The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Gold Hill

GOLD HILL, a town of Storey co., Nevada, 1 m. S. of the centre of Virginia, and about 190 m. E. N. E. of San Francisco; pop. in 1860, 638; in 1870, 4,311, of whom 2,346 were foreigners, including 210 Chinese; in 1874, about 13,000. It is built in a deep and precipitous cañon of the Washoe range of the Sierra Nevada mountains, about 6,200 ft. above the sea, and presents a very uninviting though unique appearance. It is connected by daily lines of stages with Reno on the Central Pacific railroad, 20 m. N. W., and with Carson City, 12 m. S. W. It is situated on the line of the great Comstock lode or ledge, the most productive vein of silver and gold ever known. Some of the principal mines on the lode are within the limits of the town, including the Alpha, Imperial, Gold Hill (several small ones), Yellow Jacket, Kentuck, Crown Point, Belcher, and Overman. The Belcher mine during the 22 months previous to November, 1873, returned in dividends to the stockholders $8,232,800, and the Crown Point mine about the same amount. There are many quartz mills and hoisting works, some of the mines being 2,000 ft. deep and requiring heavy machinery. The Virginia and Truckee railroad, connecting with Virginia, Carson City, and Reno, is used to carry ore to the crushing mills, and to supply the mines with wood, &c. The water which supplies the town is brought from the summit of the Sierra Nevada, 25 m. distant, in an iron pipe 12 inches in diameter, across the Washoe valley, 1,750 ft. below the discharging point in the pipe, and thence to Virginia and Gold Hill in a flume. There is a fine hall occupied by the miners' union, and another belonging to the odd fellows and freemasons. The town has a weekly newspaper, three public schools with an average attendance of 400 pupils, and three churches, Episcopal, Methodist, and Roman Catholic. Gold Hill was founded in 1859.