Alva Gould - Discoverer of the Famous Gould and Curry Mine on the Comstock - Overland passengers who buy fruit of a decrepit old man at the depot, who can be seen any morning with his basket on the arrival of trains from either east or west, do not know that they are contributing to the support of Alva Gould, the original locator of the world-famed Gould & Curry mine on the Comstock. Mr. Gould is a familiar figure in Reno. The Gazette publishes to-day a very good cut of the old gentleman made by the Gazette’s special artist from a photograph by Swisher & Bender. A biographical history of the old man will prove interesting reading to many of the Gazette’s readers.

Mr. Gould was born on June 15, 1815, and crossed the plains in 1849, arriving in Sacramento in 1850. He followed placer mining in California until 1858, when he came to the then Territory of Nevada. He discovered silver on the ground of the celebrated Gould & Curry Mine January 6, 1859, and on January 22nd located the same. Curry was a mine jumper or "floater" as he was then termed and jumped the location Mr. Gould had made, and forced Mr. Gould to take him in as a partner. Mr. Gould made arrangements with a party of prospectors to develop the mine and when they found how rich it was, managed to swindle him out of it and he never got a dollar. Curry sold his interest to Henry Meredith, who was afterwards killed in a battle with the Indians at Pyramid Lake in April 1860. George Hearst, who confided in General Orlando Evans, the secret that a Dutchman by the name of Charles Dinnis had traced up the float to a high ledge on the Gould & Curry location, made a proposition to General Evans that he take a piece of the rock and go to Nevada City and interest Henry Meredith, John H. Bostwick and Sam Curtis in the enterprise for which the four men, Meredith, Curtis, Bostwick and Evans here to pay $4,000 for 200 feet.

General Evans started for Nevada City by the Carson Canyon Route in the early part of December, 1850, and about the time he left for Nevada , Meredith left by the Henness Pass Route for the Comstock, and came near perishing in a snow storm. The General went to Nevada and had an assay made which showed over $9,000 Per ton. The General immediately made his proposition to Bostwick and Curtis, who agreed to it, and they sent $4,000 right back to George Hearst. The following March, Evans, Curtis and Bostwick met Hearst and Meredith in Virginia City, and were informed by Hearst that it would take $8,000 instead of $4,000 to make the purchase. They put up the additional $4,000, and in the meantime, Hearst had formed a co-partnership with Bill Lent and others of San Francisco , and they in turn, succeeded in freezing Evans, Curtis and Bostwick out, and Meredith, having been killed by the Indians, was no longer in the way.

General Evans did manage, however, to get $21,000 out of a property that was worth that many millions. Bostwick sold his interest for $1,500, and Curtis got out with a trifle. Hearst and his San Francisco partners got the mine, and soon after bought Len Savage and Charley Chase's interest in the Savage Mine.