a fire spread at the 800-foot level in the Yellow Jacket Mine. Firefighters entered the mine but the smoke and flames pushed them back. As the fire burned, wood timbers collapsed and poisonous gases expanded into the adjacent Kentucky and Crown Point mines. The fires persisted and mine sections were sealed off and remained hot for several years. At least 35 miners died, and some bodies were never retrieved. The Yellow Jacket Mine fire was the worst mining accident in Nevada history up to that time. Later years The total production of ore extracted and milled in the Comstock District, 1860 to June 30, 1880, was 6,971,641 tons, 640 pounds. Peak production from the Comstock occurred in 1877, with the mines producing over $14,000,000 of gold and $21,000,000 of silver that year (about $ and $ today). The greatest depth reached, in 1884, was by the Ophir-Mexican winze at below the surface. Production from Comstock mines from 1859 to 1878 was $320,000,000, with a net profit of $55,000,000, most of that in the 1870s. The bonanza period was at an end by 1880. Deep underground exploration and mining continued sporadically until 1918, when the last of the pumps was shut off, allowing the mines to flood up to the Sutro Tunnel Level (approximately 1,640 feet beneath Virginia City). All mining from 1920 to present has taken place above the Sutro Tunnel level. Meanwhile, through the early years of the 20th century, ownership of mineral rights along the length of the Comstock Lode was consolidated primarily into a handful of companies, most of them privately held. This structure was a departure from that of the late 1800s, when upwards of 400 mining companies operated on the Comstock, with at least 150 of them publicly traded. Comstock's silver mines were criticized for the way that their share prices were manipulated on the San Francisco stock exchanges, and for the way that insiders skimmed the profits to the detriment of the common shareholders. Insiders used rumors or assessments to drive share prices down, buy up the cheap shares, then spread rumors of large new silver finds to increase prices once more so that they could sell their shares at a profit. Mining company managers also issued contracts to themselves for timber, and water. Ore from the mines was commonly processed by ore mills owned by the company insiders, who were accused of keeping