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Situated in the high desert of the Great Basin, newly settled Virginia City had a
very scarce local water supply. Mines and mills required a great quantity
of water as did the people of Virginia City, whose population had grown
to 30,000. Early in the town's history wells and springs supplied some water,
and some could be bought from carts that peddled water around town.
Small reservoirs were built to contain melting snow, and abandoned mine shafts were
used to store water, but the supply was still insufficient and of very poor
quality. The Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company was formed to collect as
much water as possible into wooden storage tanks and to tap into underground resources.
The demands of the population and mines quickly drained these resources, and finally the town resorted to bilge water
from the mines. This was impure and made residents sick.
Water would have to come from somewhere else if the town were to survive.
An amazing engineering feat was attempted. Water would be transported from
the Sierra Nevada 25 miles away, through a pipe over the Virginia Range to water a thirsty Virginia
City. It took only one summer to lay the pipe, which provided daily 2 million gallons of cold pure water. This capacity was still not enough, and, to meet demand, within two
years the pipeline had to be pushed eight miles further into the Sierras to a newly dammed Marlette Lake.
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