C & C Mining Works

The C&C was the largest and most modern of all Comstock-era shafts, located on the grounds of the California Mine and jointly owned by the Consolidated Virginia and California Mining Companies. It was used to extract the fabulously rich Big Bonanza ores of both mines. Started in the mid-1870s, it was part of a line of vertical shafts sunk in an attempt to tap the Comstock Lode at depths of 3,000 feet beneath the surface. Between 1876 and 1881, the California Mine’s portion of the C&C produced an estimated $44,031,000.00 from about 588,000 tons of ore, for an average yield of almost $75.00 per ton, and total dividends paid on the C&C stock were about $31,320,000. The C&C stood about eight blocks downhill to the east of this site, just east of the electric sub-station, and the building burned down in the 1950s.

Virginia City, Nevada · United States