The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-11-08
The Fortune They Lost.
Luck Of the DISCOVERIES of the Rich
Ophir Mine.

N
Osborne and Pate Reilly. That was in the
latter part Of October, 1852 The men made
their claims and went to work next day.
They hauled their chute over from the former
diggings and made new chute so as to carry
water down from q spring mile away. me
lines Of the mine were plainly visible. Inc
pay dirt was about ten feet across and about
forty long. l never saw any richer. L went
over to see the men several times every
month and looked the country over for mine
of my own, but l never struck one worth
much For few days Comstock and winters
and the others worked in dirt that ran Sc
an ounce. Think of that! l saw lots Of it
that ran that high. The men bought wooden
pals and they had so much wealth that they
measured it by the bucketful. In a month
the news went about that the richest diggings
Of all had been found, and the stampede Of
miners started that way. By January there
were over 500 miners on the scene. That was
the beginning of Virginia City. By the way,
the name came from a salOonkeeper there
who had been known in California and Ne
vada as Virginia Mike, because he came from
Virg MIA.
"Comstock and his partners kept right on
mining, and the hundreds of other fellows
skirmished for thirty miles around and didn't
find enough to buy beans and bacon.
worked for Comstock for a few weeks, but
went back to California when the Internal
Piutes began warfare in February 1860.
had two cousins who were overland pony eX-
press riders and were killed and scalped by
the Piutes, and l heard every few days OF
some fresh murder by the savages. So
got scared, ard. with nearly every other
white man in Nevada, got out ComStOck
and his partners paid extra wages, and fur
nished their men with shotguns and pistols,
and SO they kept at work with a guard con-
stantly about the camp for several months.
/ think it was along in June, 1850 that the
surface Ophir petered out 1t did sud
denly, and the miners were blue and dis
couraged, notwithstanding that each had q
goOd-sized fortune. Old Comstock would have
sold out what claims he had there for $4,000
any day When the dirt had been washed
away to the depth of a dozen or so feet the
men came on grayish-hued finty rock that
was strange in those days. COmstOck had
been prospecting for ten years, and had
never seen anything like it before. That was
the discovery of the true Comstock lode
the quartz that made the greatest mining
kings of the world. One would naturally
wonder now why Comstock and his partners
did not have the rock assayed there, but
mining was a crude science in the West
thirty-seven years ago, and the best Of min
ers knew little of metallurgy. The Ophir
owners examined carefully the queer-looking
rock, and several of them were sure it
iron ore. Comstock himself was sure of
that. They did nothing with the rock for a
month so, when they decided to spend
several hundred dollars and have it tested by
an expert in Sacramento. So they got out
whole wagon load of the grayish rock, and
with a string Of mules sent it over TO Sacra-
mento to an assayer. A sharp young lawyer
at Virginia City named Pat Walsh wanted
to go to Sacramento on business, and he
5
on the stuff The Piute war was over by
that time, and l went back to Virginia CITY
while Walsh was absent. l remember seeing
him on his way to Sacramento at that time
ANA ore.
'Walsh's return to Virginia City was not
awaited with much anxiety. Comstock and his
partners were pretty sure their ore was full
or iron. When Walsh did get back along
In July, 1860, he said that the assayer had
maze long written report which he, Walsh
had lost in his travels over the mountain
trail, and that the strange rock was iron
ore with traces of silver and gold. A week
later several men from Sacramento and
Frisco came into Virginia City. They had
evidently come in haste over the mountains
to the new mining camp. Almost at once
they began offering to buk Comstocks and
his partners shares. OF course, they were
adrolt to conceal their motives Comstock
however, was suspicious, but the other part
ners were not. Pat Reilly said he believed
the ore was richer than Walsh had said,
the assay of the rock. Kentucky Osborne
and Penrod believed in Walsh and each sold
a sixth interest for $1,000. Comstock's bought
wife wanted to go to California. and he sold
for $4,000 Reilly held out week longer
and got $4,000. Joe Winters decided to hold
onto , What the strangers from Sacramento
and Frisco wanted SO badly. So he never
SOLD Tor several years. l believe he got
about 900 for his share when he sold and
ne had got as much more from dividends
too.
Just as soon as the mine had passed into
the new hands the facts of the assay came
out JENNY! but there was roar of as
constituent and anger UP in the little mining
camp of Virginia City then. Old Comstock
was almost crazy for weeks, and Osborne was
IN despair. 1t was found that the wagon load
OF ore that Walsh had taken to the assayer
was worth over $4,700, that it had been assay
ed at $l3, 600 ton, that the money had been
deposited in a bank and that the men In
Sacramento and Frisco who had been let into
hh
such wonderful ore. Iron in It? Not a bit
Walsh had been made one of the syndicate
that had come on to buy the Ophir nine. and
nad concealed the written report Of the assay.
now Stupendously rich the load was Of which
he had sold his sixth interest for paltry
$1,000. Comstock himself went to California
and l have heard he never wanted to see the
Oph1r again after he heard how it was pay
ing dividends of $4,000 a month. His share
IN the mine would have brought him fully
SI2,OOOOOO in fifteen years had he but known
the correct assay and held on.
The new ODhir Mining con pany went to
work in 1861 to develop the lode They
were scientific miners for those days. and
they brought the finest machinery known in.
mining to Nevada. James G. Fair, Afterwards
the famous bonanza miner and once United
States senator from Nevada, went to Virginia
City In 1862 as a superintendent in the Onhir
and John w. Mackay went there in 1867
Ihey had the means of getting the best
knowledge of the lode. They soon saw thai
Inc ColnStOck lOQe was lar richer than its
buyers had ever dreamed. They set about
hnd1ng from the indications In the shafts and
tunnels how far the Comstock lode reached
and its dip and course. In that way came
the opening of the Sierra and the Ruby, over
to the north of the Ophir. Dozens of men
spent small fortunes trying to get the south
erly course of the Comstock lode. Joe Win
tiers spent all the money he had made as one
of the original Ophir Mining company in
trying to determine how far out the lode
reached to the southeast. He consulted
astrologers and paid money to a number of
wild-eyed cranks who claimed to have myster-
ious ways of reading the secrets of the
earth at S100 a day and all expenses paid
But Flood, Mackay, Fair and O'Brien
found that secret, and they located south of
the Ophir the bonanza mines, the Crown
Point Belcher, and Consolidated Virginia,
mining have ever been anywhere equalled in
the world. In 1872 the four bonanza kings
took out over $54 600, coo in clean profits from
the Comstock load 1 have heard Penrod tell
In Virginia City and Frisco many a time,
while he sobbed, how he had sold q sixth in
terest in that load for a pitiful So coo. He
lived in Virginia City for years and was one
of Its characters.
I'm 1876 the limits of the Comstock load
were reached. Prospectors have tried for over
twenty years to find it again among the hills
and mountains of Nevada, but so far all in
vain. Of course, that load although broken
and twisted extends somewhere and some
day 1t may be relocated There's no reason
why 1t should not be as rich elsewhere as the
mines in it have already been, and it may
make another set Of bonanza mill;onaires. %