The Story of the Water Supply for the Comstock: Including the Towns of Virginia City, Gold Hill, and Silver City, Nevada, Together with Other Water-related Events for the Period 1859-1969 |
Common terms and phrases
Adolph Sutro Beam Engine Captain Overton Carson City Carson River City and Gold City Water Company Comstock Lode constructed conveyed Cornish Beam Engine Cornish Pump Courtesy of Nevada Curtis-Wright depth DeQuille electric lights FIGURE Five Mile Reservoir Franktown Creek Franktown Irrigation Company gallons of water gallons per day Galloway ginia City Gold Canyon Gold Hill Water Hill Water Company Hobart Leonard hydraulic pumps inches inlet installed Lake Tahoe Lakeview house Lakeview saddle later length located Lumber Company Marlette Lake Company mill million gallons miners Mining Company Nevada Historical Society north flume operation Pelton Wheels pump rod purchase Schussler Sierra Nevada Wood Sierra water system Silver City Southwest Gas Corporation Storey County Superintendent Sutro Tunnel tank Territorial Enterprise Third Creek third pipeline tion Truckee River tunnel level Virginia and Gold Virginia City Water Washoe Valley water rights water supply west portal Wood and Lumber Yellow Jacket
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Page 3 - October 1863, only 56y2 flowing inches (900,000 gallons per day) of water could be obtained for the use of Virginia City, 48 of which came from the Santa Rita tunnel alone, and if the stream from the last-named tunnel decreased, as appeared probable, a water famine was imminent. (Santa Rita tunnel was located in Ophir 'Ravine.) * * * Fortunately the supply was maintained with slight diminution until the melting of the winter snows refilled the springs. Every succeeding year, as the city grew, the...
Page 30 - ... described were designed and built by Mr. JB Overton, Superintendent of the Water Company, the only outside engineering being that of Mr. Schussler on the design of the first pressure pipe across the Washoe depression. Mr. Overton was also Superintendent of the Sierra Nevada Wood and Lumber Company. As built, the water supply was a notable addition to the art of water supply engineering.
Page 23 - ... pipe is a lap-welded iron, screw-jointed pipe, 10 inches internal diameter. It was laid on ground close to the first pipe, but is 1,900 feet longer. A second flume from Hobart Creek to the inlet tank, 25,005 feet (4.72 miles) long was built parallel to the first flume, and a second tank constructed as the inlet for the pressure pipe. From the outlet end of the two pipes a second flume, 21,050 feet (3.98 miles) long was built to the Five Mile reservoir, located at a favorable site about five miles...
Page 23 - ... earth to provide the necessary impervious element. There are 3,825 cubic yards of masonry and 1,365 cubic yards of earth in the dam. The lake formed is about 1% miles long by •% mile wide, and is said to contain 2,000 million gallons of water. It lies at an elevation of 8,000 feet above sea level. From Marlette Lake a flume 14 inches by 30 inches in section leads along the mountain side northward, 23,175 feet (4.38 miles) to the west portal of the tunnel through the ridge, dividing the Lake...
Page 40 - The pump at the New Yellow Jacket vertical shaft, 3,080 feet deep, had a capacity of 1,000 gallons a minute, or 1,440,000 gallons in twenty-four hours, and regularly raised over 1,000,000 gallons. The pump rod was 3,055 feet long, made of lengths of Oregon pine, 16 by 16 inches, strapped together with iron plates. Its weight when in motion was 1,510,400 pounds. Its...
Page 3 - ... Company and the Gold Hill Water Company. The two organizations were consolidated May 12, 1862, as the Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company, with an enlarged capital stock of $250,000. Eliot Lord describes the situation as follows : Before September 1863, they had bought or leased the streams flowing from seven tunnels, the principal water sources, and conducted them through flumes and ditches Dam at...
Page 41 - ... the third-line shafts had four compartments (except the Forman which had five), one for the pumps, another for sinking, and two for hoisting. Every shaft had a sinking pump of the suction type in addition to a Cornish force pump. To overcome the great pressure, the water was not pumped directly from the bottom to the top of the shaft, but in stages, from one tank to another, the tanks being placed at the side of the shaft at intervals of about 200 feet. Each tank had a separate pump connected...
Page 23 - ... Marlette dam was raised. As completed, the dam is about 213 feet long, 37 feet high, and 16 feet wide on the crest, with battered sides. The exterior walls are of dry rubble masonry with roughly coarsed stones. There is an interior core of earth to provide the necessary impervious element. There are 3,825 cubic yards of masonry and 1,365 cubic yards of earth in the dam. The lake formed is about 1% miles long by •% mile wide, and is said to contain 2,000 million gallons of water. It lies at...
Page 23 - ... from the lake or reservoir a "V" flume leading southward to Spooner Summit at the head of the main flume down Clear Creek to the lumber yard a mile south of Carson City, the water being used for fluming purposes. Arrangements were made by which the Marlette dam was raised. As completed, the dam is about 213 feet long, 37 feet high, and 16 feet wide on the crest, with battered sides. The exterior walls are of dry rubble masonry with roughly coarsed stones. There is an interior core of earth to...
Page 23 - ... obtained from the western side of the Sierra Nevada above Lake Tahoe, and the plans were outlined with that end in view. The situation required that a storage reservoir be provided to furnish the needed supply of water during the dry months of the year after the surface streams had largely ceased to flow. On the western side of the mountains a small lake, named after Marlette, the Surveyor General of Nevada, had previously been made into a reservoir by the Carson and Tahoe Lumber and Fluming...