Visitreno

evandors · Joined: 23 Dec 2005 Posts: 36

Visiting Reno in early August. Have not been in 3-4 years. Used to LOVE Reno but have moved on to Vegas with the downturn of Reno. But we are bringing our kids who are in early 20s. Both are broke college students so will be spending time sight seeing. Thinking about going to Virginia City. Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated. I have no idea what it is all about

BC Dave · Site Admin Joined: 18 Dec 2005 Posts: 1594

Hi Evandors. I'm no expert on Virginia City but I've been there quite a few times. The town was built around an extremely rich silver strike. In it's heyday it had about 100 saloons on either side of the street.

Many of these old bulidings have been preserved or at least are still standing. Inside you'll find everything from good old saloons, museums and a huge variety of specialty shops. Most of the larger bars have slots but no table games.

I could write more but I might as well leave it to the experts. There have been lots of posts on VisitReno over the years about VC and ,of course, you can find lots more info with Google.

I have always enjoyed the drive up to Virginia City and and afternoon up there can be a enjoyable and historically enlightening.

JD · Joined: 18 Dec 2005 Posts: 956

Virginia City is absolutely one of MY favorite spots. And it helps if you have some idea of the history BEFORE you get there. And there's no shortage of literature (true and highly embellished).

The town is the origin of the phrase, "Looking for gold in a silver mine". The California 49's washed back to the East after the Gold Country placer mines played out and they found small quantities of gold near Dayton Nevada. Suffice it to say the early miners did not recognize the blue clay was in fact 50% silver until 1859. By the 1870's, probably 1/3 of the richest men in the country lived in or gained their fortune in VC. Today, it is one of the most complete of the old boom towns. But it was in decline when the TV series "BONANZA" was a hit in the early 60's.

Today, it's a mix of real history and tourist trap. Both can be fun.
Saloons, museums, crap from China, aging hippies, live music and 1960's music history and a dash of the old west... real and imagined.

MY favorite book is the novel, "Saga of the Comstock Lode" by George Lyman. Others point out this is where MArk Twain first honed his writing skills as a newspaper reporter.

But if you can't convince the kids to read an entire BOOK, try these websites:

Visitor's Bureau : http://www.visitvirginiacitynv.com/
The Way it Was Museum (good place to start): http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g46010-d561140-Reviews-The_Way_It_Was_Museum-Virginia_City_Nevada.html
Book store in VC: http://www.marktwainbooks.com/

And John has a big section on the Visit Reno MAIN SITE: http://visitreno.com/vcity/index.php

Just google Virginia City, NEVADA.... lots of pics, reviews,