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Virigina City, Nevada. Miners of the Consolidated Virginia Mining Company

 
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Title
Virigina City, Nevada. Miners of the Consolidated Virginia Mining Company
Description
Group portrait of miners in employee of Consolidated Virginia Mining Company, Virginia City, Nevada. Inscription on front of photograph: "ConVirginia Mining Co. Virginia City, Nevada. 49." Title supplied by cataloger.
Format Extent
1 postcard : b&w ; 9 x 14 cm
Subject
Silver mines and mining--Nevada--Comstock Lode; Miners--Nevada--Comstock Lode; Mining Corporations--Nevada--Virginia City
Note
In 1859, gold was discovered in the Virginia City, Nevada, area, and by 1860 the city was well established as the center of Comstock Mining District, named after one of the early miners, Henry T. "Pancake" Comstock. The partnership of four Irishmen, John Mackay, James Fair, William S. O'Brien, and James Flood, made the most significant discovery on the Comstock Lode, hitting the "Big Bonanza" at the Consolidated Virginia, a silver strike in 1873 that yielded a profit of 166 million dollars by 1878. Their mining interests appropriately became known as the "Bonanza Firm." Virginia City and its surrounding area grew as well, and by 1875 had a population of 25,000. After 1878 the bonanza days withered as the veins ran out or declined in quality. The introduction of the cyanide method in the mid 1890s for extracting gold and silver ore helped maintain Comstock's mining, although not at previous levels. By the 1940s mining had played out, and Viriginia City survived as a tourist attraction. Virginia City was part of a web of mining towns that developed in eastern California and western Nevada in the late nineteenth century. The towns of the Owens Valley were linked to this web by social ties and often economic ones.
Collection
J. D. Black Papers, CSLA-15, Series 3: Photographs, Subseries B: Abandoned Properties, Owens Valley, Box 16, Sleeve 32
Type
Language
eng
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