The age-herald., 1897-10-24

ran over $1. That was the first gold ever taken from the wonderful Ophir
 .' 'Kairtuck, said Comstock as he pan ned out sand this Is the biggest thing yet and we'll beat the world now
 That very night the whole ComStock camp moved over to the new diggings and made thsir claims on the soil over which they had tramped scores of times and across which several hundred msn, searching for richness in mines, had passed without thought that ovsr $100- O0O, ,000 of yellow metal and as much more in silver lay there beolw them in the dirt and rocks, only awaiting some one to claim It. There were with Comstock at that time John E. Clark Joe Winters, 'Kaintuck' Osborne and Pste Reilly. That was in the latter part of October 1859. The men made their claims and went to work next day They hauled their chuta ever from the former dig g-ngs and made new chute So as to carry watsr down from spring mile away. The lines of the mine were plain ly visible. The pay dirt was about ten fe5t across and about forty long. l never saw any richer. I went over to see the men several times every month and looked the country over for a mine or my own, but I never. struck one worth much. For a few days Comstoek and Winters and the others worked in dirt that ran $6 an ounce. Think of that. l say lots of it that ran that high The men bought wooden pails and thsy had so much wealth that they measured it by the bucketful Tn a month the news went about that the richest dlggings of all had been found and the stampede of miners started that way. By Janu- ary thsIe were oyer 800 miners on the scene. That was the beginning of Vir- g1nia City. By the way, the name came from saloon keeper there who had been known in California and Nevada as Nlr- ginny Mike, because he cams from Nir- ginia
 "Comstoclx and his partners kept right on mining, and the hundreds of other fellows slxirm'shed for thirty miles around and didn't find enough to buy beans and bacon. I worked for Com stock a few weeks but went back to California when th- internal Flutes be- gan warfare in February, 1860. l had two cousins who were overland pony express riders and were killed and scalp ed by the Flutes and apsard every few days of some fresh n1urdar by the say ages. So 1 got scared, and with nearly every other white man in Nevada, got out. Comstock and his partners paid extra wages, and furnished their men with shotguns and pistols, and so they kept at work with a guard constantly about the camp for seVeral months. I think It was along In June, 1860, that the surface Ophir petered out It did so suddenly and the miners were blue and discouraged, notwithstanding that each had a good-siZed fortune. Old Comstock would have sold out what claims he had there for 5000 any day. When the dirt had been washed away to the depth of dozen or so feet the men came on grayish-hued fnty rock that was strange in those days Com stock had been prospecting for ten years, and had never seen anything like 1t be fore. That was the discovery of the true Comsto ok lode--the quartz that made the gTeateSt mining kings Of th+ world One would naturally wonder now why Comstoek and his partners did not have the rock assayed there, but mining was a crude science in the west thirty-seven years ago, and ths best of miners knew little of metallurgy. The Ophir owners examined carefully the queer-looking rock, and several of them were sur5' it was iron ore. Comstock himself was sure of that. They did nothing with the rock for month or so, when they decided to spend several hundred doialrs and have it tested by an expert in Sacramento. So thsy got out a whole wagon load Of the gfaylsn rock, and with string or mules sent it over to Sacramento to an assayef. A sharp young lawyer at Virginia City named Pat Walsh wanted to go to sac ramento on business, and he was sent along to get the assayers report on tne stuff The Piute war was over py lnat time. and I went back to Virginia City while Walsh was absent. l remember seeing him on his way to Sacramento at that time with his load or rock- t11e first of the bonanza ore
 "Walshs return to Virginia City was not awaited with much anxiety. Com- stock and his partnsrs were pretty sure Their ore was fuli of iron When Walsh did get back, along in July, 1860, ne sald that the assayer had made long writ ten report which he, Walsh, had lost Tn his travels over the mountain traii, anu
 11r irnn tracss Of silver and gold. A week later several men from Sacramento ana 'Friseo came into Virginia City. Insy had evidently come in haste over the mountains to the new mining camp. Al most at once they began offering to buy Com sstock's and his partners shares. Of course they were adroit to conceal their motives Comstock, however, was slls- picious, but the other partners wsre rot. Pat Reilly said he believed the ore was richer than Walsh had said and that he won fd not sell until he knew the assay Of the rock. Kentucky Osborne and Fen nod believed in Walsh, and each sold a sixth interest for S50O0. Comstocks Wile wanted to go to California. ard he sold tho next day for $5 00o. Then Clark sold for s1o O0O Reilly held out a week long GIT and got $40 600. Jce Winters decids 10 hold onto what the strangers from Sacra nrento and Frisco wanted SO bad ly. So he never sold for several years l D0lleNe ne got dUOut %ooV-oV iDi iit-' share when he sold and he had got as much more from dividends. too
 .Just as soon as the mine had passad into the new hands the facts of the assay came out JenNiny! but. there was a roar of astoni ishment and angar up in the little mining camp of Virginia City then. Old Comstock was almost crazy for weeks, ard Osborne was in despair. It waia found that the agon load of ore that Walsh had taken to the 'assayer was worth over $4,70O, that it had been assayed at $13,600 ton, that the morey had been deposited in a bank and that the men In Sacramento and Frisco who had been let into the secret were wild oyer tlp5 discovery of such wonderful ore. Iron In it? Not bit. Wal-h had been made one of the syndicate that had come on to buy the Ophfr mine. and had concealed the written report of the assay. Penrod never smiled again after he saw how stuperiously rich tha lode was of which f,e had sold his sixth in- terest for paltry $5.0OO Comstock him. self went to California, and have heard he never wanted to see the OpMr again after he hisard how it was paying