Page "Comstock Lode" Paragraph 7

Credit for the discovery of the Comstock Lode is disputed.

It is said to have been discovered, in 1857, by Ethan Allen Grosh and Hosea Ballou Grosh, sons of a Pennsylvania clergyman, trained mineralogists and veterans of the California gold fields.

Hosea injured his foot and died of septicaemia in 1857.

In an effort to raise funds, Allen, accompanied by an associate Richard Maurice Bucke, set out on a trek to California with samples and maps of his claim.

Henry Tompkins Paige Comstock was left in their stead to care for the Grosh cabin and a locked chest containing silver and gold ore samples and documents of the discovery.

Grosh and Bucke never made it to California, getting lost and suffering the fate of severe hardship while crossing the Sierran trails.

The two suffered from frostbite while crossing the Sierra Nevada mountains, and at the hands of a minor-surgeon lost limbs through amputation, a last-ditch effort to save the lives of the pair.

Allen Grosh died on December 19, 1857.

R. M.

Bucke lived, but upon his recovery returned to his home in Canada.