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Once upon a time there was an event known as the 

California Gold Rush. The gold rush excited many 

people and penniless workers were eager for the 

chance to seize a great amount of money and change 

their lives completely. While the gold fever held 

many rewards for some, others weren't as fortunate 

and gave up in the same (if not worse) condition 

than they were before. The story I'm about to tell 

you is about a man who was as excited as it gets and 

couldn't wait for a change to strike rich.

This man was called Henry Tompkins Paige Comstock. 

Henry was born in Trenton, Ontario in 1820 and fought 

in the Mexican and Black Hawk Wars as well as being a 

shepherd before becoming a miner. He wasn't known for 

being very bright and many say that he was illiterate 

and without a proper education. When Henry traveled to 

a gold district in California, he met some Mormon 

miners and that's when his mining career really 

started. Some of the men there referred to him as "Old 

Pancake." When two other miners found some 

particularly good treasure, news reached Henry (who 

had a lust for gold)   and he decided that he wouldn't 

mind some for himself.

Ethan Allen Grosh and Hosea Ballou Grosh were the men 

who discovered this new rich new gold source in a secret 

location on Mt.Davidson. They were both expert 

mineralogists and knew what they were doing. Henry was 

curious and wanted greatly to have a share of these 

riches also and being a miner, he had a great interest 

in gold like the two brothers who had found the source. 

Henry worked in an area close to the brother's main site 

and he tried to become friends with the Grosh's. The 

brothers ended up finding something that wasn't exactly 

gold. The discovery was an ore filled with lots and lots 

of silver! They had papers that recorded their findings 

and ore samples that were hidden away from the rest of 

the miners.

The brothers discovered a great amount of precious 

minerals but both died tragically before they could 

file a claim for their discovery. The brothers hadn't 

shared the exact location of their find with Henry but 

when he heard news of their death, he claimed their 

cabin as his own and went in search of what they had 

discovered. Comstock found a locked chest that had the 

documents and ore samples but they made little to no 

sense to him. Henry, who wasn't the brightest person 

around, waited for other miners to arrive and tried to 

strike up partnerships with them so he could have some 

riches for himself.

In the spring of 1859, two other men named Peter 

O'Riley and Patrick McLaughlin who worked around 

the area and had hit paydirt. Comstock told these 

men that the land was used for grazing since he was 

unhappy with his current land and wanted to take 

their claim. Over the years, valuable finds were 

made on his land but Henry's resources weren't 

enough to keep the claims going and he failed to 

use the money he got from selling his land shares 

in managing a Nevada store.

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