I'm not surprised about the affluence that Black settlers and miners may have had in Reno. My view is that the miner culture of that era was one of a cosmopolitan, international culture. When the California Gold Rush played out and people of African descent felt California politics were against them, they left California for Nevada, Canada, and Alaska or wherever the next strike was heralded. Not only were they affluent but according to William Loren Katz, author of "Black Women Of The Old West," made great strides towards education in Nevada. The difficulty was in a Black westerners ability to exercise their affluence under state or federal race laws.
What does interest me is that a Black Saloon owner from Yankee Boston had bottles of Southern Tabasco hot sauce in his place. That suggest that Black southerners and northerners shared their diverse cultures in Old West places like Reno.
I'm happy to know researchers valued the find.