Comstock Books

Comstock Books sits on C Street in the heart of Virginia City, the legendary mining town where the discovery of the Comstock Lode in 1859 transformed the American West and helped finance the Union cause in the Civil War. The store occupies a beautifully restored building from the 1870s, when Virginia City was one of the richest and most raucous towns on earth, and the creaking wooden floors and tin ceiling transport visitors back to that extraordinary era. The mining history section is the finest in Nevada, with volumes covering everything from the geology of the Comstock Lode to the social history of the miners, saloon keepers, and entrepreneurs who built the town. The Mark Twain collection honors the writer who got his start at the Territorial Enterprise newspaper just down the street, and includes first editions, biographies, and scholarly works on his Nevada years. The ghost towns and railroads section appeals to the many visitors who come to Virginia City to explore the remnants of the silver rush, and the rare books room holds maps, mining stock certificates, and original newspapers from the Comstock era. The store is a pilgrimage site for anyone fascinated by the wildest chapter of the American West.