Online Nevada Encyclopedia

Philipp Deidesheimer

Virginia City and Gold Hill

Virginia City was known as the Queen of the Comstock, the internationally famous mining district. Founded in 1859, the settlement was the focus of a gold rush and within a year, it became the region's largest community, a status it maintained in Nevada into the 1890s. Virginia City was incorporated under the Utah Territory in 1861.

Hardrock Mining

Early hardrock miners in Nevada used a traditional technology derived from medieval Europe, Spanish Colonial America, and China. They dug open "glory holes" or shallow shafts down to a depth of 100-200 feet to reach the ore body. Once underground, the miners dug "ratholes" to follow the ore body. Miners used gear trains, cams, pistons, and cylinders to construct simple pumping, hoisting, transporting, and grinding machines.

German and Austrian Immigrants

Generalizing about German immigrants living in nineteenth-century Nevada is difficult for several reasons. Before 1870, various German states were autonomous, and people coming from these principalities often identified with individual states more than with the concept of a German nation.

Early Lumber Industry

Wood was essential to development in the nineteenth-century Great Basin. Unfortunately, forests were scarce, particularly when construction needed straight grained pines. Mines required wood for building, to fuel furnaces, and to assemble support systems underground.

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