Nevada Appeal at 150: Oct. 28, 1969: Million dollar land deal signed

A contract has been signed for the purchase of 777 acres of land east of Carson City in the history-steeped area of Brunswick Canyon.

And if plans by new owners develop as now visualized, mining activity in the region — booming 109 years ago — may be revived.

Principals in the big land sale are Brunswick Enterprises, headed by David Lantry of Carson City, which has sold the property to the Brunswick Development Corporation, headed by partners L.O. Montgomery of McKittrick, Calif., and John Martin of Taft, Calif. Sale price is reported to be $1 million.

The land involves both sides of the Carson River from just east of the Darling ranch to a point approximately four miles downstream. Carson City is only two miles away.

Much of this area was a beehive of activity in the 1860s when a long array of stamp mills and reducing plants processed ores from the fabulously rich Comstock Lode. And it was in this vicinity that the famed Virginia and Truckee Railway operated after its completion in the early 1870s. A roadbed still exists for motorists to drive through the picturesque canyon onto U.S. Highway 50 near Mound House. After the decline of Virginia City mines, activity in this area dropped to virtually nothing.

Montgomery and his firm has under construction a $250,000 aggregate plant capable of processing at least 1,000 yards of material in an eight-hour shift.

“We will bend over backwards to cooperate with the people of this area in the orderly development of our newly acquired property,” Montgomery said.

This continues the Appeal’s review of news stories and headlines during its Sesquicentennial year.