Overland in 1852

A DIARY OF AN UNKNOWN SCOUT,1 which throws interesting light on the covered wagon route from Missouri to California in 1852, has recently been made available to historians.' The diary was found by Mr. Matt McGuirk of Virginia City, Nevada, between the partition walls of the old carriage house behind his residence on historic B Street, a street which in early Comstock days was lined with the mansions of the mining aristocracy. This is one block uphill from the main business and museum street today, or C Street, which followed the line of the early Comstock Lode discoveries from Virginia City over the Divide to Gold Hill and Silver City. These streets have in late years been paved, but have not changed in location since the earliest boom days of the 186o's, when the young Mark Twain was a reporter on the Enterprise. The present McGuirk residence was formerly known as Graves Castle after its onetime owner,8 and stood in the southwest section of the mining town where it escaped the disastrous fire of 1875, which destroyed the greater part of the city. The residence still preserves most of its furnishings of the 1870's, a large part of which were imported from Europe, in which respect it remains unique in the Comstock area. Many similar mansions were removed in sections by train to Reno toward the turn of the century, at the decline of the mines

American Environmental and Regional History · American Literature and Humor Studies · History

• The Wonderlode of Silver and Gold

  Leroy R Hafen, Miriam Michelson•The Mississippi Valley Historical…•1934

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• The Emigrants' Guide to California

  William J Petersen, Joseph E Ware et al.•The Mississippi Valley Historical…•1932

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• The Wake of the Prairie Schooner

  J E Hulett, Irene D Paden•American Sociological Review•1944

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