[166]       

Bowers Mansion

Washoe County
  39.2845, -119.84072

"Am I the only one who finds its eerily coincidental that if you were to fly in a straight line from the porch of Bowers Mansion you would be at the front steps to the Fourth Ward School in Virginia City? Two buildings, funded by the Comstock, separated by an arid mountain range and an inland lake." -- Journal Entry, August 2007

At Bowers Mansion County Park, 11 miles north of Carson City
 * Use Exit 55 from I-580, and head south on US 395 ALT to "Davis Creek Park, Bowers Mansion." *

Original Date Visited: 8/21/07

Signed: No

  • I took this picture of Marker 166 during my KOLO 8 interview.
  • Bowers Mansion was built during the height of the Comstock
  • Marker 166 plaque

Exact Description:
Bowers Mansion is another reminder of the Comstock bonanza. Lemuel S. "Sandy" and Eilley Orrum Bowers were probably the first millionaires produced by the fabulous find in Gold Canyon.

As strangers, they had adjoining claims. After a rich vein was struck, they were soon married and had the mansion built.

Misfortune followed fortune and soon all was lost. The richness of their vein gave out; a new mill was destroyed; financiers balked. Then Sandy died in 1868.

Maneuvering to make the property self-sustaining, Eilley struggled on, finally, in 1878, losing the mansion by foreclosure to Myron C. Lake. Thereupon, the property had a succession of owners including Henry Riter, who managed it as a popular resort from 1903 to 1946. Eilley Orrum Bowers had died in 1903, in poverty and unwittingly, she and Sandy left a legacy to Nevada.

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