Founded in 1859 after a gold strike was made south of Mount Davidson.  It became one of Comstock's most prosperous towns while Twain was in Virginia City with a population of about 3,000 people.  By the 1870s, more than 10,000 people lived there, merging with Virginia City.  The area soon declined and is now little more than a ghost town.

November 3, 1872, Sam wrote to his sister-in-law, Susan Crane.

“If you & Theodore will come over here in the Spring with Livy & me & spend the Summer, you shall see a country that is so beautiful that you will be obliged to believe in fairy-land;—there is nothing like it elsewhere on the globe” [MTP, drop-in letters].

“I would a good deal rather live here if I could get the rest of you over” [MTL 5: 213].