Alice Byrne

Alice Byrne was born in Virginia City in 1908, the daughter and granddaughter of miners. As such, she was deeply immersed in the mining culture of the Comstock. She lived in Virginia City all her life, witnessing the economic ebb and flow of the mining industry and its ultimate decline in the area. Byrne was interviewed by Ann Harvey in 1984.

There was still a lot of mining going on in Virginia City after 1900. There was the Garfield Lode, uncovered in 1916. That was a very rich strike, and so was American Flat, where they had the largest mill in the world at the time. That operated during the 1920s. In fact, there were probably sixty families depending on mining here [in Virginia City] when World War II broke out. At that time they wanted the men either to go in the service or go to copper mines. Of course, that closed our mines down. The operators thought it would be just a matter of readjusting after the war, [since they were mining gold and silver] that they would be given the opportunity to reopen, but it didn't work out that way. If you don't keep a mine operating, it deteriorates fast. In some cases machinery was even sold for the junk price it would bring. There was no way for the mine companies here to reestablishing themselves.