Virginia City
|
|
Virginia City
|
 Special Attractions Calendar of Events Overnight Accommodations Restaurants
Some visitors are disappointed, repelled
by the commercial exploitation rampant in the historic old city. The
advertising signs that bristle above the old board sidewalks and line the
road into town are given credit
for creating a Coney Island atmosphere in Virginia City.But here's what a visiting journalist
wrote in 1863: "One of the most characteristic features about Virginia
City is the inordinate passion of the inhabitants for advertising. Not only
are the columns of the papers filled with every species of advertisement,
but the streets and hillsides are pasted all over with flaming bills"
So maybe the Coney Island effect is authentic. And perhaps it's not the
commercialism itself that bothers people, but that this inauthentic
commercialism doesn't satisfy. They've come for, what?, oysters and
champagne?, and found hot dogs and beer instead.
Maybe the real problem is that the
local businesses and their customers have no direct knowledge of the
extraordinary history the Comstock Lode represents. it's all a little
unfamiliar now, and degraded by fleeting images vaguely remembered from
television.
When Margaret Marks retires at last
from the Crystal Bar there will no longer be anyone still in business on C
Street who can remember Virginia City when the mines were working and the
miners up from their labors underground, crowded into the downstairs bar at
the Frederick House for an after-shifter made by the Chinese bartender. A
Chun Kee liner, it was called in his honor, and it cost a dime. Now ten
dollars won't buy a Chun Kee liner in Virginia City because nobody knows
how to make one. Worse, nobody knows enough to order one. that's one
miniscule example of the way authentic detail gets lost, and how the
experience of visiting Virginia City is watered down to Budweisers and hot
dogs.Nevertheless, Virginia City still holds a special place in the heart and the history of the American West, and something of its antic history comes
alive for you when you visit. there is a great deal worth spending time
with here, including many of the businesses on C Street. "Entering the
main street," a journalist wrote in 1863, "the saloons along
the board sidewalks are glittering with their gaudy bars and fancy glasses,
and many-colored liquors, and thirsty men are swilling burning poison:
organ grinders are grinding their organs and torturing their consumptive
monkeys; hurdy-gurdy girls are singing bacchanalian songs in bacchanalian
dens. All is life, excitement, avarice, lust, devilry, and
enterprise."Or just like a modern day Sunday in August (except for the hurdy-gurdy
girls and the monkeys). Today's C Street is still lined with thriving
saloons - the Delta, which first opened its doors in 1863, the lively
Bucket of Blood across the street, the Union Brewery where the beer is made
downstairs, the Mark Twain, honoring our favorite son.Museums abound, and even though they are of uneven quality, there is
something of interest in each of them. The Fourth Ward School at Virginia
city's south end is a wonderful Victorian schoolhouse-turned-museum. The
signatures of the Class of 1936 - the last to graduate - still decorate the
blackboard upstairs. The Way It Was Museum on the north side of town is
devoted to the underground workings and the men and machinery that dug
them. And the Gambling Museum a few steps from the Delta Saloon is an exceptional collection of the tools used to separate a miner from his money.You can tour the mines underground at the Chollar Mine, on South F Street
near its junction with the Truck Route and at the Best & Belcher,
accessible, astonishingly enough, through a back room at the Ponderosa Saloon at the corner of C and Taylor Streets.You can't walk ten steps without finding another snack to try, from
fudge to ice cream to cherry cobbler. For something more substantial look
for Solid Muldoon, a cafe slowly becoming a bistro, the Sawdust Corner
with its extensive lunch menu, or Julia Bulette with its million dollar
view.It's too bad so much is centered on "C" Street, though, if
only because the steepness of the mountainside streets discourages people
from exploring further, and much of Virginia city's character does not
emerge from a single view. Many of the Victorian homes on the hill above
town, dating back to the "70's and 80's", have been restored and
stand in splendid fashion once again. "B" Street, next above
"C", is certainly worth a stroll.The Storey County Court House is a distinguished example of western Victorian public-building architecture, and visitors are encouraged to view the building which still houses the creaky machinery of county government. This building, like most of those now standing in Virginia City, was constructed after the great fire of 1875. It is distinguished not only by its impressive dimensions and spacious elegance, but by the statue of justice above the main entrance gazing intently and without blindfold at her scales. Chief among the attractions along this promenade is Piper's Opera House,
once the leading theater on the lode. The opulent International Hotel stood
across the street from it (until it burned in 1914), making "B"
and Union the toniest corner on the Comstock during the glory years.
Internationally famous actors, singers, musicians, and troupes played
Piper's, and one of its impressarios was the young David Belasco. Next to
Piper's stands a row of often-photographed buildings, including the Knights
of Pythias Hall (still used by an active aerie of Eagles) and the Miner's
Union Hall (nowadays occasionally serving as a theater for melodrama or as a dance hall). The Comstock House restaurant occupies an upstairs location here. Continue south with a visit to Nevada's most idiosyncratic inconvenience store, Uncle Patrick's Way Station, on your way to The Castle, a magnificent mansion house with its original nabob furnishings intact, from
French lace curtains to silver doorknobs, just as they were in the glory
days.Below "C" Street are attractions just as compelling. St.
Mary's in the Mountains on E Street, and St. Paul's Episcopal Church on F are
both open to worshippers and casual visitors alike during seasons of good
weather, and services are still conducted on Sundays, as they are in the
old Presbyterian Church on south C Street. St. Mary's, rebuilt by Father
(later Bishop) Patrick Manogue after the great fire of 1875, was restored
in the 1970s by the late Father Paul Mienecke. It is a structure of grace
and eloquence, recognized one of the finest remaining examples of western
Victorian church architecture.The large, rather forbidding brick building visible below the town is
the former St. Mary's Hospital. Operated by an order of nuns until shortly
before the turn of the century, it became the Storey County Hospital until
it finally closed in the middle 1930s. Now, as St. Mary's Art Center, it
houses a year-round caretaker and an active summer arts program.One of Virginia city's greatest attractions is the Virginia &
Truckee Railroad, once the richest (and crookedest) short line in the
world, now in the process of restoration and already operating a regular
passenger schedule between Virginia City and Gold Hill from Memorial Day
through October. Steam locomotives pull excursion cars between the depot
car on F Street, and the Gold Hill depot. about two miles around the hill
and through the tunnel.Below town to the north are Virginia City's nine cemeteries (please don't call them Boot Hill; Boot Hill is in Pioche, or Tombstone, Arizona. These are cemeteries) Here are buried Catholics, Masons, members of the Miner's Union, and other fraternal organizations. They were rescued from abandonment by a team of convicts from the State Prison working under the direction of the pastor at St. Mary In The Mountains.Virginia City's playful spirit erupts in a number of civic celebrations
over the course of the year. Some of these are town parties where local
folks celebrate their great good luck in living on the Comstock Lode, and the
public is invited. you'll find chili cook-offs, parades, cakewalks and
frolics of every description, some scheduled and some spontaneous in this
magnificent old city.
Virginia City
MAY JUNE
JULY
SEPTEMBER
Welcome to Virginia City Overnight Accommodations GOLD HILL HOTEL.
SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN LODGE.
VIRGINIA CITY RV PARK & MARKET. DELTA SALOON & CASINO, SAWDUST CORNER RESTAURANT. Services for Travelers UNCLE PATRICK'S WAY STATION AND GENERAL STORE. VIRGINIA CITY VISITORS BUREAU.
Shopping MARSHALL MINT MUSEUM & GOLD SHOP. WASHOE TURQUOISE COMPANY. BUCKET OF BLOOD SALOON.
FOURTH WARD SCHOOL MUSEUM.
MARK TWAIN BOOKS... and other records of history. PONDEROSA MINE AND SALOON. RED'S OLD FASHIONED CANDIES.
Special Attractions | Calendar of Events Overnight Accommodations | Restaurants |
