Air conditioning on the Comstockwas a room filled with blocks of ice sawed in winter from the frozen lakes of the Carson Range, then hauled twenty miles and 2,000ft. up Mt. Davidson to the mines by mule teams. The heat in the mines was so intense that a miner would work a drill for 15 minutes and then cooled down in the cold room for the remainder of an hour.
Ode to the Consolidated Virginian
Gold! Gold! The rumors spread
the gold’s still hidden, only the men are dead.
And so they dig and dig they dare,
deep in the earth to a Dragon’s lair.
It’s fiery breathe of sulfur sweat
poisons the air yet down they went.
Square up those braces for deeper we go
to what fate no mortal may know.
Oh Gold! Gold, the rumors spread.
The gold’s still hidden, only the men are dead.
b.