Hardrock history: Carson City man, 94, may be oldest living Comstock miner

Carson City's John Zalac turns 94 in two weeks. And although he has a bit of trouble getting around these days, there is nothing feeble about his memory.

Zalac, who could well be the oldest living miner from the Comstock region, surrounds himself with memorabilia. A large collection of historic photos and furniture fills every room and wall of his home, and he has a story for each one.

"I can't walk very good anymore," he said, "but I'm still clicking along."

Zalac lives in the same house he and his wife moved into in Carson City in 1980, but he was born in Toole, Utah. His family moved to the small town of McGill when he was a young boy, where his father worked in the smelter for Nevada Consolidated Copper Company.

The family moved between Toole, McGill and Ruth so many times in a short timespan, however, that Zalac had trouble with his education.

"I flunked the first grade because we moved so much," he said.

In 1925, the family moved to Virginia City where his father worked until deep mining shut down. Then it was back to Ruth in 1929; Butte, Mont., for three years; and a short stay in Wisconsin before coming back out West to Virginia City around 1933.

It was there that he finished out his education at the Fourth Ward School.

"We were the last class to graduate from the Fourth Ward School, and all my classmates are gone now," he said.

Zalac followed in his father's footsteps, working in the area's mines.

After deep mining (3,600 feet) was done, shallow mining to 500 feet continued, he said.

He worked in the Keystone, the Dayton, the New York shaft in lower Gold Hill and the Yellow Jacket mines.

"The price of gold made it worthwhile to go back in there reclaiming waste," he said.

But Zalac was drafted in 1942 and sent to boot camp. He was eventually transferred back to Utah and released on furlough to work in the copper mine for several years.

"They were short of miners," he explained.

He then did a military stint in Baltimore, Md., where he was sent to school to learn Russian for counter-intelligence, but he earned enough points to get discharged in 1945.

"I was 42 months on active duty, but most of it was spent on furlough working in mines," he said.

Since his wife and family were still in Virginia City, Zalac returned there where he and a partner operated what is now the Delta Saloon from 1946 to 1958.

Later business ventures included putting in the Sharon House in Virginia City where he ran the bar until 1964 and later purchasing the golf course which once occupied what is now Mills Park, which he ran for eight years.

But mining is something he remembers fondly.

"It's a lot of hard work. I worked three different alternating shifts - grave, swing and day. We had to work hard so the mill could break even. They employed about 50 miners then. I was doing everything from timbering and taking ore out of the chute, to loading cars and taking them out," he said.

"Pushing 1,400 pounds underground wasn't easy. We had to make a lot of trips to meet the quota. You just kept your butt up and your head down and kept going for eight hours," he said. "I spent time shoveling into a chute - a lot of work - and working with miners drilling and blasting, following exploratory work."

He recalls one close call while he and his brother were putting up a timber in one mine.

"The ground started to creak and pop, and we never got that timber in because the tunnel started to cave in. My brother jumped in the slide 30 feet to the tunnel below and I was pretty close on his heels. That night, that whole level caved in," he said.

"You were always repairing and changing timbers," he said. "It was hard work. Those timbers were pretty heavy, and you had to move them."

Zalac also recalls working on the flume from Marlette Lake to Virginia City for six weeks one summer.

"That was the greatest engineering feat of its time. There were 10 of us working there and it was my job to fill the cracks and knot holes from a boiler full of pitch. There used to be a tunnel between Marlette and Hobart, and the miners from Virginia City used to keep that tunnel open too," he said.

"I never was hurt, and I kind of missed mining when I was out," Zalac said.

During his years out West, Zalac met a lot of now-famous individuals like Jake Lawlor, for whom the Lawlor Events Center was named, and Hugh Gallagher, after whom a Virginia City elementary school was named.

But he also met people he'll never forget during his years at the Delta.

"We met a lot of nice people there - groups from the opera house and lots of stars and theater folks. They shot a lot of scenes in the Delta for productions like 'Wide Wide World' and the Charles Collingwood TV show."

Zalac also became well-acquainted with syndicated columnist Lucius Beebe, who came to Nevada to establish residence and avoid inheritance taxes.

"He had his own railroad car named the Virginia City, and he'd come over in the evenings for cocktails," Zalac said.

Although Zalac lost his wife 15 years ago, his four daughters live close by and he sees them frequently.

Bob Mazeres of Petaluma, Calif., Zalac's nephew by marriage, summed up his admiration of the man who has lived nearly 94 years.

"Frankly, it pains me to think that this walking collection of historical facts will disappear one day soon, and none of it will ever be recorded anywhere," Mazeres said.