Henry P. T. Comstock and His Big Mistake

Two Irish gold miners, Pat McLaughlin and Peter O’Reilly, were digging around a small spring up on Mount Davidson, near what would soon become Virginia City.  The year was 1859.  They found gold, but the two miners were annoyed by a bluish mud that fouled their sluice boxes and caked itself on picks and shovels.  When that mud was carried to an assayer in Placerville, it was found to be almost pure sulphuret of silver. 

    Not long after the discovery, Henry P.T. “ol’ Pancake” Comstock just happened to be passing by.  He had earned the nickname because people claimed he was too lazy to bake bread, making easy flapjacks instead.  He was born in Ontario, Canada in 1820 and as an adult drifted around a lot working in the United States and Mexico as a gold prospector, a trapper and a shepherd.  He arrived in the Nevada Territory just ahead of the greatest mining discovery ever made.  Comstock had earned the reputation as a braggart and somewhat of a charlatan.  Apparently Comstock had a keen understanding of ore.  The moment he accidently came upon the two miners and saw what they were doing he immediately announced that he owned the property. The gullible miners took him at his word and agreed to make Comstock a partner, which Comstock quickly accepted.  Because of his assertion, he insisted that the claim be named for him, so it became known, of course, as “The Comstock Lode” and went on to be the richest gold and silver strike in history.

    Gold and silver in Nevada also caught the attention of Abraham Lincoln, who needed additional capital in order to keep the Union solvent during the Civil War, so in 1864 Lincoln made Nevada a state even though officially it didn’t contain enough people to constitutionally become a state.  From this the state earned the nickname, “Battle Born State.”

    Comstock, a man who often made rash decisions, sold his interest prematurely for only a few thousand dollars.  He then purchased stores in Silver City and Carson City and bought a Mormon wife, who very soon upped and ran away.  Comstock’s businesses failed and he wandered off to Montana and wound up in Bozeman.  He died there in 1870 alone, having accomplished very little in his life. 

    It has been claimed that his turn of fortune and the missed opportunity with the Comstock Lode unhinged his mind.  It’s not clear exactly how he died.  One account says he was shot, either as a result of a robbery or as payback.  Another account claims he went insane because of his misfortune and committed suicide.  He had no family and so there was nowhere to send his remains.  He was buried in Bozeman. 

    But Henry P.T. “ol’ Pancake” Comstock lives on as one of Nevada’s colorful folk characters.

Q