Bowers Mansion- A tale of the Comstock
Readers today may be experts on Nevada History and the Comstock, some may never have heard of it. Keeping that in mind, I will try to tell the tale of Bowers Mansion in Washoe Valley. It’s such a fascinating story that many articles were written during it’s heyday and many books and articles written since. The amazing story lends itself to legend and exaggeration. Some writings collaborate each other and some contradict but all are entertaining. I will provide the narrative as I have distilled it down and encourage you to research it further. Visit the park and take the tour of the mansion in the summer and you will have a special appreciation of our amazing park and heritage.
“Sandy” Bowers came to California for the 1849 Gold Rush and like so many other “forty-niners” found regular employment as a teamster was more practical. Still hopeful, he was among the first wave of fortune seekers to make the trek from Sacramento to Virginia City in the spring of 1859. High grade silver and lesser amounts of gold had just been discovered in the area known as Washoe after the local Indian tribe. Those that had missed out on the riches of the Mother Lode had a second chance to strike it rich. The hills around Virginia City were wide open for claim staking at that early time and men were madly staking out 20’ here, 10’ there, whether there were any indications of minerals at all. Being in Gold Country for 10 years he was probably well experienced with the ins and outs of staking, trading and selling claims. Many miners had learned the real money came from speculating in claims rather than the back-breaking gamble of actually working them. Thus he began to prosper on the barren hillsides.
Meanwhile, Eilley Orrum was a young but highly educated woman of Scottish descent. Supposedly she met and married a Mormon missionary and with him immigrated to Utah in the early 1850s. After two marriages she married a third man of the Mormon religion. About this time, Mormons were commanded to occupy the West and one place they settled was Washoe Valley. (The first white settlers of Washoe Valley is worthy of another story at another time.) Eventually, the Mormon settler’s were called back to Utah and many gave up their hard earned ranches. Eilley stayed behind, thus becoming a ranch owner by default. An enterprising woman, she established a boarding house and laundry on the Comstock. Several accounts state that cash poor miners would trade shares of their claims to pay their bills and in this way Eilley became a mine owner. On one claim, she found herself in partnership with Sandy. As luck would have it, this claim in a ravine near Gold Hill would become the easily worked and fabulously successful Crown Point Mine. By the fall the couple had married and Eilley divorced her previous husband on the grounds of abandonment. As the money started to roll in, they built a small house in what was now called Bowers Ravine. Later, it would be known as Crown Point Ravine. With this mine and the success of others, it is said Sandy Bowers was the Comstock’s first millionaire.
Soon the riches seemed out of proportion to their entire existence and the couple began to have grand fantasies of the possibilities. They decided to build a grand mansion, the grandest west of the Mississippi on Eilleys ranch in Washoe Valley, which happened to be the most beautiful and verdant spot in the whole area.
An engineer from California, who happened to be a former governor, designed the home. Soon, skilled workmen and artisans began building the stone structure. Built from local granite, Fir and Pine, it had every convenience of the time. Friends joked that they should raid the castles of Europe to furnish their castle. In 1861 Sandy and Eilley took them up on the idea but not before being talked into providing Virginia City with a grand banquet with no expense spared.
They commenced to travel to Europe and they astounded the locals with their extravagant purchases of antiques and luxury goods to furnish their home. Still, they could not spend more than was coming in and it seemed endless. They even requested an audience with Queen Victoria of England their heads were so far in the clouds. They were refused. Unfazed, they had their treasures shipped around the horn of South America to San Francisco, taken by steamship to the foothills then by freight wagon to Washoe. Hand cut glass windows, hand carved furniture, statuary, paintings, dishes, finely hand sewn decorative drapes and gewgaws of every sort. Eilley, educated and an avid reader, even assembled a library of 1,000 leather bound books. Doorknobs were made from Comstock silver.
Upon their return Eilley was busy with setting up the house and Sandy spent much time in the Comstock tending his claims and generally enjoying the mining lifestyle. On their trip they had adopted a young girl named Persia. They began to host extravagant balls and celebrations at their estate. Eilley gave birth to two children but they both died very young. At this time, the easy riches of the Comstock began to run out and a local economic depression set in. The history of the Comstock is the story of several booms and busts with fortunes gained and lost each time. Sandy tried everything to save their prosperity but by 1868 things were still grim and his health caught up with him. He died that year of silicosis, a mining disease of the lungs, at age 35.
Eilley seemed to be of a mystical mind and maybe had a gift of clairvoyance. About the time of Sandy’s death, she was said to have had visions of dark clouds above the Yellow Jacket Mine in Gold Hill, surrounded by women milling about in grieving attire. Later in 1869, the Yellow Jacket fire disaster occurred killing at least 35 men underground. She quickly gained a reputation as a “seeress.” In fact, she already possessed two glass divining balls from their Europe trip. With falling income and a still extravagant lifestyle, she began to trade on her gift and giving readings to earn extra money. Also at this time she inexplicably remodeled the mansion adding third floor adding to her money troubles.
In 1873, the Comstock had another revival but the Bowers properties still languished. Eilley opened the mansion as a resort for the region. The Virginia and Truckee Railroad passed close by and excursion trains ran from the Comstock and Reno to the popular resort. The natural hot springs on the estate provided water for a swimming pond. A dance floor, bandstand and picnic grounds were added. The Bowers Mining Company did not share in the prosperity though had to be sold to cover debts. While the resort made some money it wasn’t enough. In September 1873 the Gold Hill News reported the postponement of a raffle for the mansion and it’s furnishings for $2.50 a ticket. To add to Eilley’s woes another tragedy struck. Educated in private school in Reno, adopted daughter Persia died of appendicitis in 1874. Eilley made an effort to sell the mansion as a psychiatric hospital but the deal fell through. Eventually, in 1876, she had to sell at public auction to pay her creditors. Appraisers went through the home with an incredible disrespect of the value of the furnishings. Myron Lake, the founder of Reno, was the buyer. A short time later Theodore Winters, the Washoe Valley rancher of horse racing fame became owner.
All Eilley had left was her clairvoyance. She had predicted the collapse of the Crown Point Trestle high above Crown Point Ravine in Gold Hill but when the date came and went without incident, her reputation collapsed. After all, couldn’t she see her financial hardships coming and avoid them? A photograph appeared of Eilley with a ghostly image of Persia in the background. Sandy was said to walk the halls of the mansion. Do spirits still roam the estate?
So by 1880, the toast of Europe, famed Comstock millionaire, entertainer, hostess and seeress suddenly had not friends or anyone to come to her aid. She was on her own with the loss of her husband, three children, her fortune and her lifestyle. She moved to San Francisco and put out a shingle advertising her services as the Washoe Seeress. Even this was unsustainable. By 1901 she had returned to Reno as a ward of the state too deaf to tell fortunes. Both states met over her care and it was decided she should return to California for indigent care. She lived in a home for the destitute until her death in 1903 at age 77. Sandy, Persia and Eilley are buried up the hill behind the mansion near some old growth Jeffrey pines. These trees survived the woodcutter axe because they were on the estate.
Also in 1903, with Comstock pioneer Theodore Winters approaching 80 and his 10 children maintaining ranches in California and Nevada, Bowers Mansion became a neglected afterthought. Saved from being a casino or roadhouse or object of vandalism, it had nevertheless been saved in something close to its original condition. The family sold the property to wealthy local Henry Riter and his wife. A promoter of good works, he set carpenters, plumbers, electricians and gardeners to work restoring the property. Again the property was operated as a resort for many years with V&T train excursions bringing work weary picnicker’s in on the weekends. In the “roaring twenties”, 1923 to be exact, Henry tested the seriousness of the Constitutional amendment prohibiting alcohol and was sentenced to 4 months in jail.
Finally though, in 1946 it was the Riter’s turn to sell. Again frightening prospects of conversion to something other than honoring the old house came up. Casino, roadhouse or abandoned eyesore. This time the Reno Women’s Civic Club stepped up to put an option on the estate. Of course they had nowhere near the funds and started a county wide fund drive. Other prominent and ordinary history minded locals and businesses held events or gave outright donations. By the time the option was up, they had collected $25,000. This they presented to the Washoe County Commissioners and they made their case for what was probably Washoe County’s most famous home. The county purchased the property and the civic group spent many years upgrading the property and collecting lost contents.
Thus we have Bowers Mansion Regional Park today. Since 1946 many of the furnishings such as the original drapes, bedroom set and other items like many of Eilley’s signed books have been returned by subsequent owners from around the West. Other historic items such as period French statuary the Bowers might have purchased have been donated. The tour of the mansion is a stunning window into affluent living at the time of the Comstock.
Many local residents remember summer days at the pool and grounds at the park from their childhoods in the 1950s, 60s, 70s through to this day. Another round of restoration occurred in 2020 on the exterior and grounds providing recreation opportunities for yet another generation. The mansion is open for weekend and holiday tours May through October.
For more information go to this county website: https://www.washoecounty.gov/parks/parks_and_trails/park_directory/mt_rose_district/bowers_mansion_regional_park.php
