Gold Hill Miners Union

The Gold Hill Miners Union, established in 1866, represented silver miners of Gold Hill, Story County, Nevada, where the Comstock Lode was discovered. The Union dissolved in the 1920s.

The Gold Hill Miners Union, representing miners of the town of Gold Hill, Storey County, Nevada, was established in December 1866. Prospectors had discovered gold in the area in 1858, but it was not until 1859 that silver was detected in the ore. Individual mining soon gave way to large scale corporate organizations designed to extract the silver deposits from what became known as the Comstock Lode. By 1860, Gold Hill and Silver City, both with populations over 500, and Virginia City, with a population near 2000, were booming mine towns. Miners first attempted to organize in 1864, but their "League" failed and stable unions were not established until the winter of 1866-67.

The Gold Hill Miners Union consisted of miners working in the Alpha, Alta, Belcher, Crown Point, Kentuck, Overman Tunnel, Vivian, Woodville, and Yellow Jacket mines. A president, vice-president, warden, conductor, recording secretary, and financial secretary were elected every six months, although the financial secretary often served many successive terms. Trustees, whose primary responsibility seems to have been the upkeep of the union's hall, were elected on a less regular basis. Two standing committees carried out the union's business. The Financial Committee maintained business records while the Visiting Committee monitored the health of members and made recommendations for benefit payments. In 1885 the financial secretary was made permanent chairman of the Visiting Committee. A Vigilant Committee was established in 1885 to report on non-union miners and to look into the "standing" of members (that is, whether dues had been paid). Around 1907 the failure to obtain quorum at weekly meetings resulted in the formation of the Attendance Committee. Other special committees were organized to arrange social events and celebrations.

The Gold Hill Miners Union was closely connected with Virginia City and Silver City unions. The Virginia City and Gold Hill unions established a butcher shop in Virginia City, which they sold in 1923. The Gold Hill Union became affiliated with the Western Federation of Miners sometime before 1907 and followed the Federation into the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers.

In 1887 the Gold Hill Miners Union had 434 members, a number which fell to 77 members in good standing in 1907; by December 1913 the membership consisted of 34 members in good standing and 14 in arrears. According to reports in this collection, in 1922 there were only 16 members in the union, which was in debt $92.20. Although the records show the union met once in 1925, the previous meeting had been three years earlier; therefore 1922 appears to mark the effective end of the Gold Hill Miners Union.