Day 18 - There's Gold in Them Hills! Virginia City, NV

Hi All!

Today, we managed to get a minor history lesson by visiting infamous Virginia City.  Here are the quick highlights:

A 45 minute scenic, winding hilly drive south of Reno, Virginia City lies at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  The switchbacks and long long desert views are incredible.  We had to continuously equalize or "pop" our ears as the elevation changes frequently (up and down over 2000').

Reno is in the background.  This is the start of our winding, climbing, turning, crazy drive.

Today, Virginia City is maintained in its original condition, as it was in the boom days of the 1870s, and today has a population of just 1200 people (over 30,000 people lived in Virginia City in 1870s).  

For those who have traveled to Oatman, on Route 66 (Mum and Rick, in particular), the town is very similar with original "Western" buildings, vehicles, mines, and people in period costumes walking the street.  It seems that they also do street performances (gun fights and the like) in the summer months.

Gold was found at the head of Six-Mile Canyon in 1859 and to date, over $1 Billion in Gold has been mined from this small area.  

Bonanza, the TV show, popularized the term used by miners - which means a large vein or deposit of ore - and referred to the large find in Virginia City.

We expected Ben Cartwright to walk out of this saloon and take us directly to the Ponderosa Ranch.....but he didn't show.  Don't pretend, I KNOW that you KNOW what I'm talking about :) 

Mark Twain was "born" in Virginia City as this was where he first used his famous pen name (actual name was Samuel Clemens).  He was a newspaper reporter at the time.

And, lastly, en-route to Virginia City are numerous signs saying: See the Famous Suicide Table at the Delta Saloon.

Suicide Table - Apparently 3 different owners of the Saloon (and therefore the table) lost their life's savings and fortunes while playing on this table.  All three owners, following their large losses, committed suicide afterwards.  Yikes!

 

Check out the well worn green felt cover (mostly white in the picture) on the table - lots of elbows have rested on here while waiting for the right turn of the cards.

They say the plexiglass isn't on the table to preserve it - but rather, it's on the table to protect you from wanting to play it (and therefore suffering its curse).

Slot Machines - needless to say, Steve has been sticking to the slot machines for his games of chance.  While I was typing out this blog post, he went to the gas station to buy fuel for his motorcycle.  While he was inside paying for his gas, he decided to put $1 into the slot machine.  Double DIAMOND,  Double DIAMOND,   CHERRY !!!  He won 340 nickels - $17 (the second highest possible on that machine).  Excellent!

Bye for now,

xo S&S