Prostitute Julia Bulette moved to Virginia City around 1863 when the lively mining boom town boasted a population approaching 10,000. Four years later, an intruder strangled her during the early morning hours of January 20, 1867.

Local officials arrested Frenchman Jean Millian when he tried to sell a few of her possessions. Found guilty and sentenced to death after a brief trial, Millian went to the gallows on April 24, 1868. It was Virginia City's first public execution.

John Mackay was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1831. His surname was Scottish, but he identified with his Irish heritage. In 1840, Mackay's family immigrated to New York, his father dying shortly afterwards. John Mackay left school and eventually apprenticed as a shipwright. In 1851, he traveled to California where he gained experience mining for gold.

A.V. Wilson and R. Chanrock discovered silver at Jefferson Canyon in Nye County's Toquima Range in 1865, but it was not until two large stamp mills were built in 1874 that the town of Jefferson was born. The town's best years were 1875 and 1876 when $1.5 million was produced and its population was around 800. Little else happened there after 1879 until Charles Stoneham, owner of the New York Giants, bought all the mines in 1917. Stoneham built a mill, and Jefferson enjoyed a revival until 1919.

James "Old Virginny" Finney, born in Virginia in approximately 1817, is credited with discovering the Comstock Lode. Traveling west, he became one of the first of several hundred placer miners in Gold Canyon during the 1850s. In January 1859, Finney, Alec Henderson, Jack Yount, and John Bishop climbed up the canyon, having depleted the surface deposits along the creek. They discovered a rich outcropping they named Gold Hill, which was the southern end of the great Comstock Lode. Within a few months, Old Virginny gave away his subdivided claim as gifts or for little money.