In June 1870, Dr. Pierson, in a letter to the Carson Tribune, vividly described the desolate beginnings of Virginia City. “I visited the spot known as Virginia and found not a house, but two tents in the ground,” he wrote.
Little did the men realize that beneath their feet lay unimaginable riches.
Carson rancher W.P. Morrison took an interest in the diggings in Gold Field. He pocketed some of what the miners deemed “that infernal blue stuff,” a worthless, blue-tinted ore that hindered gold mining operations.
Several months later, Morrison had the ore assayed in Grass Valley, Cal. What he discovered there would send shockwaves around the world. The sample contained not only gold but twice as much silver as gold. J.J. Ott, the assayer, estimated the ore’s value at an astounding $4971.00 per ton.
Reporter William Wright, known by his pen name Dan DeQuille, took up the narrative.
“The excitement by no means abated when [the assayer] was informed by Mr. Morrison that there was tone and tons of the same stuff just laying in plain sight,” Dequille recounted.
To keep the discovery a secret, Morrison and Ott made plans to secure as much mining ground as possible across the Sierra. The news of this remarkable find spread like wildfire, and by 9 a.m. the following morning, word had spread like wildfire, reaching the far corners of Grass Valley. Even Judge Walsh, the local barrister, closed shop and prepared to journey to the Nevada Territory.
Within days, a deluge of miners had abandoned their California diggings and flocked to the silver-laden hills of Nevada. Carrying their possessions on their backs or relying on whatever transportation they could find, they embarked for the silver fields.
“The handful of old settlers found themselves strangers in their own land and their own dwellings in a single day,” wrote DeQuille, poignantly capturing the overwhelming influx of miners that transformed Virginia City overnight.
Once barren and forsaken, the mountainside became a hotbed of activity as miners scrambled to claim their share of the abundant silver. The ensuing silver rush would forever change the destiny of Virginia City and propel the tiny port of San Francisco into becoming the financial capital of the West.
(All quotes in this article are from the original accounts published in the Carson Tribune and Grass Valley Gazette.)
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