Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal Bob Nylen of the Nevada State Museum talks about the historic gold nugget, found in 1850, now on display at the museum.
The Orr nugget, a thumb-size gold nugget found in Gold Canyon near present-day Dayton on June 1, 1850, by Mormon pioneer John Orr, led to Nevada's first gold rush and the eventual discovery of silver on the Comstock.
One hundred and fifty-four years later, the nugget is on permanent display for the first time in the history gallery of the State Museum.
Orr was on his way to California when his wagon train stopped in the Carson Valley to wait for the snow to clear from the Sierra passes. Orr and several others were prospecting in a creek when Orr, whose only tool was a knife, noticed a slab of slate barely covered by the water.
"Idly, he examined it and noticing a small crevice near the edge, drove the butcher knife into it, breaking out a piece," Elliot Lord wrote in his 1883 book "Comstock Mining and Miners." "The water running over it rushed out the underlying dirt. And, in few seconds, Orr discovered a gold nugget which the rock had covered. It was quickly removed and afterwards found to weigh 8.25. Prospecting continued, and though gold dust was found in several places throughout the canyon, Orr's was the only nugget found."
News of the discovery of Orr and others prompted Nevada's first gold rush as parties of California miners traveled eastbound over the Sierra Nevada to the area Orr named Gold Canyon. The canyon supported 100 to 180 miners until the Comstock was discovered in 1859.
Orr settled north of San Francisco and became a stagecoach driver. After his death in 1891, the nugget was passed down as a family heirloom. It was donated to the Nevada State Museum in 1969 by the discoverer's great-nephew, Lt. Col. William D. Orr and his wife, Wanda.
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