August 11, 2011

August 11: Comstock Silver Mine Opened, 1860



The prospectors out in the Utah Territory were looking for gold. They didn't like the bluish clay that kept gumming up their equipment, so they just washed it away.

The blue clay was unusually pure silver ore.

Read article here.

Pictured: Miners from the Comstock Mine, about 1880. From the Special Collections Department, University of Nevada.


No comments: