[From James G. Scrugham, Nevada: The Narrative of the Conquest of a Frontier Land (1935), vol. I, pp. 243-265]

XI

Greenbacks and Coin.

The West did not take kindly to paper money. For all the repeated protestations and acts of loyalty during the Civil war, the people could not be weaned from their long standing attitude of suspicion toward anything but "hard" currency. Even today, though the "dollar bill" is almost universal east of the Mississippi, the heavy silver "cart wheels," many of them minted forty or fifty years ago, have an undeniable popularity if not an actual preference in the regions where the great plains begin and westward.

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The resort of the government to paper drove the banks to cease redemption in specie for the period of the war. The dollar thereafter became the paper dollar, whose value was whatever the hope or fear of the Nation might ascribe to it. The public creditor was compelled to accept it; but he protected himself by raising the price of what he had to sell. The private creditor suffered confiscation when he was paid off in the depreciated paper, the loss being the difference between the gold value of the paper and gold at par. From 1862 until 1864, when the greenbacks reached their lowest price (about thirty-five cents on the dollar), the loss was borne without means of evasion by every owner of property, every recipient of wages, and every person who lived upon a fixed income. The man who had a debt to pay absolved his debt on a basis more profitable each month as the buying value of the legal tender dollar declined.

A large part of the nation had adjusted itself to this inflated currency. Promotional loans had been made in terms of the legal tender. The phenomenal development of the West, through the building of railroads, the opening of new farming territory, and the financing of pioneer enterprise in every direction, had been undertaken on the terms of a "cheap dollar." When, following the act of Congress of 1866, providing for a gradual resumption of "specie payment," the Treasury began calling in and cancelling the greenbacks, the value of the dollar began to rise, and at the same time the millions who had gone in debt on the strength of a new prosperity were experiencing the familiar pinch of deflation.

The Hard Money West.

This description applied chiefly to the Middle West and East. There was a somewhat different reaction in the gold and silver producing regions of the far West. What one historian said of California applies with equal force to conditions in Nevada :

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California found a remedy for the situation in its "Specific Contract Act" of 1863, which provided that "contracts in writing for the direct payment of money, made payable in a specific kind of money or currency might be specifically enforced by the courts." As soon as Nevada became a state the Legislature, no doubt using the California law as a precedent, passed the act of January 4, 1865, authorizing the courts to uphold an express contract involving payment "in a specified kind of money or currency." Further-more, the revenue law passed by that Legislature required that all taxes levied under these provisions should "be paid in gold and silver coin of the United States." The specific contract features of the act of January 4, 1865, were annulled by the State Supreme Court. Then the act of March 3, 1866, directed that "all costs, fines, licenses, taxes and salaries" might be paid "in any currency made, by the laws of the United States, a legal tender." Testimony as to what effect this legislation had on state finances is given by the state controller in his report of January, 1867:

By the terms of an act passed at the last session of the Legislature, it was provided that after the first day of April, 1866, all taxes should be collected, and all salaries and other demand against the state paid in legal tender notes of the United States, excepting only the public printing. At the time it was thought this course, although not required by the decision of the Supreme Court annulling the specific contract act, would inure to the benefit of the state by inducing the adoption of United States currency as the currency of general circulation, causing a rapid influx of capital from the East. The result of the experiment, however, has proved that this supposition was entirely fallacious, and plainly shown that the citizens of the state are too strongly prejudiced in favor of coin as a circulating medium to look with any degree of favor upon any measure tending to replace specie with paper. And whilst the result thought to be obtained has utterly failed of accomplishment, the effect upon the finances of the state has been most disastrous. In most instances property has been assessed at the same valuation in paper dollars that it would have been in metallic dollars ; and in consequence the state has lost in revenue the exact difference between the market worth of the two. The total receipts from the property tax of 1866 fell about $80,000 short of the receipts from the same source for 1865, and being collected in 1866 in currency instead of in coin, as was the case in 1865, they do not in reality amount to but little more than half the sum obtained during the former year. It cannot be contended that the value of the taxable property of the state depreciated 50 per cent in the twelvemonth between the two assessments; but the fault must be attributed to the suicidal transition from coin to currency; while the receipts have been lessened, the expenses of carrying on the government have been largely increased from the same cause. Whenever articles have been purchased for the use of the various departments, the price has invariably been raised by the vendors to a figure in currency equivalent to the charge made in coin to private buyers. Inasmuch as no advantage has been derived by either the state or any of its citizens from the workings of the act re-

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ferred to, but on the contrary, great detriment, it would seem but wisdom to return as speedily as possible to the system under which all the transactions of the government are conducted upon a coin basis.

Legal Tender for Taxes.

But this recommendation did not prevail. The revenue act of April 2, 1867, declared : "All assessments and valuation of property for taxable purposes shall be made on the value thereof in legal tender paper currency of the United States." But in another act, one authorizing a state loan by the sale of bonds, it was directed that the bonds could not be sold "for any currency except gold and silver coin of the United States," and the state of course pledged repayment of both principal and interest in specie.

Resumption of Specie Payment.

After 1866 the gap in value between gold and legal tender currency steadily narrowed, as a result of improved business conditions and the announced policy of the government to place its finances on a specie basis. In the meantime all local government, institutions and private individuals who had to resort to loans suffered from the confusion due to the dual basis of value. Nevada obviously from the beginning of statehood was a debtor state. In working out its financial policy it had to repeatedly refund its debt, and in borrowing money for the payment of past obligations and in conducting business on a cash basis, it was subject to high interest rates and also the handicap of having to pay in coin from

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receipts that were paid in legal tender. Nevada was undoubtedly under many obligations to the favors conferred by the national government, but it is proper to note here that Nevada also contributed in sacrifices to assist the nation in recovering its financial stability after the war. On this matter Governor Blasdel had the following to say in his message of January, 1869:

For the past three years it has been the policy of the state to conduct, as far as possible, our finances upon the legal tender paper currency basis, requiring all valuations to be made, taxes collected, and current expenses paid in that character of money. The existence of two currencies of different valuation, one the basis of all private and commercial transactions exclusively recognized by the people in their estimates of value, the other, the basis in part only of state transactions, dealt with by the people not as a circulating medium, but as a merchantable commodity, has produced confusion in valuations and worked detriment to the state. In the purchase of supplies our warrants are taken only at a ruinous discount after reducing them to coin at the lowest current rate for greenbacks. The result thus far has been the receipt of less revenue and payment of one-half more for supplies than would have been necessary had the coin been in the Treasury. Heretofore it has been the hope that the national paper would speedily approximate par, and to this end our patriotic efforts have been earnestly directed. This hope is not yet realized. The patriotic motive to strengthen the national arm by upholding the national credit, animating us during the period of imminent peril, no longer exists. We may, therefore, with justice and propriety remove all inharmony and confusion by assimilating the transactions of the state to those of the community at large.

In line with this recommendation the Legislature by act of February 2, 1869, "an act to establish the financial transactions of the state upon a coin basis," directed that thereafter all state, county or municipal taxes should be assessed and collected in "United States gold and silver coin," and requiring that all salaries, fines, fees, imposts and dues of whatsoever description should be likewise payable in gold and silver coin.

Production and Coinage of Gold and Silver.

The revenue law of 1865, requiring that all taxes should be paid in. coin, offered an alternative of payment either in United States coin or "in foreign coin at the value fixed for such coin by the laws of the United States." The popular currency of the Pacific Coast after 1848 was gold dust, just as the "coon skin" had been the circulating medium of an older stage of the American frontier. While the bag of gold dust was a standby for the writers of melodramatic fiction of old California, there were other circulating mediums in use. Besides the ounce of gold dust as the monetary standard, specimens from the coinage of nearly every civilized nation were in circulation, including the dollars and their "bits" from all the Spanish-American countries to the south. As the law just quoted indicates, all of this foreign coinage had a standard rating. For several years after 1848 a great deal of money circulating on the

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Pacific Coast was the result of private coinage. While the private mints had no legal status, their output was more convenient than gold dust, and thousands of dollars of gold coins of various shapes and standards of value, including "fifty dollar slugs," were in circulation. It was to relieve this situation that the San Francisco mint was established in 1854.

The discovery of the Comstock Lode quickly changed the relative figures in the production of gold and silver. From 1861 to 1865 the production of gold was 10,716,000 fine ounces, representing a decline from the figures for the previous five years; while during the same years the production of silver reached an aggregate of 28,811,000 fine ounces. From 1866 to 1870 the production was: Gold, 12,226,000 fine ounces; silver, 49,113,000 fine ounces. In spite of this enormous increased production, silver found no favor at the United States mints, due to the fact that as late as 1870 the value of the silver in a silver dollar was $1.027. Consequently silver was worth more as bullion than as money. During this decade the coinage of silver was less than $13,000,000, while the coinage of gold during the same decade was in excess of $290,000,000. Nevada's silver production in a single year was greater in value than the silver coinage throughout the entire ten years.

Carson City Mint.

In 1864 Congress voted an appropriation to build a branch mint at Carson City so that some of the bullion produced in this region might be minted into coin before being transported at exorbitant rates over the mountains to San Francisco. There was a long delay in beginning the construction because of the uncertainty as to the title of the site to be used for the building. Both in 1865 and in 1866 the Legislature endeavored by resolution to influence the Secretary of the Treasury in inaugurating the construction.

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One of the reasons given for hurrying up the project was: "The absolute demand for the speedy establishment of a branch mint in this state is made manifest from the large and increasing production of bullion from our mines and those lying in contiguous territories." In December, 1865, Abram Curry, Henry F. Rice and John H. Mills were appointed commissioners to establish the mint. On July 18, 1866, ground was broken for the building on Carson Street. The building was two and a half stories high, the walls being constructed of granite taken from the prison stone quarry. The mint was not put into operation until November 1, 1869, so that very few coins minted in Nevada were in circulation before the close of the decade of the '60s.

Revenue From, Mines

The dual system of money was assigned as one of the reasons for the fact that "the revenue derived from all sources under existing laws has been found barely adequate to the payment of current expenses ; providing nothing for the liquidation of the principal of the $500,000 bond issue due in three years." But another important reason for this condition was the fact that a large part of the valuable property of Nevada was escaping with only a nominal tax. The state controller in his report of January, 1867, had expressed disappointment over the revenues derived from the capitation tax and the stamp tax. These were in their nature special or emergency forms of taxation. The mines, on the other hand, were the very foundation of the state's prosperity. Nevertheless, said the controller, "the revenue from the proceeds of mines has fallen very far short of even the low estimates made at the commencement of the first fiscal year. The law appears ample to enforce collection, and the fault is solely in the rate imposed. During the past year the tax upon the proceeds of the mines yielded the State Treasury the paltry sum of but little over $10,000; that being the entire revenue derived from a bullion product exceeding $16,000,000 in assay value. . . . . There can be no valid reason why an individual owning one thousand dollars' worth of bullion should not pay to the state the same tax as the individual who owns one thousand dollars' worth of any other property. And in view of the fact that the mines are almost wholly the property of foreign capitalists and non-residents, who, while draining the state of its metallic wealth, render scarcely any equivalent therefor, it would seem but simple justice that they should bear their equal share of the burdens of the state."

The following legislature did in fact attempt to revise this mining tax law, but apparently made it less equitable than before. From all the discussions over this subject the blunt fact obtrudes itself that the dominating power over Nevada's mining industry and to a lesser extent over the state government was exercised by the operating and financial interests centered in San Francisco. These interests were opposed to any handicap, through taxation or other forms of control, upon their free and untrammeled exploitation of the mineral wealth. Many of these bonanza kings were, in their personal relations, extremely generous and open-handed, always ready to respond to the call of distress and misfortune, dispensing large portions of their wealth through donations in the cause of religion, charity and education, but in the acquisition of their wealth they did not give even lip service to

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some of the principles of responsibility to the public welfare which are nominal professions of our modern captains of industry. These and other builders of huge fortunes out of the exploitation of our natural resources did not have to contend with the doctrine that the public is entitled to a participation in the wealth drawn from public resources, nor did they pay government royalties, income taxes and other forced contributions to the public treasury.

Regardless of the duty imposed by the Constitution, public officials exhibited no small measure of courage when they approached the topic of taxing the mines, and possibly what they did say might be discounted as a "sop" to the public. Anyhow, Governor Blasdel stated the case for the public with justice in his message of 1869: "The fundamental law, exempting the body of the mine from taxation, requires the proceeds to be taxed ; and it is believed any revenue law failing to tax the proceeds of the mines would fall short of the constitutional requirement of `uniformity,' and its attempted enforcement meet the prompt interdiction of the courts. . . . . The act of April 2, 1867, levying a tax upon the proceeds of the mines, though enacted with great deliberation, and with much unanimity, has been found to work unfairly to some parts of the state ; whilst in others, defects, real or imaginary, have been found which, seized upon, have thus far prevented the realization of its full anticipated benefits. The establishment, by legislative enactment, of any definite sum as the cost of working, to be deducted from the gross yield, as a means of ascertaining the value of the ore at the dump, has been found equally impracticable and unjust. . . . . Whilst eighteen dollars per ton for ores worked by any process without roasting, and forty dollars per ton for ores worked by roasting process, may in some localities be found to more than cover the actual cost, in other localities these sums would be found wholly inadequate."

But there was no solution to be found of this difficult problem during the Blasdel administration. When the governor went out of office in 1871 all he could do was to reiterate the statements just quoted and recommend a system of assessing and taxing the ores "at their actual value when they first reach the surface—this value to be ascertained by deducting from the gross yield the actual cost of transporting and reducing."

Taxing the Coolies

In the controller's report of January, 1867, previously quoted, occurs the following interesting paragraph :

In regard to the poll tax, I would earnestly recommend the passage of a law of a character sufficiently stringent to fully secure the large revenue which may and should be derived from the thousands of Mongolians soon to become inhabitants of the state as laborers on the Pacific Railroad. From this source an annual income of not less than $40,000 can be obtained, if a proper bill is framed. But, inasmuch as Chinese thus employed are engaged in California, and their wages paid to agents in San Francisco, it will require the utmost care to draft a bill in such a manner as to secure from them this tax.

In response to this suggestion the Legislature amended the previous poll tax law. "For the purposes of this act, any person

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Central Pacific and Its Influence on Development.

While any proposal to tax the mines was made with consider-able caution, there was not the same circumspection with regard to taxing anything connected with the railroad whose coming was expected to put Nevada on a competitive level with other states in the Union and produce a great outburst of commercial and industrial development.

In the Union Pacific act of 1862 it was contemplated that the Union Pacific Company would build a railroad from the Missouri River to the eastern line of California, where it would connect with the line of the Central Pacific Company. In the act of 1864 it was provided that in case the Central Pacific completed its line across California before the Union Pacific extended its road through Nevada, then the Central Pacific might continue building eastward 150 miles on the established route. Still another act of Congress, in 1866, repealed this junction point, and permitted each road to build what it could and to make a junction where the tracks should happen to meet. By executive ruling most of the route across the Great Basin, between the Rockies and the Sierras, was put into the mountainous class, where every mile of construction gave the company a right to claim $48,000 in United States bonds. It was this condition which precipitated the building race between the two companies, each working at full speed to get credit for the largest possible mileage. The construction race did not get under way until 1866. In September, 1865, the Central Pacific had built fifty-six miles from Sacramento, while the Union Pacific had only a stretch of eleven miles constructed. During 1866 and 1867 the Union Pacific extended its line about 550 miles west of Omaha. During that time the Central Pacific was struggling with the tremendous engineering problems in the Sierras and constructed only forty-six miles in 1867. In his inaugural address of January 8, 1867, the Governor said : "I am credibly informed—and congratulate you thereupon—that it is their (Central Pacific) intention to complete their road to a point some twenty miles within our borders during the coming summer." At this time the tremendous efforts of the California promoters, with their thousands of "coolies" could not match in terms of actual construction the work being done by the Irish and the discharged soldiers under the military discipline of General Dodge on the Union Pacific. Nevertheless, on December 13, 1867, the first loco-

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[picture]

LAKE'S CROSSING. TOLL BRIDGE AND STAGE STATION NEAR PRESENT SITE OF RIVERSIDE HOTEL AND VIRGINIA STREET BRIDGE ON TRUCKEE RIVER, RENO.

The coming of the railroad produced some inevitable shifting of population, readjustment of commerce and transportation and the development of new towns and communities.

Reno and Other Communities in Washoe County.

Washoe County was the first part of the state penetrated by the railroad as it came down from the Sierra Mountains. Along the Truckee and in Washoe (spelled in the early records Wassau) Valley were some of the oldest towns and settlements in the state. One of them was Franktown, where the Mormon elder Orson Hyde had built a saw mill in 1855. Though it was practically deserted by the Mormons in 1857, other settlers took their place and as soon as the mines began development on the Comstock the mill was an important enterprise in furnishing timber. Mining development

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had caused the establishment of other towns in the valley in 1861, chiefly as milling centers, including Ophir, Washoe City and Galena. Steamboat Springs had been developed as a health resort about 1862. Other settlements, sites of mills or eligible points for trade on the transportation routes in the pre-railroad era were Huffaker's Station, made a postoffice in 1862, Auburn, laid out in 1865 and subsequently absorbed by Reno. On the road to the west along the Truckee were Crystal Peak, laid out as a town in 1864 and the first settlement in Nevada to enjoy the temporary prosperity of railroad construction ; Hunter's Bridge, a river crossing with a hotel and bridge. With the organization of Washoe County, Washoe City was made the county seat, and in 1863 a court house and jail were constructed.

Even before the railroad came the mines were a declining industry in Washoe, with agriculture taking precedence over the production of minerals, while transportation and trade were being aligned up the Washoe Valley and along the Truckee to the termini of the approaching railroad. It is noteworthy that one of the oldest incorporations not for profit in Nevada was the Washoe Agricultural, Mining and Mechanical Society, chartered by the territorial legislature in December, 1862. Diversion of waters in the ditches for irrigating purposes began in the Washoe Valley and along the Truckee in 1864 and 1865.

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Virginia and Truckee Railroad.

The crossing of the state line by the Central Pacific immediately revitalized the long dormant project of building a railroad from Virginia City to Carson City and north up the valley of the Washoe. The promise of the "Placerville line" had not been fulfilled. In this case since the railroad could not be induced to come to the mountain (the Comstock Lode), the mountain had to go to the railroad. A connecting line between the cities around the Comstock and the Central Pacific was indispensable to the continued development and prosperity of the chief mining center of the state. A new figure appeared as the backer and genius of the Virginia and Truckee—William Sharon, and the railroad as built was one of the monuments left by that impressive character in the history of Nevada. However, it was not the financial capital owned by him and his associates, but his shrewd genius in organizing and financing the proposition that built the road at a cost of about two million dollars. Sharon appealed to the people of the counties along the proposed route, pointing out the enormous advantages that such a railroad would yield by increasing the value of property and in increased trade, commerce and industry. The Legislature early in 1869 authorized the boards of commissioners of Ormsby, Storey and Lyon counties to issue county bonds and de-liver the bonds to the Virginia and Truckee Railroad Company if and when, within eighteen months after the passage of the acts, this railroad had been constructed between certain designated points within the respective counties. Ormsby County's donation in this form was $200,000, Storey County's $300,000, and Lyon County's $75,000. Construction work was begun February 18, 1869, and before the end of the year the line was in operation between Virginia City and Carson City. While the road did not as yet connect with the Central Pacific, the county assessor of Ormsby County estimated that during 1870 about 50,000 cords of wood, 10,000,000 feet of lumber and 75,000 tons of ore had been shipped over the twenty-five miles of track. During the following year construction work was begun from Reno south and completed as far as Steamboat Springs by November 7, 1871. In August, 1872, the north and south branches were united, and by the fall of that year it was possible for a passenger to leave Virginia City or Carson City and travel by all rail route to the Pacific or Atlantic coasts.

In the meantime, during 1868 the construction camps of the Central Pacific, with their thousands of "Mongolians" had moved steadily along to the eastern boundary of Nevada. As the railroad passed along the route up the Humboldt taken by the forty-niners and their successors during the decade of the '50s, through country

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which only recently had been the scene of Indian raids and bloody battles, there sprang up new towns along the right-of-way. Reference has been made to Wadsworth as one of the new railroad towns in Washoe County. The site of this town was at the "Big Bend" of the Truckee, where the overland emigrants had first found a supply of good water after emerging from the desert.

Humboldt County Towns.

In laying out the route through Humboldt County the builders of the road avoided several of the old mining camps and towns. The state mineralogist in his report at the close of 1868 made the following comment on the principal communities in the county.

Unionville is the county seat, and is situated in a canyon on the eastern slope of Star Mountain. It has a public school and about 250 inhabitants.

Star City, twelve miles north of Unionville, is nearly abandoned.

Humboldt City, a few miles west of Star, on the western slope of the mountain, is also almost deserted. These places are dependent upon the mines, and work has been mostly suspended for several years.

Oreana is twenty-five miles southwest from Unionville, on the Humboldt River, and has a population of about 100.

Dun Glen, twelve miles from Star, in the next range of mountain peaks, is about half the size of Unionville.

Centerville, generally known as Winnemucca, is on the railroad, about thirty miles northeast of Dun Glen, and has from 300 to 350 inhabitants.

Argenta, a few miles east of the mouth of Reese River, on the railroad, is a thriving hamlet.

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Unionville, Humboldt City and Star City all dated from 1861, and Dun Glen from 1862. All of them reached the apex of their fortunes as communities within two or three years and then passed into decline. In 1862 a company had started an ambitious project for the construction of a canal, taking out the waters of the Humboldt and distributing them for irrigation purposes and also to provide water to the mines in the Star district. On the strength of this proposition Mill City was started in 1863. The canal never reached that point, and Mill City was practically dormant until it became a shipping point on the railroad. One of the old stations on the overland trail that became a station on the new railroad was Lovelock, situated at the north end of the desert, where many over-land travelers had lightened their burdens by discarding all surplus baggage and even abandoning the wagons in order to make the most rapid time possible across the desert.

New Counties in Northeastern Nevada.

In 1868 all the northeast corner of the state was comprised in Lander County. While the railroad was built along the general course of the old California trail, it passed many miles to the north of the principal settlements and communities at that time, which were Austin, then in the heyday of its prosperity with about 3,000 inhabitants ; Treasure City, at the summit of Treasure Hill in the White Pine district, a new town developed as a result of a recent mining excitement ; Hamilton, two miles north and west of Treasure City, also a new village ; Silver Springs, two miles south-east of Treasure City; and Egan Village in the Egan Canyon district. The mining district nearest the railroad was that around Argenta, but that town migrated almost bodily in 1870 to a new site known as Battle Mountain, the scene of some promising ore discoveries.

The division of Lander County and the creation of two new counties in Northeastern Nevada may be regarded as a result of railroad building and a new interest in the mining district of this portion of the state. The Legislature in 1869 created the county of White Pine and the county of Elko. The western boundary of White Pine County was to be a north and south line running through Shannon's Station, on the westerly slope of Diamond Mountain, while the north line was to run through "the most northerly part of Camp Ruby." North of this line was to be Elko County, whose western line was defined as one running "through a point on the Central Pacific Railroad track, three miles west of the machine shop of the Central Pacific Railroad Company, situated in the town of Carlin." Two years later the portion of Lander

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County lying between the 41st and 42d parallels was added to Elko. Most of the early mining districts of this county were located and organized in 1869. The pioneer town of the county was Carlin, where the first settlement was made in 1868. Carlin became the end of the Humboldt division of the railroad, with machine shops and round house. Twenty-five miles to the east of Carlin was

[picture]

PERPETUAL SNOW MANTLE ON RUGGED RUBY MOUNTAINS IN ELKO COUNTY

established the town of Elko, which in the act creating the county was declared the county seat. From the establishment of Elko an extensive traffic began, by coaches and freight wagons, with the mines to the south in the White Pine district, and to the north in the Tuscarora region. Another town brought into existence as a result of the railroad company establishing a station was that of Humboldt Wells, fifty-seven miles east of Elko.

New Boundaries on East and South.

The Constitution had anticipated and provided for the cession by the United States of a strip one degree in width on the eastern edge of the state, from the 37th to the 42d parallel. This cession was made by the act of Congress of May 5, 1866. But the act also

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offered another addition to Nevada, constituting all of the area south of the 37th parallel and between the California state line and the Nevada eastern line extended to the Colorado River, defined as follows :

Commencing on the 37th degree of north latitude, at the 37th degree of longitude west from Washington; and running thence south on said degree of longitude to the middle of the river Colorado of the West ; thence down the middle of the said river to the eastern boundary of the State of California; thence northwesterly along said boundary of California to the 37th degree of north latitude ; and thence east along said degree of latitude to the point of beginning.

Lincoln County.

This addition, taken from Arizona Territory, brought to Nevada not only access to the waters of the Colorado River but also, in the words of the governor, "extensive valuable and agricultural mineral lands." It also gave to Nevada a region closely associated with the early history of exploration and also associated with the early Mormon colonizing enterprises along the Salt Lake-San Bernardino trail.

Already the Nevada Legislature, by the act of February 26, 1866, had divided Nye County and created the new county of Lincoln in the southeastern corner of the state, making its western boundary the 116th meridian and the northern boundary the 38th parallel. By the act of March 18, 1867, a strip ten miles wide on the west side of the county was ceded back to Nye County and the northwest corner of Lincoln County by this act was made "Red Bluff Springs." From that point the line was to run east to the state line and then south to the new southern boundary of Nevada, the Colorado River.

Included in Lincoln County was the Pahranagat District. Concerning the discovery and early development of this district some notes have already been made. By the act of 1867 Hiko was constituted the temporary county seat of the new county, but in 1871 the matter of a permanent county seat was decided by a local election and Pioche became the seat of county government. The state mineralogist in his report for 1867-68 affords the following description of the region embraced in the new county :

The southeastern portion of the State, in which this county is situated has some forbidding aspects. The country between Silver Peak in the southeastern corner of Esmeralda County, and the Colorado River, is very desolate. The Amargoza Valley is only separated from Death Valley in California on the west, and from the Mohave desert on the south, by a chain of

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low mountains—in places by broken, sandy hills. It is not entirely destitute of vegetation, but it is covered with sand, volcanic ashes, scoria and alkali flats. As the name Amargoza implies, the waters are bitter. Often they contain salt, soda and other minerals, in such quantities that they are nearly red, and are poisonous to animal life. There are no permanent lakes, no living streams and but few springs ; and these are found only at long intervals. Grass grows in spots about the springs.

East from the northern end of this valley the mountains are broken into short irregular sections with an occasional peak, or they are depressed into elevated table-lands, where the Cacti and Yucca tree are almost the only forms of vegetable life. No thorough exploration of this part of the State has been made. East of this, along the Muddy and the upper tributaries of the Rio Virgin, there are a few fertile valleys, not very extensive, but susceptible of cultivation. Corn, wheat, barley, oats and vegetables are produced, and in some of the older Mormon settlements, cotton and sugar-cane have been attempted. Orchards of apples, peaches, plums and small vineyards are in bearing. South, along the Los Vegas, there are several natural meadows, and the Los Vegas mountains, for sixty miles northwest, are well covered with timber and grass, and occasionally fine springs of pure water are found in the canons and at the base of the foot-hills. Limestone predominates as far as this range is explored. There are two or three very high peaks and an imperfect pass. In the spurs of this mountain, at the south end, the Mormons formerly obtained 'large quantities of lead, said to contain a small percentage of silver.

According to the official returns, the popular vote of this county is one hundred and six.

The county seat of Lincoln County is at Hiko, an Indian word signifying white man's city. It is situated in the valley east of the Pahranagat mines, at the head of Muddy River, the largest tributary of the Rio Virgin. The village is regularly laid out on a level plat of ground near several very large springs. It has less than a hundred inhabitants ; has a court-house, postoffice and several stores. There are a number of pleasant families residing here, but there is no public school or church.

Logan City is a village at the south of the mines in a wide pass through the mountain where there is a fine spring of water. It has about the same number of inhabitants as Hiko, and is about ten miles west of it. There is a hamlet in Silver canon four miles north, and another called Crescent City, at Hetfield's spring, two miles west from Logan City.

            Callville on the Colorado, is a small place, where there is a warehouse and shipping facilities.

St. Thomas and St. Joseph are two Mormon villages, near the junction of the Muddy and the Rio Virgin. They are situated so closely together that they constitute but one village in truth—and together contain a population of about five hundred.

Miners and prospectors were responsible for the founding of such towns as Hiko in 1866, Pioche in 1868, and Eldorado in 1861,

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but the older settlements, Las Vegas, Panaca (1864), Callville (1864), St. Thomas (1864), owe their origin to Mormon colonists.

The State Capital.

Throughout the Blasdel administration Carson City offered no imposing monument to its position as the state capital. All the State and Federal officials occupied rented quarters. The one institution owned by the state was the prison, which, as the governor said, was "a fruitful source of perplexity and expense." Abram Curry was the genius who not only provided shelter for the first territorial legislature, but also put up a building for the detention of prisoners whom he worked as contractor in his stone quarry. Later the territory bought the Curry property, which then became the territorial prison and as such was heired by the state. The buildings were destroyed by fire May 1, 1867, and the rebuilding was one of the extraordinary expenses that burdened the new state government. However, from the labor of the prisoners was produced the stone used in several public buildings at the capital.

The act of February 23, 1869, made provisions for the erection of a State Capitol. The Constitution had prohibited any appropriation for state buildings within three years after its adoption. The sources of the State Capitol fund designated in this act was the surplus, if any, from the proceeds of the special tax for the

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payment of territorial indebtedness ; also a special tax of one-eighth of one per cent for the year 1870 and succeeding years; and the net proceeds from the sale of the forty sections of land donated by the United States to the state for this purpose.

Nevada's School System in 1870

"Laboring under disadvantages incident to the history of a new state, and the settlement of a mining country, we are without university college, normal school or academy," declared the superintendent of public instruction in his report on December 1, 1870. But, he continued, "we have free common schools liberally distributed, firmly established, generously endowed, and well patronized, throughout the state. . . . . The present school law makes provisions for no grade above the high school, and until the present year we have had no school beyond the grammar grades. It is with pleasure that I report the recent founding of a high school in Virginia City, which, under the liberal and intelligent administration of the school officials of that city. . . . promises to render valuable service to the educational interests of Storey County and of the state. The school already has thirty pupils who have been admitted by graduation from grammar departments in Virginia City and Gold Hill."

At that time Nevada had, according to a report of the commissioner of the National Bureau of Education, the largest expenditure per child enumerated in the school census of any state of the Union. The figure for Nevada was $19.19, for Massachusetts $16.45, for California $11.44, for Kansas $6.45, and other states showed an outlay for education per pupil running down to less

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the suffrage qualifications, negroes were still without political rights within the State of Nevada. There were thirty negro children of school age in the state in 1870. "For these no educational provision is made. They are denied admission to the public schools ; separate schools are permitted under the law, but as they are not commanded, colored children are without educational privileges."

The 1869 Legislature had authorized the superintendent to make arrangements with the institution for the deaf and dumb and the blind in California, at Oakland, for the admission and care of the deaf and dumb and blind of Nevada. In 1870 there were three such pupils from Nevada maintained at the Oakland institution.

During the school year of 1869-70 the total expense of the public schools of Nevada was approximately $74,000. "Of the amount expended $16,957.59 was received from state apportionment; $48,634.48 from county taxes; $10,625.76 from district taxes, and the balance from money on hand and from miscellaneous sources."

In his message of January, 1871, on retiring from the office of governor, Governor Blasdel gave the following brief account of state finances :

The funds on hand, exclusive of the bonds held by the irreducible school fund is about $100,000. The entire indebtedness approximates $650,000, of which about $150,000 is the floating debt, and consists of warrants and claims against the Capitol building, State Prison and general funds of the Treasury, and $500,000 is the bonded debt (bearing interest at 15 per cent per annum), which will be due March 1, 1872.

When we reflect that at the organization of our constitutional government, the state assumed the entire indebtedness of the late territory, amounting to over $300,000 ; that there has been expended in the erection of public buildings (prison, capitol and orphans' home) about $160,000, and that there was abstracted and misappropriated by the late state treasurer (now deceased) over $106,000, we find (adding the amount in the Treasury) that during the last eight years the receipts have exceeded the ordinary public expenditures—a gratifying fact, when compared with exhibits made by other states of the Union.