BIG LIFE Connections: Reception & Sierra Speaker Series

Please join us along with the Sierra State Parks Foundation for our May BIG LIFE Connections event! There will be a reception in the Museum with refreshments, socializing, and access to the museum. Then the Sierra State Parks Foundation's Speaker Series will host a presentation about the Grosh Brothers, who discovered the Comstock Lode but perished and then history was falsely retold without them (see more information about this fascinating tale and the history expedition trek to re-create it below). 

The cost for this event is a $5 suggested donation to the Sierra State Parks Foundation. Please register.

History Got it Wrong: True Discoverer of Comstock Lode and the Grosh Brothers

Imagine the discovery of a new element that increases the life of batteries 100 times. Then before documenting the findings, you and your partner encounter fate, ending your life and vanquishing your dreams prematurely. Meanwhile, the person you entrusted with your information claims it as their own, and their name becomes eternally associated with this key moment in history. Finally, imagine all that knew the truth were silenced by those who would profit from your lifelong effort and conspired with the media to bury the truth and create a narrative that what you did was fiction, a myth.

This is the story of two brothers, Ethan Allen and Hosea Ballou Grosh, who made a momentous discovery, encountered fate, and were dismissed as a fairytale, and our endeavor to discover new facts, correct the historical narrative, and honor the two brothers. On February 27th, 2023, the History Expedition Team (Bob Crowley, Tim Twietmeyer, Jennifer Hemmen, Elke Reimer, and Hal Hall) began a five-day expedition, retracing the fateful last steps of E. Allen Grosh from Silver City, NV to Last Chance, CA, 100 miles away. They will reunite the brothers through their trek and perhaps reveal along the way the rightful claim of the Grosh Brothers to the discovery of the world's largest concentration of silver.