That event would take place in 1859, however several hundred miners had been placer mining the nearby stream and river valleys, in an area known as Gold Canyon, for ten years prior to the Comstock discovery.
It is interesting to ponder the fact that for 10 years miners had been barely scratching out a living with placer operations that had continued to diminish as the 1850’s wore on, while just a few miles away the richest ore discovery in history had numerous outcrops at the surface and was just waiting to be stumbled upon.
