The town of Como was established in late 1862, during the gold rush in Palmyra Mining District. Two bills were under consideration in December, 1862, by the Nevada Territorial Legislature in Carson City, to build a toll road from Carson City to Como.[2] One of the bills was approved on December 18, 1862, providing an act chartering a toll road from Como to the Carson river, and the building of a bridge to cross the river.[3] A correspondent of the Sonoma County Democrat in California, who personally visited Como on February 10, 1863, stated in the March 19, 1863 issue that:
We were surprised in finding Como a flourishing Mining town, having in it four hotels, four dry-good stores, two livery stables, eight saloons, one brewery, besides a tin shop a blacksmith shop and numerous dwelling houses; they are also establishing a school and weekly news paper; the paper we are informed is to be under the supervision of, Messrs. Weston and Abraham, late of the Petaluma Journal. I. D. Cross formerly a merchant of Petaluma, is proprietor of the National Hotel; which as a first class house of refreshments is second to none this side the Sierra Nevada slope.[4]
Perhaps the most famous resident of the Como region was Chief Truckee, father of Chief Winnemucca, and befriender of white men. He was the purported savior of emigrant wagon trains and a scout for Kit Carson and John C. Frémont.[11] Today the site is totally abandoned and with only some foundations of the old buildings remaining. In addition to abandoned mines and ghost ruins of the old town, the region also contains rock shelters utilized by Native American tribal people, and petroglyphs done by them at some time in the past.[11]
From The Life of Mark Twain: The Early Years, 1835-1871, page 234
Sam accepted another out-of-town assignment a month after Jennie’s death: an excursion to Como, in the mountains between Virginia and Carson, to inspect the mines there and report on their prospects. He arrived on March 4 and was greeted by Alf Doten. They promptly scampered for beer. In fact, Sam repeatedly postponed his surveys of the local mines for visits to the brewery. Sam’s pleasure in the local libation was so well known that he afterward was cited as an authority: it was “the best in the Territory, as we can prove by “Mark Twain, who has sat in the brewery and drank ‘gallons and gallons of it without arising from his seat.” On the evening of March 6, Sam, Alf Doten, and J. D. Winters, brother of Theodore and owner of a small quartz mill in Como, drank and dined together. Sam left Como, a ghost town today, on March 7, in time to attend Adah Issacs Menken’s Virginia City debut in Mazeppa that evening.“