Description
This lecture is currently full. Click here to be added to the waiting list.
In his presentation, author Gregory Crouch will discuss local legend John Mackay, who got his start in the United States as a destitute Irish immigrant brought here when he was 9 years old. Mackay grew up in New York City’s Five Points slum (“The Gangs of New York neighborhood), came of age amid the violent mayhem of the California Gold Rush, and rose to the full power of his manhood in the deep, rich, and outrageously dangerous mines of the Comstock Lode beneath Virginia City, Nevada, the ultimate Old West boomtowns.
On the Comstock, Mackay worked his way up from nothing, battling the pernicious “Bank Ring” of California capitalists who’d monopolized the lode, and struck the legendary Big Bonanza, a stupendously valuable body of gold and silver ore buried 1,500 feet below the center of the town.
The extraordinary wealth Mackay extracted from the Comstock Lode drove wild stock market frenzies in San Francisco and launched his wife, whose beginnings were every bit as humble as his own, on a meteoric social career among the finest European aristocrats. When John Mackay died in 1902—with a personal fortune equivalent to about $50 billion modern dollars—front page obituaries all over Europe and the United States hailed him as one of the most admired Americans of the age.
Gregory Crouch is a writer who specializes in adventurous and historic subjects.
He is the author of the Comstock epic, The Bonanza King: John Mackay and the Battle Over the Greatest Riches in the American West, the World War II flying adventure China’s Wings: War, Romance, Intrigue, and Adventure in the Middle Kingdom During the Golden Age of Flight, and the mountaineering memoir Enduring Patagonia.
Crouch has published stories in The Atlantic, National Geographic, National Geographic Adventure, Smithsonian, Time, American History, World War II, Islands, Outside, Popular Mechanics, Backpacker, Rock & Ice, Ascent, Alpinist, Climbing and many other national and regional media. Also regular book critic, Crouch has reviewed more than 25 books for the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times Book Review, and NPR Books, among others.
Cost: $8 for adults; free for museum members and ages 17 and under.
Seating is limited. Use the Register Here button to the right to reserve seat.
Details
01/25/2019 13:00:0001/25/2019 14:00:00America/Los_AngelesEncore Presentation Frances Humphrey Lecture Series: Bonanza King by Gregory CrouchThis lecture is currently full. Click here to be added to the waiting list. In his presentation, author Gregory Crouch will discuss local legend John Mackay, who got his start in the United States as a destitute Irish immigrant brought here when he was 9 years old. Mackay grew up in New York City’s Five Points slum (“The Gangs of New York neighborhood), came of age amid the violent mayhem of the California Gold Rush, and rose to the full power of his manhood in the deep, rich, and outrageously dangerous mines of the Comstock Lode beneath Virginia City, Nevada, the ultimate Old West boomtowns. On the Comstock, Mackay worked his way up from nothing, battling the pernicious “Bank Ring” of California capitalists who’d monopolized the lode, and struck the legendary Big Bonanza, a stupendously valuable body of gold and silver ore buried 1,500 feet below the center of the town. The extraordinary wealth Mackay extracted from the Comstock Lode drove wild stock market frenzies in San Francisco and launched his wife, whose beginnings were every bit as humble as his own, on a meteoric social career among the finest European aristocrats. When John Mackay died in 1902—with a personal fortune equivalent to about $50 billion modern dollars—front page obituaries all over Europe and the United States hailed him as one of the most admired Americans of the age. Gregory Crouch is a writer who specializes in adventurous and historic subjects. He is the author of the Comstock epic, The Bonanza King: John Mackay and the Battle Over the Greatest Riches in the American West, the World War II flying adventure China’s Wings: War, Romance, Intrigue, and Adventure in the Middle Kingdom During the Golden Age of Flight, and the mountaineering memoir Enduring Patagonia. Crouch has published stories in The Atlantic, National Geographic, National Geographic Adventure, Smithsonian, Time, American History, World War II, Islands, Outside, Popular Mechanics, Backpacker, Rock & Ice, Ascent, Alpinist, Climbing and many other national and regional media. Also regular book critic, Crouch has reviewed more than 25 books for the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times Book Review, and NPR Books, among others. Cost: $8 for adults; free for museum members and ages 17 and under. Seating is limited. Use the Register Here button to the right to reserve seat.Reno, NV| Event Starts | Event Ends |
| 01/25/2019 | 01/25/2019 |
| All Day Event | |
| 1:00pm | 2:00pm |
