[The Washoe Country, La Porte Mountain Messenger and North San Juan Press articles reprinted in the Sacramento Union, October 25, 1859]

 

THE WASHOE COUNTRY.

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            The Mountain Messenger, published at La Porte, gives, under date of October 22d, the following description of the Washoe country :

            The parties who left this town for the Washoe mines last week returned on Monday. They represent the country richer than previous rumors had made it, or than they had ever anticipated.

            To John Conly, one of the returned visitors to the Washoe country, we are indebted for the following information:

            Virginia City is situated in the center of a kind of mountain amphitheater leading down the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevadas into Carson valley, and is fifteen miles from Carson City. At present there are eight store houses in course of erection at Virginia City, all of which will be completed this Fall. Lumber is quite scarce, and is hauled from mills in Carson valley, a distance of about fifteen miles. The cost is about $25 per thousand at the mills, and the same amount added to this sum, for hauling, puts the cost at $50 per thousand ; consequently stone, a good article of which is found in the vicinity of the town, is used for building purposes in preference to lumber. There are at the present time about one hundred miners at work at Virginia City, most of whom are in rich quartz.

            The only means of breaking the rock for gold saving purposes is the Mexican arastra — fifteen of which are now in use at Virginia City. The celebrated gold and silver bearing quartz vein, which is in very close proximity to the town, is quite extensive, although but fifty feet of the ledge is now being worked. The vein is four feet in width, and quartz containing gold as well as silver may be found so close together as to puzzle the brain of the greatest geologist living. The accommodations at Virginia City are of the most inferior kind ; there being no hotel and but one restaurant, at which six persons on a watch may partake of poor quality of victuals, at seventy five cents per head. Travelers and prospectors provide themselves with blankets, and generally find lodgings on the hill side near the town. Our informant is of opinion that Virginia City will eventually be one of the most flourishing in Utah towns or Nevada Territory.

            Gold Hill, a rapidly improving place, is situated one mile and a half southwest of Virginia City, on the slope leading down to Carson City. The place contains a number of canvas tents, like the California towns of '49, and appears full of thrift and activity. At this place there are rich surface diggings (formed from decomposed quartz), which pay, on an average, $10 per day to the hand. Conly and Smith, two gentlemen on whose word we can rely, saw a man wash out $100 with a rocker in one hour's work. Of course the lucky individual had accidentally struck an unusually rich spot. Water is very scarce, and small streams of the fluid are conveyed through leaders to the diggings. Springs are by no means numerous, but along the slope water may be found by sinking wells. Gold Hill contains a population of about one hundred ; one store and three or four drinking and gambling houses.

            Half a mile below Gold Hill, on the road to Carson City, a rich vein of gold and silver bearing quartz has lately been discovered. There is one company, consisting of six men, working with very flattering prospects. On the hill which leads to this place — yet "a local habitation without a name" — there are surface diggings, which are considered rich.

            Carson City, situated in the well known valley of that name, is steadily progressing. The diggings are found to be extensive and rich in gold, and bright hopes are entertained for the future of this young town.

            Washoe valley, after which place all the diggings in this region are named, is about eight miles, in a westerly direction, across the mountains, from Virginia City. Considerable mining is being done at this town. Along Pleasant and Carson valleys gold and silver discoveries have been made. On the side of the mountains contiguous to the valleys through which our friends passed rich surface diggings have been struck. Quartz ledges of fabulous richness have been found; and, judging from the accounts recently furnished us, we are led to the belief that the Washoe country is very rich in mineral wealth. However, we do not think it advisable for men in this State to make a stampede for the new diggings ; the gold region may not be as extensive as is now supposed ; and if it is, the chances will be about as good next season as they are at the present time. There are plenty of persons now at work in the mines of Utah, and they will have ample opportunity and time between now and next Summer to fully prove the diggings ; and it certainly is not good policy for Californians to take any risks. Next season will be soon enough to try the Washoe mines.

            The North San Juan Press has the following circumstantial account of the new diggings :

            Leaving Gold Hill and going northward we soon came to Virginia City, unreasonably known in California as the Washoe diggings. This is a place of some thirty houses, several of which are constructed of a rough block stone, which here lies plentifully scattered on the surface. There are, besides, many emigrant tents. The general scene presented was that of a busy, populous, savage, and dirty mining town. The famous Comstock or Virginia lead, everywhere known for its rich gold and silver ore, is on a slope of the hill facing to the eastward, running about northeast and southwest, and the entire wall of quartz is nine feet thick !  What the base rock is we could not perceive, but presume it was sandstone, as that is the prevalent rock thereabouts. It is probable that this entire wall of quartz is metaliferous, but whether it will all pay is not definitely known, though one gentleman assured us it would. The vein of rich silver bearing rock, which is leaden hued, or blueish, and very dense, is in the center of the wall, and is about six inches thick. It contains silver and copper united in the form of a lustrous yellow sulphuret, with occasional crystals of sulphuret of lead and even iron. Pieces of pure metallic silver are rarely found ; we saw only two, the largest of which was not bigger than a hazelnut. Quite the richest ore is a thin vein of soft blackish rock, that can be readily crumbled in the fingers and shows no lustrous crystals. The Virginia lead was first struck by a drinking character, whose soubriquet gave it a name. He hit upon its decomposed surface while following up a small ravine in the course of ordinary gold washing, and parted with his interest in it for a mere song. The lead has been traced and claimed for a long distance, but there are only three companies who are taking out money from it. On the north end, Hughes, Malgeada & Co. are working the top, using three arastras, each of which yields daily about $100 in gold. The tailings are carefully saved, as it is believed they will yield enough silver to pay all the expenses of working. This company are preparing an adobe furnace for smelting the silver ore themselves, and expect shortly to send to San Francisco the first bar of Washoe silver. Some of the rock in this claim, we are informed, assayed $2,500 to the ton ; yet they have not reached the rich rock !

            The next claim is that of Walsh & Co., known as the Ophir Silver Mining Company. This portion of the lead has been worked from the surface down about twenty feet. The excavation plainly exposes all the changes of the rock from its red crumbling out-cropping down through firmer material to hard white quartz crystals and the treasure-laden blue vein of argentiferous ore. The value of this ore is variously stated at from $2,500 to $6,000 per ton. The best of it is selected, broken into small pieces by hand, packed in bags or boxes, and transported to San Francisco. Teamsters get five cents per pound for hauling it to Sacramento by way of Placerville, a distance of one hundred and seventy miles. The company are reported to have contracted with capitalists to furnish one hundred tons of rock for shipment to England. On this they receive here an advance of sixty per cent, on its assayed value, the advance amounting to about $2,000 per ton. We passed several teams laden with from 2,000 to 8,100 pounds of the ore each, packed in sacks and boxes. This company are running six arastras, the yield of which was stated to us at from $100 to, $300 a day.

            The Virginia lead, as it is more deeply worked, yields less gold and more silver, and the gold is of a poorer quality, assaying now but $6 07, whereas it formerly assayed from $9 to $11, and passed current at $10. At first there was gold with a little silver ; now there is silver with a little gold. This is characteristic of argentiferous veins, and warrants the opinion generally entertained that the great wealth of the new diggings consists in their inexhaustible silver veins. As those are always more certain than auriferous veins the fact is of great importance, and justifies the large prices paid and offered for interest in the developed lead. We were told that $32,000 had been paid for one-sixth of 125 feet on the ledge, and $40,000 refused for an interest in a claim adjoining. Capitalists from below have made attempts to get control of the Virginia lead, but so far without success. The large offers made have had the effect to make men value their claims more highly and cling to them more tenaciously.

            A great many men are scattered over the hills prospecting for and testing leads. Attention is exclusively turned to the search for silver indications. These have been discovered at several different points remote from the locality of the first discovery, and in other ranges of hills. Bilbo & Co. have found a lead that promises richly in the hills east of Carson City, fifteen miles from Virginia, and leads have been struck in the mountains on both sides of Washoe valley. One of the latter, known as the Pickering lead, has been tested, some of the rock assaying $1,000 to the ton, though this was nine-tenths gold. Dr. Eichelroth, who formerly resided in San Juan, has an interest in this ledge, and is very confident of its richness.