(1860's Nevada Silver Rush) Greenwood, Samauel S. AUTOGRAPHED LETTER SIGNED ALS  Austin, Nev. 1864 Single sheet of blue lined paper, with writing on both sides.    

 An original manuscript letter from a young miner who has come to the boom town of Austin, Nevada, seeking his fortune in the new silver mines.  The letter is dated Austin, Nevada February 11, 1864 from Samuel S. Greenwood to his wife.  He write much on how he misses her and his children, but he is expecting to leave for home in the fall.  He is working in the famed "Young America Ledge" silver mine where he hopes for great success.  The original company got 23 pounds of rock crushed by a mill process and it went 767 dollars to the ton.  We shall start a tunnel in our extension before long...it is beautiful rock.  They have run a tunnel in 40 and sunk 15 feet at the end of that and found a 4 foot ledge.  He further remarks on how the country is growing, with houses being built, and freight coming from Sacramento (Today Austin is a "living ghost town").

An engaging letter with observations on the Nevada silver country during it's 1860's boom days, from one drawn to the mines, with no doubt, dreams of a quick profit at hand.

Along with this letter is a list of names of famous Mountainmen which is the last thing Mr. Greenwood wrote.  Many of them you will recognize;  like Bill Sublette, Dick Wooden, Jim Beckwourth, Kit Carson, Jim Bridger, Joe Meek, Etc.