Savage Mansion – Nevada State Historic Marker

Savage Mansion is Nevada State Historic Marker #87 and located in Historic Virginia City, Storey County, Nevada. Virginia City is a wonderful little town to visit and home to Eight Nevada State Historic Markers. The structure is not a true mansion in terms of size or structure compared to many of the east coast mansions. The term mansion was applied to the structure for promotional purposes.

This elegant structure, designed in the French Second Empire style, served as a residence for the superintendent, as well as a mine office for the Savage Mining Company. Ulysses S. Grant spoke from the second floor balcony on October 27, 1879 after his term in office.

Savage Mansion, Virginia City, Nevada
Savage Mansion, Virginia City, Nevada

Nevada State Historical Markers identify significant places of interest in Nevada’s history. The Nevada State Legislature started the program in 1967 to bring the state’s heritage to the public’s attention with on-site markers. Budget cuts to the program caused the program to become dormant in 2009. Many of the markers are lost of damaged.

Nevada State Historic Marker #87

This elegant mansion, designed in the French Second Empire style, served as a residence for the superintendent, as well as a mine office for the Savage Mining Company.  The first floor served as the mine office while the upper two stories provided a residence for many successful superintendents.

Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United States and “General of the Armies,” spoke to the townspeople from the second floor balcony on October 27, 1879, after a town parade in his honor.

STATE HISTORIC MARKER No. 87
STATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICE
NEVADA LANDMARK SOCIETY

The marker is located in Virginia City, Nevada, in Storey County and found on North D Street. While travelling south on D Street the marker is found on the right side of the street near address: 146 North D Street, Virginia City NV 89440, United States of America.

Marker Summary

Nevada State History Marker87
NameSavage Mansion
LocationVirginia City, Storey County Nevada
Latitude, Longitude39.3054, -119.6511

References

Samuel Langhorne Clemens – “Mark Twain”

Before he wrote American classic novels as Mark Twain, Samuel Langhorne Clemens was a miner and newpaper reporter in Mineral County, Nevada. Prior to picking up his pen, Clemens moved from his birthplace in Hannibal, Missouri and found himself in the silver state. After his time in Nevada, he left to become the most loved American author, Mark Twain.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens September 1-2, 1867, Pera, Constantinople
Samuel Langhorne Clemens September 1-2, 1867, Pera, Constantinople

It is a well known fact that Samuel Clemmons first work was as a river boat pilot on the Mississippi river. This occupation was lost to him with the start of the Civil War. In 1861, Samuel followed his brother Orion to Nevada when his brother is appointed as Secretary of the Nevada Territory. Not long after his arrival in Carson City, Clemens is “Smitten with the silver feaver.” He and his brother started purchasing shares of mining operations in the Esmeralda Mining District. The principal town in this district was Aurora.

Filled with optimism, Samuel moved to Aurora in 1862. Upon his arrival he setup a camp and began working some of the claims he and his brother purchased. Despite his optimism, his work as a miner and investor did not produce and Clemens lives off an stipend set to him by his brother to cover the $10 per week living expenses. This failure was all too common among the hopeful people who travelled west.

Higbie and I were living in a cotton-domestic lean-to at the base of a mountain [Lover’s Leap]. It was very cramped quarters, with barely room for us and the stove – wretched quarters, indeed, for every now and then, between eight in the morning and eight in the evening, the thermometer would make an excursion of fifty degrees. We had a silver-mining claim under the edge of a hill [Last Change Hill] half a mile away in partnership with Bob Howland and Horatio Phillips, and we used to go there every morning, carrying with us our luncheon, and remain all day picking and blasting in a our shaft, hoping, despairing, hoping again, and gradually but surely running out of funds

Mark Twain, Roughing It

	
A picture postcard showing the exterior of Mark Twain's cabin in the mining town of Aurora, Nevada. The cabin and ground are covered with snow. - 	
University of Nevada, Las Vegas University Libraries
A picture postcard showing the exterior of Mark Twain’s cabin in the mining town of Aurora, Nevada. The cabin and ground are covered with snow. – University of Nevada, Las Vegas University Libraries

Ironically, his failure in mining started his career which produced some of the most important books in American history. While in Aurora, he started sending stories about a miner’s life to the Virginia City newspaper, the Territorial Enterprise, using the penname “Josh”. These stories opened a door to greatness, and he was appointed to a job as a local reporter by Joseph Goodman.

After leaving Aurora for Virginia City, Clemens starts down his road to success and becomes a popular newspaper reported. He submits his humorous and satirical stories using the name Mark Twain. Five years later, the man from Missouri wrote the story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavarous County” and Mark Twain became the American Story Teller.

I learned then, once and for all, that gold in its native state is but dull, the ornamental stuff, and that only low-born metals excited the admiration of the ignorant with an ostentatious glitter. However, like the rest of the world, I still go on underrating men of gold and glorifying men of mica. Commonplace human nature cannot rise above that.

Mark Twain, Roughing It

Nevada State Historic Marker #28

100 years ago, in 1864, Samuel Clemens left the territorial enterprise, moving on to California and worldwide fame.  He was a reporter here in 1863 when he first used the name, Mark Twain.  He later described his colorful adventures in Nevada in “Roughing It.”

NEVADA CENTENNIAL MARKER NO. 28

PLACED BY

JAMES LENHOFF, 1960

EDITOR AND PUBLISHER

TERRITORIAL ENTERPRISE

Hevada State Historic Marker Summary

Nevada State Historic Marker28
NameMark Twain
LocationVirginia City, Storey County, Nevada
Latitude, Longititude39.3102, -119.6497

References

Keane Wonder Mine – “King of the Desert”

The Keane Wonder Mine is perhaps the most visited gold mining facility in Death Valley National Park in eastern California. Mining operations began in December 0f 1903 by Jack Keane. Keane and his partner Domingo Etcharren while Keane was prospecting in the Chloride Cliffs of the Funeral mountains. The names was originally called “Keane’s Wonder” when gold and silver were found.

Keane Wonder Mine - 1916 - Quartz mill. Mine said to have produced $1,000,000. Closed May 1916 as the developed ore bodies were worked out.
Keane Wonder Mine – 1916 – Quartz mill. Mine said to have produced $1,000,000. Closed May 1916 as the developed ore bodies were worked out.

Trying to raise capital, Keane and Etharren sold options to Joseph DeLamar from New York. Despite modest gold production, DeLamar quite his claims. It was not until 1906 when Homer Wilson and John Campbell bought into the mine that operations really starting producing. Homer Wilson was also involved in founding nearby Chloride City.

1907 saw the full operations in place. Operationally, the mine build a tramway up into the mountains, which was used to haul 70 tons of gold rich ore each day. The tramway climbed into the mountains over 1500 feet in elevation and was over one mile long.

The Keane Wonder mine survived the Panic of 1907. Operationally, the lack of water and high desert heat caused the mine to operated in the cooler air of the desert night. The mine continued until 1912, when it was sold and subsequently closed.

The Keane Wonder Mine was included in the founding of Death Valley National Monument. The popular site was closed to visitors by the NPS in 2008 over fears of collapse of underground tunnels, toxins and the structural stability of the cables used in the tramway. The location was opened to the public again in 2017.

Today, the aerial tramway, stamp mill, storage containers and assorted artifacts litter the grounds.

Resources

Keane Wonder Mine Trail Map

Cook Bank Building

The Cook Bank Building is the most iconic image and popular images of the Rhyolite ghost town, in Nye County, Nevada. When John S. Cook built his bank to three stories, it inspired John Overbury to add a third floor to his Overbury building located just down Golden Street. The structure is centrally located in the remains of the town, and photographically, very interesting. Partially for this reason, the structure is a common choice for filming locations, and even appeared in an Alanis Morissette music video.

Rhyolite, Nevada photo by James L Rathbun
Rhyolite, Nevada photo by James L Rathbun

The Cook Bank is to most iconic building in Rhyolite and one of the most photographed ruins in Nevada.

John Cook and his brother started the John S. Cook & Company Bank in Goldfield, Nevada in January 1905. Later that same year the opened a new branch in Rhyolite. The banks first location was in a rented building on Main Street. After buying a lot on Golden Street, construction of the Cook Bank Building in the spring of 1907.

One of four banks in Rhyolite, the Cook Bank Building was by far the finest. Build of poured concrete, the building was three stories tall and had a basement that housed the Post Office. The interior was finished with marble staircases and mahogany accents. It also boasted modern conveniences such as electric lights and indoor plumbing

Despite its opulence, the Cook Bank was open less that two years. In the summer and fall of 1907, a financial crisis, often referred to as the Knickerboxer Crisis, caused banks across the country to go bankrupt. By 1910, the Cook Bank was closed and John Cook had sold off all of the building’s fixtures.

Since the closured of the Cook Bank, the building has appeared in many movies including: The Air Mail, The Arrogant, Cherry 2000, The island, Delusion, Ramona!, The Reward, Wanderer of the Wasteland, Six-string Samurai, Rough Rider’s Round Up, Bone Dry, Ultraviolet and more..

BLM Plaque – Rhyolite, Nevada
Cook Bank Building, Rhyolite Nevada, Photo marked 1908 and "Courtesy of the Nevada Historical Society"
Cook Bank Building, Rhyolite Nevada, Photo marked 1908 and “Courtesy of the Nevada Historical Society”

Cook Bank Building Map

References

Porter Brothers Store

The Porter Brothers store is a ruined storefront on the main street in the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nye County, Nevada. The Porter Brothers were like many other merchants, following and chasing the latest news of gold strikes and boom towns. The Porter Brothers built their building in 1906 at a cost of $10,000 and it close four years later, in 1910.

Porter Brothers store front in Phyolite, Nevada - Photo by James L Rathbun
Porter Brothers store front in Rhyolite, Nevada – Photo by James L Rathbun

Like many merchants of the time, the Porter Brothers, Hiram and Lyman, moved from mining camp to mining camp, following reports of booms and strikes.

In 1902, the opened a painting business in San Francisco. Following the rich gold strikes in southern California, they opened mercantiles in Johannesburg, Ballarat (near Death Valley), Beatty, and, or course, Rhyolite.

Originally, the brothers bought lot on Main Street in 1905 and operated out of a canvas tent, but they soon ran out of room. They then bought a second lot on Golden Street, next of many of Rhyolites important commercial buildings.

Construction of their new building began in 1906. It used local stone and took four months at a cost of $10,000.

Before moving their operations from Main to Golden, they threw a huge three-day sale and held a public date, complete with an orchestra, in the new finished Golden Street building.

The Porter Brothers Store was very popular. In 1906, it was the go-to destination for Christmas shopping. This was due to its amazing displays that rivalled those of the major cities. In fact, the store was the largest employer in Rhyolite aside from the mines.

Unfortunately, even the popular store was not immune to the downturn that would decimate Rhyolite’s businesses; it closed in 1910. Hiram, however, would stay in Rhyolite another nine years, serving as the town’s postmaster until the post office closed on September 15, 1919.

BLM Plaque – Rhyolite, Nevada

Porter Brothers Store Front Sign, Rhyolite, Nevada.  Photo by James L Rathbun
Porter Brothers Store Front Sign, Rhyolite, Nevada. Photo by James L Rathbun

Porter Brothers Store Map