In May 1863, Comstock miners initiated efforts to form an association. The following year, the Storey County Miners’ League became the first sustained attempt at unionization of miners in the American West. Organized during a local depression, the League called for a $4 minimum daily wage for underground work and demanded “closed shops,” insisting companies […]
mining
L. S. “Sandy” Bowers
Of Gold HillSome of the most profitable mining ground was never on the market. It belonged to a closed corporation, usually one man, and it was not for sale–like the twenty feet of L. S. “Sandy” Bowers in Gold Hill. It yielded a total of about one million dollars and gave him a good income, […]
George Hearst
Hearst ran a Quartz Mill in Virginia City that hired Sam. Writing about Virginia City, Nev., in 1863: “I secured a place in a nearby quartz mill to screen sand with a long-handled shovel. I hate a long-handled shovel. I never could learn to swing it properly. As often as any other way the sand […]
