Comstock Lode - The Virginia City and Gold Hill Water Company

The Virginia City and Gold Hill Water Company

When silver was first discovered on the Comstock, the flow of water from natural springs was adequate to supply the needs of the miners and small towns of Virginia City and Gold Hill, Nevada. As population increased wells were dug for domestic needs, and the water within several mine tunnels was added to the available supply. As the mills and hoisting works multiplied, the demand for water for use in steam boilers became so great that it was impossible to supply it without creating a water shortage among the residents, now thousands in number. In this need, the Virginia City and Gold Hill Water Company was formed, being the first non-mining incorporation on the Comstock Lode.

Water from wells and tunnels in the surrounding mountains was soon exhausted. It became imperative to look toward the main range of the Sierra Nevada mountains, where there was an inexhaustible supply. Between the Sierra and the Virginia ranges lay the Washoe Valley, a great trough nearly 2,000 ft (610 m) in depth. Hermann Schussler, a Swiss trained engineer of great repute who had planned water works in San Francisco, was brought to the Comstock to plan and design the new works. Surveys were made in 1872, the first sections of pipe laid June 11, 1873 and the last on July 25 the same year.

The initial pipe was made of wrought iron, a total length of over 7 mi (11 km), with an interior diameter of 12 in (300 mm) and a capacity of 92,000 gallons per hour. The pipe traversed the Washoe Valley in the form of an inverted siphon, and at the lowest point having a pressure of 1,720 ft (520 m) of water, or 800 pounds per square inch. The inlet being 465 ft (142 m) above the outlet, the water is forced through the pipe at tremendous pressure. Water was brought to the inlet in the Sierra Nevada range from sources of supply in two large covered flumes, and at the outlet end of the pipe was delivered in two large flumes a distance of 12 mi (19 km) to Virginia City. The pipe was constructed of sheets of wrought iron riveted together, each section fastened with three rows of rivets. Lead was used to secure the joints between each pipe section. The first flow of water reached Gold Hill and Virginia City on August 1, 1873 with great fanfare. This accomplishment was the greatest pressurized water system in operation in the world, having superseded the water system at Cherokee Flat also designed by Schussler.

The water company laid an additional pipe alongside the first in 1875, and a third pipe in 1877. These pipes of lap welded joints delivered more water, there being less friction of rivet heads upon the water. Additional flumes were also constructed to diversify and improve reliability of supply.