On June 8, 1859, Irish immigrants Patrick McLaughlin and Peter O'Riley discovered an impressively rich deposit of gold on the slope of what would be known as Mount Davidson.
Late that day, Henry Comstock, a longtime local prospector and miner, stumbled upon McLaughlin and O'Riley and told them they were working his claim. Comstock's assertion remains in question, but the two Irishmen felt it was better to include him than to fight his claim. Comstock quickly argued himself into a place of prominence. As William Wright, using the name Dan De Quille, would write in 1876, Comstock "did all of the heavy talking," and he gave his name to the new mining district that became known as the Comstock Lode.
Within weeks, the site of the discovery would be home to the newly founded Virginia City.
Virginia City is commemorating the events of 150 years ago, but the occasion also is an opportunity to consider the wide variety of things that have happened during the intervening one-and-a-half centuries.
Shortly after the June, 1859 strike, an assay determined that the ore contained not only gold but also a large amount of silver. Virginia City quickly became internationally famous as it transformed from a tent city into a sophisticated urban environment, all within a few years. The wealth of its gold and silver deposit was notable, but the fact that production remained remarkably high for two decades earned the Comstock a legendary role in mining history. The "Big Bonanza," discovered in 1873, turned John Mackay and James Fair into multimillionaires.
Mine production slumped in the 1880s, and by the end of the 1890s, it appeared as though all residents might abandon the mining giant. The turn-of-the-century invention of cyanide processing, however, made lower-grade ore profitable, breathing new life into the Comstock.
Virginia City slumped again in the following three decades, only to experience a rebirth of a different sort. Just as it once again seemed the town would fade away, tourists began to arrive, hoping to catch a last glimpse of the Wild West.
After World War II, Lucius Beebe and his partner Charles Clegg arrived from the East, wrote books about the Comstock, created excitement about the Virginia & Truckee Railroad, and resuscitated the famed Territorial Enterprise, the newspaper that employed Samuel Clemens and gave him his name, Mark Twain.
The success of Beebe and Clegg attracted the attention of television executives, who debuted the series "Bonanza" in 1959 as part of the centennial celebration of that year. The commemoration included a postage stamp and the arrival of Vice President Richard Nixon and his family to dedicate a marker that still dominates the Delta parking lot in the center of town.
The 1960s saw the influx of hippies who formed bands and invented the San Francisco rock sound, creating the first psychedelic rock poster and inventing the idea of a light show for a concert.
The Comstock Mining District is famous because its mines produced what today would be several billion dollars in gold and silver. But the truly remarkable story of Virginia City is how it has endured, transformed itself, and yet never lost sight of its past.
Ron James is the State Historic Preservation Officer. He and his wife Susan A. James are the authors of a new book, "Virginia City and the Big Bonanza" (Arcadia Publishing, $21.99 paperback)