Editing Comstock Lode (section)

{{Short description|Lode of silver ore in Virginia City, Nevada, United States}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2018}}
[[File:Mining on the Comstock.jpg|thumb|300px|"Mining on the Comstock", depicts the headframes and mills of the various mines, and the mining technology used at Comstock, most prominently the method of square-set timbering developed there to work the veins.]]
[[File:Comstock Lode geologic map.jpg|thumb|300px|Comstock Lode geologic map, north.  Ophir is in the top center; "qz" is quartz and signifies the Comstock Lode.<ref name=Becker>Becker, G. F. (1882). ''Geology of the Comstock Lode and Washoe District''. USGS Monograph, Washington, D.C.</ref>{{rp|Sheet IV}}]]
[[File:Comstock Lode geologic map 2.jpg|thumb|300px|Comstock Lode geologic map, south.  Gold Hill is in the center left; "dt" is diorite and "hI" is andesite.<ref Name=Becker/>{{rp||Sheet IV}}]]

The '''Comstock Lode''' is a [[lode]] of [[silver]] [[ore]] located under the eastern slope of [[Mount Davidson (Nevada)|Mount Davidson]], a peak in the [[Virginia Range]] in [[Virginia City, Nevada]] (then western [[Utah Territory]]), which was the first major discovery of silver ore in the [[United States]] and named after American miner [[Henry Comstock]].

After the discovery was made public in 1859, it sparked a [[silver rush]] of prospectors to the area, scrambling to stake their claims. The discovery caused considerable excitement in [[California]] and throughout the United States, the greatest since the [[California Gold Rush]] in 1849. Mining camps soon thrived in the vicinity, which became bustling commercial centers, including [[Virginia City, Nevada|Virginia City]] and [[Gold Hill, Nevada|Gold Hill]].

The Comstock Lode is notable not just for the immense fortunes it generated and the large role those fortunes had in the growth of Nevada and [[San Francisco]], but also for the advances in [[mining]] technology that it spurred, such as [[square set timbering]] and the [[Washoe process]] for extracting silver from ore. The mines declined after 1874, although underground mining continued sporadically into the 1920s.