History of the big bonanza

by Dan De Quille

In the spring of 1852 a considerable number of men began working on the lower part of Gold Cañon, most of them using rockers in their mining operations. As these men did well, making from $5 to $10 per day, the number of miners on the cañon was considerably greater in the winter and spring of 1853, there being as many as two or three hundred men at work. As there was little water in the bed of the cañon except during the winter and spring months, few miners were to be seen at work in summer—seldom more than forty or fifty.

As the miners worked their way up the cañon from bar to bar, a new town was eventually founded at a point a few miles above the first settlement at its mouth. This was a little hamlet of a dozen houses of all kinds, and was christened Johntown. In this little town or “Camp,” as such places are usually styled in mining countries, lived Henry Comstock, who gave his name, some years later to the great silver lode; also, Peter O’Riley and Patrick McLaughlin, the discoverers of the Comstock vein. “Old Virginia” (James Finney, or Fennimore), in whose honor Virginia City, the great mining town of Nevada, was named, was also a resident of Johntown in the early days, as were several other persons who are now classed among the worthies of the Comstock range.

“OLD VIRGINIA” AT HIS ROCKER.

From about 1856 up to 1858, Johntown was the “big mining town” of Western Utah—at least was the headquarters of most of the miners at work in the country. All told, the camp contained only about a dozen buildings, some of which were mere shanties, but many of the miners preferred to camp out during the spring and summer months—they had no use for houses.

A large number of Chinamen being at work at the mouth of the cañon, near where the gold was first discovered, that place finally became known as “Chinatown,” a name which it long retained, though the whites who settled there did not much fancy the name. They gave the place the name of Mineral Rapids, but this did not take; then there was danger of it being christened Nevada City, but the citizens rose in their might and at a meeting, held November 3d. 1861, the name of Dayton was unanimously adopted, and Dayton it has ever since remained.

The Chinamen mentioned, forty or fifty in number at first, were brought over from California, in 1856, to work on a big water-ditch, by means of which water was to be brought to the Gold Cañon mines from the Carson River. Finding they would be allowed to mine in certain places, others followed, and at one time not less than one hundred and eighty Mongolians were at work at the lower end of the Cañon.

The Celestials probably found very good pay, even in the places where they were allowed to plant their rockers, as it is said that the bars for some miles up the cañon paid well when first worked, there being places where an ounce per day was taken out.

The cañon continued to pay pretty fair wages for some years, and was still being worked at the time of the discovery of silver and the grand silver excitement which immediately followed.

Literature was not neglected at this early period in the history of Washoe. There were, even in the early days when Johntown was the great mining centre of the country, two spicy weekly papers published in the land. They were written on foolscap, often several sheets, and, by being assiduously passed from hand to hand, were widely circulated in the several settlements. These papers were everywhere eagerly read. One, called the Scorpion, was published at Genoa, and was edited by S. A. Kinsey; the other was published at Johntown and was edited by Joe Webb. It was called The Gold-Cañon Switch. These papers were both published between the years 1854 and 1858.