The Big Bonanza: An Authentic Account of the Discovery, History, and Working of the Comstock Lode

by Dan De Quille (Pseudonym), William Wright

History of the Comstock Lode

Genres: History, Nonfiction

488 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1876

About the author

William Wright (1829–1898), better known by the pen name Dan De Quille, was an American author, journalist, and humorist. He was best known for his written accounts of the people, events, and silver mining operations on the Comstock Lode at Virginia City, Nevada, including his non-fiction book History of the Big Bonanza (American Publishing Company, 1876).

De Quille was on the staff of the (Virginia City) Territorial Enterprise for over thirty years, and his writings were also printed in other publications throughout the country and abroad. Highly regarded for his knowledge of silver mining techniques and his ability to explain them in simple terms, he was also appreciated for his humor, similar in style to that of his associate and friend Mark Twain, and of a type very popular in the United States at that time, now referred to as the Sagebrush School literary genre.

(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org)

Reviews

[Ronald Wise · Rating 5 out of 5]

A comprehensive and detailed description of the silver mining operations and personnel in Virginia City, Nevada, during the heyday of the Comstock Lode. It contains an interesting mixture of technical details and humerous anecdotes à la Mark Twain. The author was a journalist for the local paper - the Virginia City Enterprise - and became respected nationwide as an expert on the happenings there during the silver-mining peak of the 1870s and 1880s. He actually worked with Mark Twain for a few months - they both supposedly adopted their pen names while working at the Enterprise - and Twain was later his adviser and mentor when this book was written in 1875. The "Introduction" for this edition by Oscar Lewis served as a rather complete biography of De Quille's life. This book was added to my reading list after reading Twain's Roughing It.

[Larsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read an electronic copy of the A. L. Bancroft & Co. 1877 edition, which was made available through the Google Library, containing LXXIII chapters in over 500 pages. It added very much to my knowledge of the American West. Much of it is Mark-Twain-like hilarity, worth sharing for the sake of hearty laughter, but often excessive. I found the more serious, technical, scientific, and even the financial parts more interesting because it provided a glimpse at my own earlier life. In the early 1960's in Moab I was a part of the mining and milling operation of the new potash mine owned by Texas Gulf Inc., which at that same time discovered and developed a somewhat similar bonanza near Timmins, Ontario, Canada. All of us followed the TGS (Texas Gulf Sulfur) stock market daily or more often. For a short while I was an active member of the American Society of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers and read their magazines and some of their books. My life then could have taken an entirely different track. Read the book. You will enjoy it and learn a lot, but don't get bogged down in the long, drawn-out yarns.

[Mark Bacon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learn amazing facts and anecdotes about the creation of the Comstock by someone who was there--the editor of the Territorial Enterprise.