One of the most important legal contests in early Nevada history involved two pairs of corporations owning adjacent Comstock mines. The Chollar (pronounced “collar”) and Potosi Mines and the Ophir and Burning Moscow had similar situations. In both cases, lawyers argued that either a single ore body was dipping from one mine to the next […]
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Gordon Newell Mott
Gordon Newell Mott sat on the Nevada territorial supreme court, playing a role in the pivotal single ledge case, which determined the ownership of Comstock mines; additionally, he served as a territorial delegate to Congress. Born in Zanesville, Ohio, in 1812, Mott was admitted to practice law in Ohio in 1836. That year, he enlisted […]
William Chapman Ralston
William Ralston was a California investor who assembled the means to monopolize the Comstock Lode during the 1860s. Born in Ohio in 1826, Ralston moved to San Francisco in 1854 and became a rising star as part owner in a steamship company. Beginning in 1860, he turned his attention and his investments to Comstock mines. […]