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Galena was always lively, with dances,
parades and all manner of political rallies.
The camp voted overwhelmingly for
Abraham Lincoln in the 1864 presidential
election. The Stadtmuller Store, and of
course the saloons, were popular places
to get the latest civil war news from nearby
Washoe City, the nearest post office.

In the long run, the Galena Hill mine
ultimately proved to be uneconomical.
The smelter could handle only small
amounts of higher-grade ore and the
fuel costs to smelt the mine’s ores
became prohibitively expensive. The
mill and smelter continued to operate
nevertheless, processing the richer ores
from Virginia City. But the severe winter of
1864-65 ended the freighting of ores from
the Comstock and the mill was forced to
close.
Fire, that bane of 19 Century towns,
th
visited Galena in 1865, nearly destroying
the entire town. The following year,
Andrew relocated to Crystal Peak, near
today’s Verdi. The fate of his brother
Roderick has since been lost to history.
Galena limped along until another fire in
1867 finished the town for good.

Andrew next moved to Reno and opened
an office on South Virginia Street. About
De Groot’s 1860 map of “The Washoe Mines”
that same time he was elected Washoe
County Surveyor. Hatch took on private
work, when he was not working for the
G.L.O. or the County. He performed
hundreds of Public Land surveys,
beginning in the 1860’s, commencing his
well-known association with J. H. Eaton,
J. C. Smyles, D. H. Barker and others.

The experience as Justice of the Peace
was apparently positive enough to
encourage Hatch to run for public office.
Consequently, in 1870 he was elected to
the State Assembly, representing Roop
and Washoe Counties. He was then
appointed Chairman of the Committee on
Public Lands.

In 1875, the state legislature authorized
the board of county commissioners to
issue bonds “for the purpose of, erecting
or buying suitable buildings for a county
hospital and establishing a poor farm for
the indigent sick and common paupers of
Washoe County.” Hatch sold the county
forty acres south of the river, with water
rights, for the site.
A cartoon of a dance at Galena
From time to time, Hatch was a part-time
boarder at the Lake House, at the time Reno’s finest hotel. Myron Lake built it next to his toll bridge
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