Virginia City

The Comstock boom

Virginia City is in the western Great Basin, in Nevada’s Comstock mining district. Placer miners made gold and silver strikes near the town in 1859, and the ore became known as the Comstock Lode. The National Park Service calls it the first major silver strike in the United States.

The Park Service says about 7 million tons of ore were mined and processed between 1860 and 1880, with profits it puts at roughly $700 million in today’s terms. Virginia City and Gold Hill had about 4,000 residents in 1862. The same page gives about 25,000 by 1874, and a second Park Service page says nearly 25,000 by the early 1870s. At its peak the area had 25 theaters, more than 100 saloons, and the first Miner’s Union in the country. Its Chinatown held between 1,500 and 2,000 Chinese immigrants at one point.

Fire and decline

The Great Fire of October 25, 1875 left “nearly 10,000 homeless,” according to the second Park Service page. The American Planning Association says more than half of Virginia City burned and the town was rebuilt within months. Most buildings on C Street date from after 1875, and a handful built in 1862 survived. The sources are not consistent about the fire’s date. One Park Service page says Chinatown burned in the Great Fire of 1875, and the same page also lists a “Great Fire of 1876” among the causes of decline.

That page lists several causes for the decline: an overestimate of ore in two large mines, the collapse of the Bank of California, the 1875 San Francisco stock market crash, the 1876 fire, and a rich strike at Bodie, California in 1878. It says the Comstock was exhausted by 1881. Mining continued on a smaller scale in the 20th century. The second Park Service page says the town had shrunk to several hundred people by the Great Depression.

What remains

The Virginia City Historic District is a National Historic Landmark, one of just six in Nevada according to the Park Service. It also takes in Gold Hill, Silver City and Dayton, and it covers 14,750 acres. One Park Service page counts “over 400 buildings” and another “almost 400,” so the sources differ. The district also has abandoned shafts and adits. The Chinatown site is now an open field between Union and Sutton Streets.

On C Street, the Fourth Ward School was built in 1876 and is now a museum. The Territorial Enterprise Building, also from 1876, is now the Mark Twain Museum. The Planning Association gives 1966 for the National Register listing and, in another place, 1961 for the landmark designation, and it does not reconcile the two. In 1969 a Nevada statute created the Comstock Historic District Commission, which oversees development and preservation in the district.

Visiting today

The Park Service lists museums, annual festivals, railroad rides, mine tours, walking tours, stagecoach and carriage tours, trolley rides, hiking, horseback riding and camping. The Planning Association says nearly a million people visit Virginia City and C Street each year. Treat buildings as private property unless they are open to the public. Abandoned shafts and adits are hazards, so stay out of them. Hours and events change, so check with the land manager or local visitor information before you go. Leave any artifacts where they are.