Soon the amount of silver coming out of the mine reached the attention of President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln needed the riches of the Comstock Lode to finance the Union's efforts in the Civil War. He also needed the votes of another state to pass the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery. To meet legal requirements, the Nevada Constitution had to be delivered to Washington D.C. in person. So Nevada officials telegraphed the entire constitution to Chicago, where it would be written out in longhand and delivered to Washington. It was the longest telegraph in history. It took Frank Bell over 12 hours to tap it out and it cost over $4,000 to send! The requirements were fulfilled, and Nevada became a state on October 31, 1864.
There was also the problem of transporting the ore off the mountain. The Virginia & Truckee Railroad was the solution. The new railroad was built from Virginia City to Reno along the Truckee River. Construction began on February 19, 1869. The first 21 miles between Virginia City and Carson City were completed in eight months. The route traveled through six zinc-lined tunnels. The zinc protected the timber shoring up the tunnels from the fountain of sparks that spewed out of the train's smoke stack. Once completed the train was hauling 500 to 800 tons of ore off the mountain every day. In return, the train took much needed supplies and timber back up the mountain.
Fifty or sixty miles of the eastern slopes of the Sierras were stripped of trees to supply the mine and the nearby towns of Virginia City and Gold Hill. All the closest trees were harvested right away, so lumbermen were forced to venture farther up the slopes. The Pacific Wood, Lumber, & Flume Company built a wooden trestle that floated logs from the shores of Lake Tahoe to the mining site. The loss of the trees changed the climate in the area; warm weather came sooner and often melted the snow all at once, causing floods that swept through Virginia City.
Many men made their fortune here. John MacKay was one of the first. His good fortune started when he invested some money that he had earned working for wages and bought shares in the Kentuck mine. Within six months, the shares were worth $22,000 a share! Soon MacKay and his partner James Fair held a controlling interest in the Hale & Norcross Mine. They made so much money that they were able to buy even more properties. With their partners O'Brien and Flood of San Francisco, MacKay and Fair also acquired controlling interest in the Virginia City and Gold Hill Water-Works; several quartz mills; the Pacific Wood, Lumber & Flume Company; and several other businesses.
