Comstock Lode

American  

noun

1. the most valuable deposit of silver ore ever recorded, discovered in 1859 by Henry T. P. Comstock near Virginia City, Nevada.

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Comstock Lode British  

/ ˈkɒm-, ˈkʌmˌstɒk /

noun

1. an extensive gold and silver vein in W Nevada, near Virginia City

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Etymology

Origin of Comstock Lode

C19: named after T. P. Comstock (1820–70), American prospector

Example Sentences

Europeans colonized the area in the mid-1800s and began clear-cutting trees to supply nearby towns and the Comstock Lode mines with lumber.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 30, 2021

The Comstock Lode boom began in the 1850s and, for several decades, brought a rush of prospectors to places including Virginia City, Gold Hill and Silver City.

From Washington Times • Oct. 11, 2019

Eight years of placer mining in that state produced little, so he went over the Sierras to Virginia City, Nevada, and worked in the silver deposits known as the Comstock Lode.

From The New Yorker • Feb. 16, 2015

In 1860, in the Comstock Lode region of Nevada, for example, there were reportedly only thirty women total in a town of twenty-five hundred men.

From Textbooks • Dec. 30, 2014

I reckon I'd ha' stuck around the Comstock Lode an' got into reg'lar silver-quartz minin' if I'd gone my own way.

From The Boy With the U.S. Miners by Rolt-Wheeler, Francis