Nevada a Land of Great Possibilities.
Notwithstanding its sterile and forbidding appearance, Nevada is capable of supporting an immense population. The soil, which to the eyes of strangers appears so poor and barren, is one of the strongest and richest in America. It is formed of decomposed lava and various kinds of volcanic rocks, and contains large quantities of all the various mineral constituents necessary to a strong and healthy growth of every kind of farm produce known to the temperate zone. All that is required to produce a rank growth of vegetation of every kind is a supply of water; all other life-giving agents are contained in the soil. On the mountain slopes and the bench-lands, which look so arid and worthless, the soil is even stronger and more kindly than in the valleys. With water all the mountain-sides may be made veritable hanging gardens. Until within the past year agriculture (as regards irrigation) has been left to take care of itself. It has been left to individuals, each working after a plan of his own. There has been no established system of irrigation, and, save in one or two instances, no attempt at storing water in order to maintain a large and regular supply. The water used is taken as it flows from the mountains, as the snow banks deposited in winter melt away in the early spring and first summer months. Then, in average seasons, there are for a month or two floods of water pouring down all the rivers, creeks, and canyons. This great rush of water passes down into the interior lakes and “sinks” without being utilized for any purpose, and is lost. Were this water caught up in storage reservoirs ten times the area of land at present irrigated could be brought under cultivation.
At last a movement has been made toward the systematic reclamation of the arid lands of Nevada, and the proper storage and utilization of all the available water in the State. In November, 1888, a corps of U. S. Engineers began a hydrographic survey on the headwaters of the Truckee, Carson and Walker Rivers. This survey—interrupted by the cold weather of winter—will be completed this year. Already a survey of 800 square miles has been completed. Major Powell says Lake Tahoe constitutes an immense natural storage reservoir of almost incalculable value. He estimates that in it may be stored sufficient water (with a four-foot dam) to irrigate 500,000 acres of land. If this be true, then Donner Lake may be made to contain water sufficient to irrigate from 150,000 to 200,000 acres. On the headwaters of the Carson and Walker Rivers are many lakes and basins of extinct lakes that may be turned into vast storage reservoirs at small cost.
Among the mountain ranges of the interior of the State many reservoirs may be profitably constructed. Also in the interior valleys and basins artesian wells will be of great value. Already there are in the State 110 flowing wells. Though the flow from some of these is strong it is trifling to what might be obtained at greater depth, the present wells being only from 100 to 300 feet deep. Artesian water has been found to exist everywhere in the valleys lying between the mountain ranges of the interior.
Last winter the State government for the first time took hold of the irrigation question and made a move toward the establishment of a system of reservoirs and other works, appropriating $100,000 therefor.
To the southward of the line of the Central Pacific lies a region of country large enough to make half a dozen New England States, that is almost unoccupied. There tens of thousands of families might find homes. Lack of transportation facilities at present prevents settlers from going into that portion of the State, but the building of the Salt Lake and Los Angeles, or any other of the proposed railroads, would cause a rush to its semi-tropical valleys.
A beginning having been made, the time is not distant when Nevada will no longer be branded as a land whose soil is only capable of supporting the jackrabbit, the lizard, and the horned-toad.
A HISTORY OF THE COMSTOCK SILVER LODE & MINES
By Dan De Quille
At a time when most mining companies and maverick prospectors had fanned out from California in pursuit of richer gold claims, three uneducated miners accidentally stumbled upon the world’s richest silver deposit in Nevada. The year was 1859 and it marked the beginning of the West’s most exciting era in mining history. De Quille’s account of this startling discovery (on what was subsequently to be called the Comstock Lode) and his eyewitness report on Virginia City in the heydays of the 1880’s is one of the most fascinating and detailed to be found on the subject.
After describing the events surrounding the initial discovery, the author traces the rapid development of the earliest makeshift towns and mills that were erected on the site. Most notable during this period are the years between 1860 and 1863 when Virginia City emerged and grew uncontrollably in wealth and population as thousands of miners from California, the Atlantic seaboard and Canada converged on the city to labor for the highest wages paid on the American continent. Other key events, such as The Great Fire of 1875 which wiped out a large section of the city, and its miraculous rebuilding in 60 days are covered as well.
The major portion of the book, however, is devoted to the author’s first-hand experience in Virginia City during its biggest boom period of the 1880’s. The vivid composite he creates of the manners and habits of this society is surpassed only by the astounding wealth of facts and figures he provides on the mining companies’ record-breaking profits, the lengths and depths of the Comstock veins, and the multitude of methods utilized for extracting and refining crude silver. Reliable information such as this, and in such bulk, was even scarce in its day.
A general description of the major towns of Nevada, the physical characteristics of the State and its mineral and agricultural resources rounds out the text.