Virginia City, NV

An American Original

In an age of virtual reality, Virginia City, Nev., is a refreshing anomaly. While many top tourist destinations boast faithful re-creations of the streets of Paris, the pyramids of Egypt, and the Matterhorn in Switzerland, Virginia City prides itself on being the real McCoy.

Hugging steep canyon walls at the base of Mount Davidson, a 47-mile drive southeast of Reno, the town’s rambling wooden sidewalks and original 19th-century buildings remain much the same as during its heyday in the 1800s.

“This isn’t a theme park—this is the real thing,” explains Joe Curtis, historian and owner of Mark Twain’s Bookstore. “These are the same sidewalks Mark Twain walked on.” Twain’s celebrated career included a stint in Virginia City, from 1862-64, when the soon-to-be-famous author worked on the staff of the town newspaper, the Territorial Enterprise.

Virginia City’s glory days rocketed in 1859, when gold was discovered in nearby Six-Mile Canyon. Fortune seekers swarmed in, creating a tent-and-dugout settlement, which was named Old Virginny Town by miner James Finney in honor of his home state of Virginia. Digging gold out of the ground proved difficult, however, because a mysterious blue-gray mud clung to miners’ picks and shovels, hampering their efforts. But the sludge had a silver lining. It was assayed and found to contain $3,000 per ton in silver (compared to $875 per ton in gold), and the real bonanza began. Over the next 25 years the $400 million (about $4 billion in today’s dollars) yielded by the Comstock Lode turned Old Virginny Town into Virginia City, the most important town between Denver and San Francisco.

In its peak years, “the Queen of the Comstock” was home to 30,000 residents. “The Richest Place on Earth,” as it was also dubbed, boasted opera houses, fancy restaurants, and high-class hotels, along with its own water, gas, and electrical systems. The riches squeezed out of the mines helped finance the transcontinental railroad, the Civil War, and the building of San Francisco.

But by 1920 the mines had been exhausted, and the boisterous mining city’s population began to shrink. In 1950 only about 500 hardy citizens remained when Lucius Beebe, a New York writer, arrived to breathe new life into the old Territorial Enterprise, which had thrived in Twain’s day. The long-running TV program Bonanza was also filmed near Virginia City, further fueling a tourist boom.

Because of the town’s authenticity, many visitors say they are able to experience its history on a sensory level.

“I can really feel the presence of the people and animals who’ve walked these streets before,” says Glen Child, a tourist from Susanville, Calif.

Curtis also encourages visitors to try to feel the history. “I tell people to find the most important historical building in town, put their hands on it, close their eyes, and then imagine what life was like in the 1870s,” he says.

Although everything in Virginia City oozes the past, some sites are must-sees. A visitor can “learn lessons” at the Fourth Ward School, constructed in 1876 with the then-latest architectural features: modern heating and piped water. One also can experience life underground in the Chollar Mine—a showcase of early mining equipment and methods.

The high life of a French chateau is on exhibition at The Castle, a fortress packed with original 1860s furnishings imported from Europe, and the Virginia & Truckee Railroad, still pulled by a steam locomotive and once the richest, most famous short-line railroad in the world, is available for rides. Also not to be missed are The Way It Was Museum, for a premier lesson in mining history; St. Mary’s in the Mountains Catholic Church, for a glimpse into early Nevada worship; and Piper’s Opera House, for a celebration of arts and culture.

Designated “America’s Largest Historical Monument,” Virginia City today is home to about 1,000 residents and, as one of the most significant historical sites in the West, radiates the excitement of the Gold Rush Days once again.

Jeanne Lauf Walpole is a freelance writer from Reno, Nev.

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