The dump-piles of the Savage and Hale and Norcross, mining companies, situated in the southeastern part of Virginia City, are among the largest on the Comstock, the shafts of these mines having been carried down to a depth of nearly 2,500 feet; the waste-dump of the Bullion mine, at the north end of Gold Hill, is also of great size. In many instances, the waste rock hoisted out of the mines is utilized in filling in and leveling the ground surrounding the buildings above the shafts. In this way, acres of level ground are made, and the number of the unsightly dump-piles is much diminished.
J. P. Jones, United States Senator from Nevada, has a residence in the town of Gold Hill, where live his mother and three of his brothers, one of whom, Samuel L. Jones, is superintendent of the Crown Point mine, one of the leading mines of the Comstock. The mother of the Senator, although she might reside in any one of the cities of the Union, prefers to make her home at Gold Hill—is really in love with the wild beauty of the surrounding hills, and the thunder of machinery, and all the sights, sounds, and excitements incident to life in the midst of the silver-mines.
RHODE ISLAND, GOLD HILL.
WASTE ROCK.
(Hale & Norcross Mines.)
Omnibuses ply between Gold Hill and Virginia City, and soon street-cars will be running between the two towns, and perhaps as far as Silver City, a distance of five miles. Gold Cañon, between Gold Hill and Silver City, is filled with mills, hoisting-works, business houses and residences, and from the place last named to Virginia City, a distance of five miles, it may be said to be one town.
In the early history of the Comstock towns, huge “prairie schooners,” laden with goods, merchandise, and machinery, from over the Sierras, thronged the streets. Each “schooner” was drawn by a team of from fourteen to sixteen mules, and each mule was provided with a chime of bells, suspended in a steel bow or arch above the bearskin housings of his collar. A few of these teams sufficed to fill a whole street with music, but it was a kind of music that sounded best when heard at a distance and far up in the mountains. These great teams are now no longer seen. The only big teams are those employed in hauling quartz to mills that are off the line of the railroad, and in similar local freighting.
Many of the wagons still in use are capable of hauling immense loads. In that country they have a way of hitching a second and smaller wagon behind the first, which second wagon is called a “back-action.” Often as many as three and four wagons are thus coupled together in a train. In this way twenty-four cords of wood have been hauled by a team of twelve animals; ten horses hauled on one occasion 73,050 pounds of quartz, and on another occasion twelve horses hauled 84,000 pounds of ore a distance of eight miles. Four wagons were used in each instance. These were, of course, unusually large loads, and were hauled on account of there being some bantering between certain team-owners, but the teamsters of Nevada usually haul heavier loads than are hauled elsewhere.
Being in Gold Hill, on one occasion, with two Western farmers who wished to see some of the mills and hoisting works of the place, I was somewhat amused at their anxiety to satisfy themselves in regard to the weight of the loads hauled by the Washoe teamsters. They had been told a good many stories in regard to big loads, and had made many memorandums of the same, but still could hardly credit what had been told them.