Page 57 - 2007 DT 12 Issues

I n T h i s I s s u e

Featured Article
Virginia City.....................................1

Special
In Memoriam...................................2
Departments
News & Notes..................................2
August 2007 Programs & Hikes...........................4
Desk Schedule................................6
Bulletin Board................................8

qualifications for statehood could not
VIRGINIA CITY. . . wild, bawdy, rich, be met. Nevada was getting rich, and
flagrant – Nevada's living monument to the Old West. a few prospectors who had nothing
suddenly became millionaires. Others
by Chuck Kleber ended up with $100,000 or more. The

here are many towns that What the gold rush of 1849 was shabby tent and dugout town that had
evoke visions of the Old West, to California, the fabulous Comstock been known as "Old Virginny," after
Tlike Dodge City, Abilene and Lode strike of 1859 was to Nevada. the name given to James Finney, a
Tombstone, but there is nothing like And in its wake came Virginia City. miner who had made a gold strike,
Nevada's Virginia City, nestled at the At first, gold was found, often ac- now became Virginia City. It soon be-
foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. companied by that "blue stuff" that came the biggest settlement between
It is the largest National His- Denver and San Francisco.
toric District . . . and it's still A race was on to build the
there, much of it just as it was biggest and the best in a town
in 1870. You can still walk that rarely slept. Mansions
those streets, where many of were built, one competing with
the old buildings still stand, the other. The International
to get a feeling of what it was Hotel was six stories high,
like when the Comstock Lode boasting the first elevator in the
was a magic name in a bus- West; entrepreneurs William
tling city of 30,000 people. Sharon and William Ralston
There are barely 1,000 people ‘C’ Street at its peak. built the Virginia and Truckee
there now, many connected with the annoyed miners, but then it turned Railroad in 1869 to haul ore to
tourist trade that annually lures over out to contain silver, assayed at mills along the Carson River and then
a million visitors to this very special over $2,000 a ton. The flood came return with supplies; and share prices
place. This is where Samuel Clemens in—17,000 people in just one year. that had been less than two dollars
took the name "Mark Twain" while It was a tough life for women as well soared to over $1,200 in just over a
writing for the Territorial Enterprise as men: "My husband does the black- year. John W. Mackay was one of the
after a failed attempt as a prospector, smithing and . . . I am to cook for the rags-to-riches millionaires. Too poor
where Julia Bulette became its best- men . . . there are no conveniences at for any other form of transportation, he
known woman of "easy virtue" and all . . . this wears out a woman very walked from San Francisco to Virginia
where the nearest town to the famous fast." The big gold rush in California City, where back-breaking pick and
Cartwright Ranch on the TV series, was running out; now it was Nevada's shovel prospecting brought nothing
"Bonanza," was Virginia City. In a turn. It was the greatest silver strike of until he heard of a lucrative claim that
way, that is the legacy of this unique all time. Gold and silver—no wonder
town; it is loaded with fact and fiction. President Abraham Lincoln wanted
No matter, it is always fascinating. Nevada in the Union, even if the Virginia City, continued on p.6