On your way from Virginia city to Dayton there is the third “semi-ghost” town of the same mining district - Silver City.
Settled in 1859, the population in 1861 was about 1,200, but began declining after the Virginia and Truckee Railroadwas completed in 1869.
Silver city was home to boarding houses, saloons, four hotels and extensive stables and corrals. Silver City was an important link between the Comstock Lode mines of Virginia City, Nevada and the processing mills located near Dayton and along the Carson River.(1)
Silver City thrived for several years, as a lot of mining towns in the area, but was not as sucesful as Virginia City. The construction of the Truckee Railroad was one of the sources that feeded the city and when it was completed - the decline of the town began.
The ore veins in Silver City were low grade. Almost every family had their own mine and developed it only when money was actually needed. (2)
This tiny town today has a lot of the old building standing and mining equipment you can see in the town and at the couple of mines you can spot from the road. At the south part of the city you can see the large mining complexes still standing.
One of the things that caught my interes was this landmark plate:
Two well-educated brothers, Hosea and Ethan Grosh, discovered silver here in 1856 but both died in 1857 before their ore was assayed. Had they lived they might have gone on to locate the Comstock Lode. Their cabin was 1/4 mile to the south.
Nevada Centennial Marker No.19
These guys were really unlucky:
“Ethan Allen and Hosea Ballou Grosh were brothers who mined in both California and Nevada. They worked in California in the winter then crossed the Sierra to Carson Valley in the summer. They made their way to Gold Canyon and, along with many other hopeful prospectors, searched for the claim that would make them rich. The Grosh brothers were a bit different in their approach to mining. Unlike most miners, who looked only for gold, Ethan and Hosea were also looking for silver. They found silver, a strike they described as the “monster ledge,” in the Silver City area, but did not live to develop their discovery. In late summer of 1857, Hosea had an accident with a pick, and died after his foot became badly infected. His brother also came to a tragic end: his feet were frozen when he and a friend were caught in a snowstorm trying to cross the Sierra. He did not want his legs amputated and died in December, 1857.”(3)