Popular Culture Review Vol. 1, December 1989 | Page 69

richest area was known as the Comstock Lode.
The area had been known for years to miners who did some
spotty placer mining there, but they never recognized the silver
content o f the materials, since unlike gold, silver is difficult to
distinguish from its carrier host. However, a wizened miner from
Virginia, James Finny, affectionately known as “Old Virginny,”
made a great and rich ore find there. The time was January o f 1859,
but though he knew what he saw, he couldn ’t convince others o f the
lucky strike until two additional miners hit the vein elsewhere in
June of that year. Their mine became known as the Ophir, named
after a mythical Biblical city of riches.
These latter two were surprised to have another man visit them
while working their claim, accusing them of being “jum pers” and
arguing that he had established his claim there long ago. The
intruder’s name was Henry Comstock who had a reputation for
being more o f a talker than a worker in the several years he spent
in the area. Subsequently, the miners and Comstock compromised
and made a bargain to split the claim four ways among them and
another, a M end o f Comstock.
Shortly after working the project together, they found their
mix o f gold and silver ore assayed at an astounding $3,876 a ton.
The call for venture capital went out then and it was answered by
a number o f wealthy men, one of whom would become as famous
as the mine itself. He was George Hearst, father of the newspaper
magnate, William Randolph Hearst.
In March of 1861, the Territory of Nevada was created and this
included Virginia City within its bounds. The man appointed
Secretary of the Territory was no less than Mark Twain’s brother,
Orion Clemens. We can understand Mark Twain’s interest in the
West then, and he knew first hand of what he wrote in Roughing It
and other pieces of literature of that period. For a time, Twain
served as editor of the Virginia City newspaper and plied his wit and

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