Surprise find: Ex-slaves a part of 19th-Century life

VIRGINIA CITY, Nev. - The buried remains of a black-owned saloon that catered to all races in the 1860s may prove to be a gold mine for archaeologists trying to learn more about ex-slaves in the Old West.

The Boston Saloon was owned and operated by a free black man from Massachusetts from 1864 until it burned in a fire that destroyed most of Virginia City in 1875, researchers said in interviews Wednesday.

Not much is known about the enclave of about 100 blacks who lived in the bustling mining town of 20,000 - the biggest city west of the Mississippi River at the time.

"In general, a mining camp like that may be perceived as a white phenomenon," said Ron James, Nevada's state historic preservation officer. "African-Americans who are visiting Nevada and go up to Virginia City are not always aware that they have roots in that community.

"But there were a lot of (black) business owners who were well known and much respected. One ran for mayor. Another fellow was a doctor practicing for well over 10 years."

The fact that Virginia City was a "remarkably integrated community" has deterred efforts to learn more about blacks of that era, James said.

Unlike the Chinese, who formed their own Chinatown, blacks lived among the Irish, French and German immigrants. Whites rented rooms from blacks and blacks rented rooms from whites, he said.

"To me, that means it was a healthy society, but it's not a good environment for archaeologists," James said.

"There isn't a black neighborhood. If there were, it would be easy. We would excavate the black neighborhood," said James. He said the saloon "may very well be a one-of-a-kind site in the Inner-Mountain West."

The gold and silver mined from beneath Virginia City and nearby Gold Hill and Silver City helped finance Union efforts in the Civil War. In fact, President Lincoln rushed Nevada into statehood in 1864 for that very purpose. The state motto is "All For Our Country."

"The Comstock was fiercely pro-Union, so they tended to be sympathetic to slaves and ex-slaves," James said.

"We think of Nevada being a little more conservative about that kind of thing, more reluctant to buy into 20th Century civil rights, but in the 19th century it was leader," he said.

To walk the streets and wooden sidewalks of Virginia City is to take a trip back in time to the Old West. The entire city makes up one of the largest National Historic Districts in the nation.

The newly discovered site is beneath a small asphalt parking lot behind the Bucket of Blood Saloon, which was established in 1876 and still stands at the corner of D and Union streets.

In addition to the old opera house, insurance maps show a series of female boarding houses near that intersection- "the designated red light district," said Kelly Dixon, administrator and archaeologist for the Comstock Archaeology Center.

Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, got his start a block away at the local newspaper, the Territorial Enterprise.

"It really will provide windows into the past," Dixon said. "It's a way to find out about people who don't have as much written about them in the historical record."

The Great Fire of 1875 has proven to be a blessing for researchers at the site because it will provide a "nice ash lens cap" under which everything found likely was part of the saloon, James said.

The asphalt parking lot - which archaeologists want to dig up in the summer of 2000 - "complicates things but it also ensures preservation.

"I can talk about where it is and not worry about anyone pawning it out," James said.

The Boston Saloon was founded by William A. G. Brown, who "started working in Virginia City as a 'boot black' - a 19th century term for a street shoe polisher," Dixon said. "Literally from the bootstraps, he pulled himself up and opened this saloon."

Test holes already have recovered a shard from a white porcelain cup and crystal stemware, "probably from a wine goblet or brandy snifter," she said.

James and Dixon said the discovery of the saloon defies long odds in a number of respects. It's rare to find a business that operated in the same spot in mining boom town for more than a year. It's even more rare to find one sealed beneath the ashes of a fire and rarer still to have it owned and operated by a black man.

"To have all that line up in the 19th century is outstanding," James said.

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