|
Virginia City, NevadaSep 10, 2011
|
|
Welcome
Info
View
This is part 2 of our visit to Virginia City, Nevada. See Camel & Ostrich Races for part one. ;-) We have wanted to visit this city since hearing about it on the NBC television western, Bonanza. Bonanza ran from 1959 to 1979 with weekly adventures of the Cartwright family. We found it to be one of the most interesting places we have visited.
VIRGINIA CITY, NEVADA -- is the most famous boom town in the world because of the Comstock Lode: a vein of gold and silver ore less than two miles long and "incomparably the richest strike of precious metals in mining history." In its boom days the mines yielded over $400 million, virtually built San Francisco, made Nevada a state, helped fund the Union side of the Civil War and created a score of millionaires.
Virginia City could be considered the "birthplace" of Mark Twain, as it was here in February 1863 that writer Samuel Clemens, then a reporter on the local Territorial Enterprise newspaper, first used his famous pen name. Virginia City historical documents state that Clemens was mugged on November 10, 1863, as he walked over the hill from the south while returning to Virginia City. The muggers relieved Clemens of his watch and his money. The robbery turns out to have been a practical joke played on Clemens by his friends, to give him material to write about. He did not appreciate the joke, but did retrieve his belongings - especially his gold watch (worth $300) and which had great sentimental value as well. Clemens mentioned the incident in his book Roughing It, (published Feb 1872) – and was still sore about it.
The city is so full of history, it would take weeks to really see it all. The drive on the way was already incredible. The drive on the way back was even more exciting. We kept seeing signs flashing warnings about wild horses. They were everywhere, we saw over 30 of them in fields on the way back. It was a great day and we had a ton of fun. I hope you enjoy the pictures, we will be going back for more later.