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The Comstock Lode

© Elizabeth Gibson

Gold and silver strikes made millionaires and paupers, settled new cities, and civilized many parts of the West. But no other strike had more influence than the Comstock Lode discovered on Mount Davidson in western Nevada. The Comstock Lode was not a single mine but a huge geological formation of ore which many shafts sunk into it.

Though others may have known about the silver, it wasn't until Peter O'Riley and Pat McLaughlin discovered the lode about June 1, 1859, that the silver lode became public knowledge. They were working a claim along Six Mile Canyon and were just about to give up. They were digging a hole to store water when they struck a rich deposit. They knew they had something but they weren't quite sure what it was. Just then, H.T.P. "Old Pancake" Comstock rode up. He immediately recognized the value of the strike but did not let the two men in on the secret. He tried to claim they were digging on land that belonged to him. O'Riley and McLaughlin insisted they had a prior claim. Comstock relented, stating that as long as they added Comstock and his friend Emmanuel Penrod to the claim then he would be satisfied. After that, Comstock named himself superintendent and did all the talking. Soon his name became associated with the Lode.

Unlike the easy placer mining in California, the silver at Mount Davidson was deep underground. Deep shafts and tunnels had to be blasted through solid rock. Cave-ins were common. In 1860, the owners hired mining expert Phillip Deidesheimer to design a safer mine. Deidesheimer had puzzled over the problem for several days when he was inspired by watching a bee. He thought he could build a structure similar to a honeycomb that could be used to shore up the tunnels. His cubes became known as the "square set." Soon the square set was in standard use and it was immediately copied by German and Austrian coal miners.

The incredible heat below the surface caused another problem. The temperature could reach 130 degrees, and sometimes there was steaming hot water to go with it. At times, shifts lasted only one half hour because that was all the men could endure. In between shifts, the men chewed ice. Each man received a daily allotment of 95 pounds of ice! They got a little relief when the owners drilled ventilating shafts, but it wasn't enough. It wasn't until the late 1860s, that two huge air

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