Customer Reviews

Mile-High Fever: Silver Mines, Boom Towns, and High Living on the Comstock Lode

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I have read a number of books on the comstock, being a Nevada history buff like my dad was & we were active in historical preservation in 17 yrs i lived there on the LeBeau Sisters Grave near Sand MTN, I visited Virginia City many times on Family vacations & i only perused the volume in one sitting & i didnt think it had much if anything in new insights on the comstock. It looks like a great primer for someone seeking a good book to begin a study on that era. I think the text couldve been enhanced by photos or illustrations of the people & places pivitol to that era. Kudos to the author for giving the public a new volume on that era.

Mile High Fever isn't a book about the Comstock Lode or Virginia City per se, though the subtitle might give you that impression; instead, it is something of a multiple biography of several personalities of note who made Virginia City and the surrounding area what it became. This would include everyone from predatory lawyers-turned-Senators, self-aggrandizing bankers, self-destructive mine owners, newspapermen like Alf Doten, Dan De Quille and Mark Twain, the Banking Ring, the four partners of the Big Bonanza days, entrepreneurs like Sutro, and so on.

The action starts with a small Indian war, shifts to Virginia City, then to San Francisco (where the money for mining originates, and where the profits end up), off and on out to Washington DC, and back to a Virginia City skidding into bust times. Along the way, the author explains something of then-modern mining technology; how the banks had it all over the little investor in terms of using a vertically intregrated business model to funnel all profits their way, and zero or less to the speculator; how mining stock swindles were pulled off again and again; how various business interests competed for elements of the side trade, for example how the banks built the V&T Railroad to head off potential loss of mill profits threatened by the building of the Sutro tunnel. This material is all interesting to the reader interested in the Comstock and western mining in this time period.

However, it cannot be said to be a strictly chronological tale of the rise and fall of Virginia City. The chapters are built around the personalities, and as such are choppy and sometimes repetitive. For good gossip into the lives of many key people - Big Bill Stewart, Bill Ralston, Bill Sharon, the foursome of Mackay, Fair, Flood & O'Brien, and so on - it's great.

Finally, although according to the publisher there are 8 pages of b&w photos, my copy does not have one single photo or map, and it desperately cries out for them. There are lots online, but this book loses a full star for not being positively stuffed with some of the many available pictures of the times.

Nevada's Comstock Lode rivaled the fantastic wealth of Potosi, but was exploited by freemen whose sense of self was larger than the mountain itself. As is usual with these things, the ones who made the most money were those who supplied the miners, and then the corporate mining companies that soon replaced the individual prospectors. Unlike gold, silver is chemically bound to hard rock, and can only be profitably harvested by industrial processes that required organizations and huge amount of capital. In surprising ways, technology and techniques developed for the harsh conditions deep underground found applications in the creation of the American Empire. It also led to some of the first modern financial excesses, when more money could be made by manipulating the mines' paper assets rather than through mining itself. It was no accident that the city of San Francisco, with its growing mercantile, manufacturing and financial infrastructures, benefited far more than state of Nevada. The Comstock's vision, energy and freewheeling ways nourished larger than life characters whose influences are still with us today. One of them was Mark Twain, who honed his writing skills during his time in the Comstock country, from which his international career was launched. A delightful book with amazing details on how things were then and how they influence us now. Well researched and easy reading, the book moves much like a western novel that happens to be true to life.

I was excited to buy this book after watching HBO's Deadwood series and spending time around Lake Tahoe. The author provides insight and anecdotes into mining, boom town life, etc but his writing is choppy and the book is poorly organized. The author jumps around, is repetative, overuses relative pronouns and introduces too many characters and historic quotations. If I was not so interested in the subject matter and period, I would've stopped reading after chapter 4.

I am really enjoying reading "Mile High Fever" by Dennis Drabelle.
What this really needs to be stellar is relevant maps and pictures.

Fortunately for me, I lived in Reno for 6-years, and visited
Virginia City many times, so I can visualize some of what
Drabelle is writing.

But with such a wealth of era photos, paintings and maps,
why no section to suppliment the great writing?

St. Martin's Press, how about a future edition with a decent
pictures section?

Best regards,

Kevin M. Sak

It is difficult to rate this book inasmuch as interest in the book will vary widely depending upon the reader.

The Comstock Lode was a silver and gold mining play in Nevada that boomed from approximately 1860 to 1880. There was the usual "wide open" mining town activities in Virginia City but the enduring interest was in the fortunes made by a few individuals. These included those associated with the Bank (of Californis) Ring (i.e. Ralston and Sharon) together with the Bonanza Kings (i.e. McKay, Fair, Flood and O'Brien). Most of those winners relocated to San Francisco and formed the basis for its development and prosperity. Nevada was ultimately left with little to show for the boom but a "ghost town".

This book provides an overview of the Comstock Lode and focuses primarily on personalities. The author, Dennis Drabelle, is an experienced magazine writer and reviewer. Consequently the book reads fairly easily and reasonably well organized. I suspect that it would be of more interest to someone with minimal knowledge of the subject.

The book, in my opinion, is a popular re-write of existing histories and adds little that is new. The Comstock Lode is essentially over half way through the book and the balance of the book contains far too much material on lesser participants (i.e. Senator William Stewart, Mark Twain) that are of personal interest to the author. The book also suffers from a lack of maps and/or photos.

Since I have some prior knowledge of the subject and thought that the second half of the book tended to wander I don't feel that I can give it anything better than a three star rating.

I love US history, particuarly US history and the American west. I can't think of one positive from this book. It's ridiculously slow and uneventful.