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Water Removal
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Often the mines were wet. This usually didn't mean merely a
bit damp, but the lower levels intercepted a water table or
aquifer so water flooded the tunnels. That meant that the water
had to be removed if men were to mine the rocks. At Virginia
City, huge water pumps were employed to keep the water from
flooding the mines. To make things more difficult, the water in
the mines in Virginia City was hot. Adolph Sutro tried to
alleviate the water problem by digging a tunnel from the mines
through the mountain to the east into the valley of the Carson
River. Unfortunately, by the time his tunnel was built (started
in 1869 after aborted proposals in 1866 and completed in 1878),
the mines were already deeper than the tunnel so the tunnel did
not drain those lower levels of the mines. This diagram (used by
permission of the NBMG) shows a cross section of the Sutro Tunnel
intersecting the Comstock vein. (Purkey and Garside, p. 62.)
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Water Removal
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