Drag to turn the globe

Events/Discovery · 1859

Comstock Lode strikes

Discovery, 1859, United States.

What happened

In 1859 placer miners made two strikes of silver and gold ore near Virginia City, Nevada. The NPS calls it the first major silver strike in the United States. The BLM dates the discovery to June 1859. The population of Virginia City and Gold Hill grew from about 4,000 in 1862 to about 25,000 by 1874.1,2,3

Why it matters

The Comstock set the pattern for the Western mining boom town. By the mid-1870s the lode was seen as played out.1,2,3

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. Chanarcillo silver is discovered

    The find about 50 km south of Copiapo drew thousands of adventurers and made fortunes.4,5,6

  2. Chanarcillo yields 92,000 marcos of silver in one year

    Output of 92,000 marcos equalled about 21,000 kg of silver.4,6

  3. Caldera-Copiapo railway opens its first section

    Chile first railway, built with Atacama capital, ran 41 km from Caldera port to Monte Amargo.7,8

  4. Comstock Lode strikes

    The Comstock set the pattern for the Western mining boom town. By the mid-1870s the lode was seen as played out.1,2,3

  5. Caracoles silver is found in Bolivian territory by Chilean capital

    The boom gave a last push to Chilean silver mining but faded within about five years.5

  6. General Mining Law of 1872

    The law remains the basis for claims to locatable minerals on US federal land.9,10

  7. Leadville silver boom

    Leadville shows how fast a silver camp could outgrow a state capital.11,12

  8. Charles Rasp finds the Broken Hill orebody

    The orebody supported the world's largest silver-lead-zinc mining district and led to BHP.13,14

Open the full timeline

Where next

Mines

Located inComstock LodeSee the mine behind this story: Comstock Lode.1

Events

InspiredSchieffelin finds silver at TombstoneComstock's district reached 25,000 people by 1874. Tombstone had 6,000 in 1881.1InspiredLeadville silver boomLeadville had a few hundred people in early 1878 and about 30,000 by the end of 1879.11

Places

Located inVirginia CitySee the place where this happened: Virginia City.1

Sources

  1. Virginia City Historic District, Nevada US National Park Service
  2. The Comstock Lode (blog, 10 June 2021) US Bureau of Land Management
  3. Comstock Lode (item Q1122817), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  4. Influencia de Chanarcillo en nuestro desarrollo minero Sociedad Nacional de Mineria (hosted by Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile)
  5. Los ciclos mineros del cobre y la plata (1820-1880) Memoria Chilena, Biblioteca Nacional de Chile
  6. Wikidata item Q450443 (Chanarcillo)
  7. Ferrocarril Caldera-Copiapo Memoria Chilena, Biblioteca Nacional de Chile
  8. Wikidata item Q3708 (Caldera, Chile)
  9. Mining Claims and Sites on Federal Lands (PDF) US Bureau of Land Management
  10. Washington, D.C. (item Q61), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  11. Leadville Colorado Encyclopedia
  12. Leadville (item Q286702), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  13. History of Broken Hill Broken Hill City Council
  14. Broken Hill (item Q270734), coordinate location P625 Wikidata

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

Keep exploring

Stories with these minerals

Lessons from historyBooms and busts: what mining history shows1859-2025Lessons from historyLucky breaks: the finds that almost did not happen1623-2009History of miningGold fever: the rushes that filled continents1848-1900Lessons from historyPrice shocks and the supply response1893-2025

All mining storiesThe world runs on rockAll mineralsMining by country

Pictures: South Africa: a crowd of people gathered outside The Goldfields offices in Johannesburg. 1896., Unknown (Wellcome Collection) (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Falu gruva, Lundberg, Bengt A / Europeana (CC0 1.0); Gold prospectors constructing a long box with a filter for panning gold. Process print after H.M. Paget, 1899., Henry Marriott Paget (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Pangkalpinang. Mijn 3b. Een reeks koelies bezig met het transporteeren van grond, Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0).