"The discovery of the Comstock Lode in Nevada (then Western Utah Territory) in 1859 was one of the richest mining strikes in the history of the world. Thousands of would-be millionaires made the "rush to Washoe", to the Comstock diggings, in 1859-60, and among their number was a most atypical figure. "Doctor" Henry DeGroot.

Henry DeGroot was a romantic individualist of the kind the nineteenth century produced in heroic proportions. A student of both law and medicine, DeGroot forsook the tame, prosaic life of his native New York state for the wild and unpredictable society of the Western mining camps. He survived by pursuing whatever opportunities fortune and enterprise presented him with, working as a mule skinner, prospector, surveyor, cartographer, and, to the benefit of posterity, as a writer and reporter.

It was in this capacity as a newspaper reporter that DeGroot travelled to the scene of the great Comstock discovery in 1859, sharing the hard but colorful existence of the early miners there. His exceptional character soon won the respect and affection of that rough-and-tumble community of men, and he became intimately acquainted with the original locators of the claims on the Comstock Lode and with their stories.

The Comstock Papers is one of the best of the few firsthand historical accounts of the earliest days of the fabled Comstock Lode. It is made available here, for the first time since its serialization in 1876, in this volume."