Caution! Taxes! Taxes! State And County Taxes For The Year 1876 Are Now Due - Broadside.

Publication: Brown & Mahanny, Printers, Corner of C and Taylor Streets, 1876, Virginia City, Nevada

Single-sided letterpress broadside. 8" x 6". Printed in multiple typefaces. Issued during the rebuilding of Virginia City, Nevada, following the devastating Great Fire of October 26, 1875, the broadside advises property owners that state and county taxes for the year 1876 are "NOW DUE" and payable to C. B. Smith, Storey County Treasurer and ex-Officio Tax Receiver, at his office on B Street, opposite Mooney's Stables. J. H. Douglass is identified as Deputy. Of particular note, printers Brown & Mahanny had themselves suffered losses in the Great Fire, saving only a small portion of their printing material before quickly reestablishing their Virginia City printing office.

At its height, Virginia City was one of the richest and most important communities in the American West, its extraordinary prosperity fueled by the immense wealth of the Comstock Lode. On October 26, 1875, the Great Fire devastated Virginia City, destroying much of its business district, including the Storey County Courthouse and numerous commercial and public buildings. But while buildings had been destroyed, the source of Virginia City's wealth had not. The fire struck during the height of the Comstock bonanza, and the mines continued to produce enormous quantities of silver and gold. Both the money and the incentive to rebuild were readily available. Reconstruction began almost immediately, and within a year much of the city had been rebuilt.

The present broadside documents another important part of that recovery. Within a short period after the fire, Storey County was again conducting the ordinary business of government, including the collection of state and county taxes. It is tangible evidence not of the destruction of Virginia City, but of how quickly the community returned to business after it.

Broadside is evenly tanned with minimal chipping to top edge, and with two small chips to extremities, else a very good copy, suitable for framing.