There were military companies, fire companies, brass bands, banks, hotels, theatres, "hurdy-gurdy houses," wide-open gambling palaces, political pow wows, civic processions, street fights, murders, inquests, riots, a whisky mill every fifteen steps . . . a dozen breweries and half a dozen jails and stationhouses in full operation, and some talk of building a church.

Virginia City is a quirky town with a rich history of the mining industry in the 1800’s. During the mining boom, the town had so many millionaires they had their own club in one of the saloons. We toured everything in town on trolley, train and foot. We went to churches, mines, mansions, schoolhouses, opera houses, antique stores, Mark Twain’s office at the Territorial Enterprise, and ended the day with a “twain” of beers or two beers as someone told us at Mark Twain’s favorite saloon.  The saloon is also famous for their clientele…the multi-year winners of the Nevada Day Beard Contest! We saw the winners of the reddest beard, grayest beard, longest beard and fullest beard. They were cool enough to take a picture with us!

We also heard so many fascinating stories about the people of Virginia City. Everywhere we went someone had a story.  Our favorite story was about two feuding miners. One miner bought property to build his dream house and the other miner, to make his enemy miserable, built his house directly next door. His reason was to take away the cool summer breeze and the warm sun in the winter.

Love thy neighbor

Mark Twain's desk

I have more pictures to post but everytime the wind blows the internet goes out, so this process has become a little tedious! Also the strong wind up here has made all the buildings in Virginia City lean right.