Discovery of Silver - 150 Years - Virginia City, NV, USA
N 39° 18.622 W 119° 38.972
11S E 271561 N 4354566
This historical marker, commemorating the discovery of silver, stands in the center of town, on a large, four-sided, composite rock base monument, with informative plaques on each side relating historical events and people of Virginia City, Nevada.
Waymark Code: WMGCV3
Location: Nevada, United States
Date Posted: 02/15/2013
Views: 1
This monument is situated on the edge of a parking lot on the east side of C Street, between Union Street and Taylor Street. This is one of seven historical markers attached to the monument, it reads:
In June of 1859 in Gold Canyon, a second group of Prospectors found the outcropping of what would become one of the richest gold and silver deposits ever found. Soon to be known as “the Richest Place on Earth” the Washoe Diggings, as it was called, became the towns of Virginia City and Gold Hill with populations approaching 28,000 people and was a major factor for the admission of Nevada as the 36th state in the Union. This sesquicentennial year is the 150th anniversary of the gold and silver find.
Dedicated June 27 2009
Julia C. Bulette chapter 1864 E Clampus Vitus
"The Comstock Lode was the first major U.S. discovery of silver ore, located under what is now Virginia City, Nevada, on the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range. After the discovery was made public in 1859, prospectors rushed to the area and scrambled to stake their claims. Mining camps soon thrived in the vicinity, which became bustling centers of fabulous wealth.
It is notable not just for the immense fortunes it generated and the large role those fortunes had in the growth of Nevada and San Francisco, but also for the advances in mining technology that it spurred. The mines declined after 1874." (
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