. state in June 1829. He came to Cal. via the Isthmus in 1850; mined on the American river, and afterward on the Feather river and Downieville. He went to several other mining camps, and was in the lumber business at Marysville. He built the first 12 houses at Howland Flat in Nevada co., Cal., in 1855-6, and assisted in sinking the first shaft on a mine at that place. In 1859 he went to farming in Tulare co., and there remained till 1862, when he removed to Dayton, Nevada, where he worked in a quartz- mill. Lamb's Early Mining, MS., 1-5, a brief account of his own experience in Cal. and Nevada.
33 The commissioners appointed were H. G. Wright and J. G. Foster, in conjunction with Prof. Newcomb.
3+ H. Ex. Doc., 47, pt 2, 1088, 46th cong. 3d sess .; Sen. Ex. Doc., 15, 42d cong. 2d sess .; Sec. War Rept, 102, 1126-72, 42d cong. 3d sess .; House Com. Rept, 94, 42d cong. 2d sess .; Sen. Com. Rept, 405, 42d cong. 3d sess .; Courier de S. F., 7th July, 1871, 11th Jan. 1872, and 20th April 1872; S. F. Stock Report, Oct. 11, 1872; Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, Feb. 25, 1872; S. F. Alta, Feb, 28, 1872.
145
THE SUTRO TUNNEL.
Comstock, and as they had set their faces against the tunnel, on the ground that the mines would have been drained by pumping before the tunnel reached them, and that the royalty agreed to in the contract with Sutro was too large, it could not be expected that their representations would be in favor of the tunnel from this point of view. In this manner the opponents of the tunnel, or as Sutro understood it, of himself personally,35 were enabled to paralyze to some extent his efforts in Washington. But so earnest was his advocacy that the house congressional committee, re- ceiving the report of the examining committee, recom- mended a loan from the government of $2,000,000, Sargent of California presenting a minority report against it. But the bill failed to pass. In the mean- time Sutro obtained subscriptions in the United States and Europe to the amount of $2,100,000,36 and the work was urged forward. Progress was slow and difficult during the first three or four years, all drilling being done by hand. In October 1873 con- nection was made between the drift advancing from the east and that from the west starting from the first shaft. In the spring of 1874 experiments with a Burleigh drill having demonstrated the advantages to be derived from its use, a carriage supporting six of those drills while at work was constructed, and four of them put in operation on the 22d of June. The progress now became as rapid as it hitherto had been slow, and two more drills were added in August. The average progress per month down to April 1877, when the Comstock mineral belt was entered, was 300 feet per month. Here the heat becoming intense,
35 Sutro believed and asserted that it was the influence of the Bank of California, which controlled several millions- worth of property on the Com- stock, which was opposed to him-not because his scheme was not a good one, or feasible, but because when that corporation saw its merits they determined to drive him out of it and seize upon it for themselves. The most formidable opposition certainly appeared to come from them, whatever their motives, and against them he directed his continuous assaults.
36 Sutro Tunnel Com. Rept, 956-965; S. F. News Letter, Feb. 21, 1874; Sac. Record, in S. F. Alta,, May 15, 1874; Pioche Record, March 12, 1873; Gold Hill News, Oct. 28, 1873.
HIST. NEV. 10
146
FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS ON THE COMSTOCK.
only 250 feet a month could be made.37 Connection was effected with the nearest mine shaft at the Savage works on the evening of the 8th of July. The last obstruction was rent away by a blast in the Savage mine. Sutro himself was on the spot, and was the first to crawl through the opening, " overcome by ex- citement," 38 as well as heat. He had achieved a triumph of engineering, and put the Comstock lode under contribution of two dollars per ton of ore ex- tracted thereafter.
But there remained yet to be overcome the reluct- ance of the late hostile companies to pay this tax. The Savage company offered no remonstrance, but an attempt was made to drain the adjoining mines through the Savage levels. To prevent this use of his tunnel without compensation, Sutrostarted a drainway, which would conduct the incoming water back into a lower level of the Savage mine, from which it was pumped, only to return again, on discovering which in Febru- ary 1879, the workmen were arrested, and the progress of the shaft stopped when nearly completed. They were released immediately, but the cutting of the drain was prohibited by order of the court. Soon after a rise of water in the Hale and Norcross mine caused an overflow in the combination shaft of the Hale and Norcross, Savage, and Chollar-Potosí, to hold which in check the water was pumped into the Sutro tunnel, driving the workmen from their posts. Sutro then threatened to erect a water-tight bulk- head. Although still unwilling to carry out their contract, the incident of the overflow was not without effect, and joined with the threat to hermetically seal the tunnel, brought about a compromise.
37 The temperature in the tunnel from 1873 to and through 1875 was 83°, although 2 powerful Root blowers were constantly forcing air into it. At the end of 1876 it was 90°, and on the first of Jan. 1878 reached 96°. The atmosphere was foul as well as hot. During the last months, in 1878, the miners were two miles from the nearest ventilating shaft. The force was changed four times a day, and the men could then only work a small portion of the nominal hours of labor. The temperature rose to 109° in April, and then to 110° and 114°.
38 Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, July 9, 1878.
147
CHARACTER OF ORES.
By the new contract the mining companies agreed to furnish money to extend the lateral branches still uncompleted, those benefited to pay one dollar per ton upon all ore raised from the mines which assayed forty dollars or less, and two dollars upon all ore assay- ing more than forty dollars per ton, payment to com- mence as soon as one of the lateral branches should be completed for half its distance. This contract terminated the long struggle of one tenacious spirit against that enemy hardest to be beaten-a " soulless corporation."
The main tunnel measured 20,480 feet in length. The height was nine feet five inches, and the width thirteen feet outside of timbers. The north branch in October 1880 had extended 4,403 feet, and the south branch in March 1881 was 4,114 feet in length, making together more than a mile and six-tenths of tunnelling eight by seven feet in the clear. From these were discharged daily, in 1880, 3,500,000 gallons of water, increased on some days to 3,942,720 gal- lons, or 1,277,500,000 gallons annually, the weight of which was 4,752,605 tons. After being made to pro- pel a small amount of machinery in the shops of the company at Dayton, the only use of the water has been for irrigating purposes. The total cost of the tunnel, not including the expenses incurred by the management in the prosecution of the design, was $2,096,556.41, or less than half of the amount esti- mated by the committee appointed by congress to de- termine its feasibility. Its benefit to the Comstock mines was great.39
Unlike the South American and Mexican silver veins, the indications are that it will not be found
39 Nev. Jour. Sen., 1879, app. no. 16, 81-5; Argument on Sutro Tunnel, 70-71; Sutro Tunnel Com. Rept, 1872, 931; Sutro Tunnel Company Supt Rept, 1872; Sutro Tunnel and Railway to the Comstock Lode, 1873, with maps; Bank of California vs Sutro Tunnel, Argument and Statement of Facts. All these books and pamphlets are devoted to showing the character of the work and the opposition encountered, and afford an instructive record of political as well as financial conditions in Nevada, with illustrations of the power of money to defeat the right.
14S
FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS ON THE COMSTOCK.
profitable to work the mines of the Comstock at a very great depth.“ Unlike silver in other parts of the world, its only gangue is quartz, which is rarely solid, but is much fractured, and often partially soft- ened by chemical action. The principal ores are stephanite, vitreous silver, native silver, ruby silver, horn silver, and polybasite, with occasional small quantities of argentiferous galena. Native gold, iron and copper pyrites, blende, and carbonate and phos- phate of lead in minute quantities are found in con- nection with the silver ores.
The phenomena observed as connected with the occurrence of silver ore in the Comstock have been thus summarized: In the northern part it is in chimneys dipping to the south, in the southern part it forms continuous sheets of great length, but comparatively narrow. The ore deposits are enclosed in the eastern, and sometimes in the middle portion of the vein, while the western branches are poor or barren. The largest and richest deposits have been found where the outcrops were most prominent. At the north end the vein is invariably poor where it passes a ravine, but not so in the south end. The richest portions are south of each ravine crossed by it. All the chimneys in the northern part occur where the walls after close
40 With regard to the depth of the different mines, Knox's Underground World, a collection of matter loosely thrown together concerning mines, caves, tunnels and other subterranean places and affairs, contains the following inter- esting facts: Ophir and Mexican discovered at the surface, failed in ore at the depth of 500 feet; Gould and Curry also extended 500 feet from the surface; Savage, which was a continuation of the Gould and Curry bonanza, extended 2,300 feet below the croppings; Hale and Norcross bonanza was first found 450 feet below the surface, and extended down to 1,200; Chollar-Potosí was found at a depth of 500 feet, and extended to the 1,700-foot level; Gold Hill, discovered on the surface, extended 500 feet downward and 300 feet on the vein; Yellow Jacket, discovered on the surface, went to a depth of 700 feet; Kentuck to a depth of 400 feet, 300 feet on the lode; Crown Point and Belcher bonanza, discovered on the 1,400-foot level, extended 600 feet below; Consolidated Virginia and California bonanza was discovered at the 1,500- foot level, and extended above it, and below for a distance of 400 feet, being 600 feet in height and 700 on the vein. Since the publication of Knox's book, 1878, several of these mines have been sunk a considerable distance. California was down 2,700 feet in 1882, Consolidated Virginia 2,533 feet, Hale and Norcross 3,000 feet, Sierra Nevada 2,700 feet, and a number of the older mines were down nearly 3,000 feet in 1SS8,
149
GEOLOGY.
contact suddenly diverge." When I have added that the mountain in which the Comstock lode42 is found is a mass of volcanic rocks, through which older rocks are found obtruding, syenite, propylite, granite, with trachyte, andesite, and metamorphic rocks, and that geologists recognize the vein as a fissure caused by rending, which subsequently became filled with quartz and ore, I have said all that is of interest concerning Nevada's great silver lode. +3
41 These observations occur in Baron Ferdinand Richthofen's work, entitled The Comstock Lode, its Character, and the Probable Mode of its Continuance in Depth. The subsequent history of the lode has borne out this statement of its characteristics. They are quoted with other remarks on the geology of the lode, in Mining and Metallurgy of Gold and Silver, by J. Arthur Phillips. #2 Accompanying the Monograph on the Geology of the Comstock Iode, by George F. Becker, Washington, 1882, is a beautifully illustrated Atlas, giv- ing the location of all the mines on the Comstock, and in the Washoe district, and also the position of the several rocks composing the Virginia range, in situ, and in distinctive coloring. It shows the earlier hornblende andesite, later hornblende, andesite, and angite andesite, and quartz porphyry, to be the prevailing rock. Next in prevalence are diorite, mica diorite, metamorphic diorite, metamorphic mezozoic, and quatenary. In smaller quantities occur feisitic quartz porphyry, granite, basalt, and diabase. The quartz-vein lies principally between the earlier hornblende andesite on the east, and diorite on the west. A vertical section of the Sutro tunnel in the same atlas shows the andesites to prevail along the tunnel.
Mines and Miners, by William Ralston Balch, a quarto of 1,200 pages, Philadelphia, 1882, contains good descriptive matter concerning the Com- stock lode, with illustrations. Balch, who is simply a compiler, adopts for the country rock of the Virginia or Washoe district, the term of probylite for the east side, and syenite for the west side, which distinction is in com- mon use among resident miners.
King's Geological Explor., iii. 11-96, contains a full description of the Comstock lode, with drawings and minute information of a valuable character.
# John Percival Jones, who for years was prominently connected with the Comstock, was a Welchman by birth, and came with his parents to the United States in 1830, while yet an infant. After receiving his education in the public schools of New York city, his first occupation was in a marble- yard, and as a worker in stone. In 1850 he came to California, and was afterwards employed in various capacities, serving in the state senate between 1863 and 1867, and in 1868 being appointed superintendent of the Crown Point mine. In this company there was afterward disclosed a large body of rich ore, and its ctock arose from $2 or $3 to $1,800 a share, whereby he became very wealthy. In 1873 he was elected U. S. senator for Nevada, and reelected in 1878, and again in 1883, and while a member of that body was recognized as a clear and cogent speaker, a man of liberal views, of great erudition, and unsparing in research. The senator was twice marricd, his first wife being the daughter of Judge Conger, and the second the daugh- ter of Eugene A. Sullivan, a most accomplished and benevolent woman.
CHAPTER VII.
TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION.
1859-1864.
THE NAME NEVADA-AREA AND LIMITS-THE QUESTION OF BOUNDARY- COMMISSIONS AND SURVEYS-DIFFICULTIES WITH CALIFORNIA-TERRI- TORIAL OFFICERS-GOVERNOR NYE-FIRST LEGISLATURE-CODE OF LAWS AND COURSE OF LEGISLATION-COUNTY ORGANIZATIONS AND OFFICERS -CAPITAL-JUDICIAL DISTRICTS AND JUDICIARY-STATE OF SOCIETY- EDUCATIONAL-NEWSPAPER PRESS-CORRUPTION OF LAWYERS AND JUDGES.
How the territory, which in answer to so many prayers was organized out of western Utah on the 2d of March, 1861, came to be called simply Nevada, snowy, is not altogether clear. When Delegate Crane wrote to his constituents from Washington in February 1858, he assured them that a territorial government was about to be established under the name of Sierra Nevada. On the 12th of May, 1859, a bill was introduced in the house to organize the territory of Nevada.1 The assembly which met at Genoa in December 1859 was reported as the first legislature of the "territory of Nevada."? At a later period, when Nevada was applying for admission as a state, motions were made in convention to change the name to Washoe, Humboldt, and Esmeralda.3 Sierra Plata, silver mountains, was mentioned in de- bate in allusion to its mineralogical features, but it
1 H. Jour., 789, 35th cong. Ist sess .; Nev. Laws, 1861, ix .- xiv., 1864-5, 23-31; U. S. Const. and Charters, ii. 1240-5; House Ex. Doc., 47, pt 3, 1081-2, 46 cong. 3d sess.
2 Sac. Union, Dec. 17, 1859; Hayes' Nev. Scraps, xi. 40.
3 Nev. Constit. Debates, 1864, 33-35; S. F. Call, July 7, 1864; Howard Quarterly, i. pt iii. 90.
(150)
151
NAME AND AREA.
came in competition with Oro Plata, gold and silver, and even with Bullion. Having escaped all these perils of nomenclature, it remains simply snowy-white Nevada. 4
The area of Nevada, as defined by its constitution, was 81,539 square miles, but after being allowed some additional territory its area is stated at 112,090 square miles, of which surface 1,690 square miles is water. 6
The boundaries established by the constitution adopted in 1859 commenced at a point on the Sierra Nevada where the 42d parallel touches its summit, following the crest of the mountains south to the 35th parallel, thence east on that line to the Colo- rado, thence up that stream to the mouth of the Rio Virgen, thence `ascending to its junction with the Muddy river, and thence due north to the Oregon line.1
In the organic act, however, it was bounded on the north by the 42d degree as above, east by the 39th meridian, south by the northern boundary of New Mexico, and west by the summits of the Sierra Ne- vada to the 41st parallel, whence it ran due north to the Oregon line. This gave the territory a consider- able portion of the counties of Mono, Alpine, Lassen, and Siskiyou, subject to the consent of the state of California.8
The boundary between California and Utah had always been in dispute. The first United States dis-
4 Various persons, at various times, have elaimed the honor of having proposed the present name, but the facts, as I have presented, make clear the merit of such pretensions. The act of Dec. 20, 1862, calling an election for delegates to the constitutional convention, states that it was to frame a constitution for the state of Washoe. Nev. Laws, 1862, 128-9; Portland West Shore, April 1879, 121.
5 In Kelly's Nev. Directory, 1862, the area is given at 65,000 square miles. 6 Land Off. Rept., 1867, 61; Mess. and Doc., 1868-9, ab. 825-9: Nev. Jour. Sen., 1877, ap. 8, 1; H. Ex. Doc., 47, pt 4, 419, 46th cong. 3d sess. The area of Nevada is stated by a writer in S. F. Alta, June 24, 1866, at 104,000 square miles. Henry Gannett, geographer of the 10th census, reported the area, approximately, at 104, 700 square miles, of which 960 were water, Cherry Creek White Pine News, Jan. 21, 1882; Eureka Sentinel, Jan. 15, 1SS2. I have adopted the sur .- gen. report.
7 Carson Valley Territorial Enterprise, July 30, 1859.
8 Nev. Stat., 1864-5, 25; Sac. Union, April 6, 1861.
152
TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION.
trict judge in Carson county, W. W. Drummond, in 1856 addressed a communication to United States senator Weller, and congressmen Denver and Her- bert of California, informing them that the Mormon residents claimed Carson valley as a part of Utah, and that "a large and respectable portion" of the citi- zens of the valley contended in good faith that they were residents of California ; that he himself had held court there, believing he was in Utah, and now he was con- vinced of his error; that an important case had been taken to the supreme court of Utah to be argued the following January, in which it was extremely doubt- ful whether the parties to the suit and the property in controversy were not in El Dorado county, California; and that a very bitter feeling pervaded the minds of the anti-Mormons against paying a revenue to sup- port Utah, which was in open rebellion against the United States. Drummond accordingly recommended that a boundary commission be set on foot.9
The California legislature, in April 1858, passed a concurrent resolution asking congress to appoint a commission to act in conjunction with one from that state for the survey of a line conforming to the con- stitution of California. 1º In February 1859 the Cali- fornia legislature again instructed its delegation in congress to urge upon the president the appointment of the boundary commission. Nothing was done, however, until the spring of 1860, when congress passed an act authorizing the president to appoint the required commissioners.11 The legislature, without awaiting congressional action, had already directed
9 S. F. Herald in Hayes' Min. Scraps, xi. 5. The grand jury of the 2d district of Utah, Cradlebaugh judge, in Oct. 1859, declared that the unsettled condition of the boundary was 'a fruitful source of annoyance and disputa- tion . . . For this reason criminals charged with grave offences have escaped conviction; crime has been boldly committed without fear of accusation, and valuable property remained without assessment and taxation,' etc., and urged that congress should create a boundary commission. Territorial Enter- prise, in Id., 25-6.
10 Cal. Stat., 1858, 356-7; House Jour., 977-8, 35th cong. Ist sess.
11 Cong. Globe, 1859-60, app., 475. Scott of California had previously in- troduced a bill to change the eastern boundary of California. House Jour., 571, 1307, 36th cong. Ist sess.
153
BOUNDARY COMMISSION.
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