Vibrant Virginia City

This Nevada ghost town is back from the dead with Silver Rush attractions in a historic mountain setting

* Virginia City is a dame with a past. She's been by turns rich and poor, rowdy and restrained, important and inconsequential. But like the feisty heroine of The Unsinkable Molly Brown, she never quite faded away. And now, primped and repainted by preservationists, Virginia City, Nevada, is ready for her comeback. Take an hour's drive south of Reno and you'll find this venerable mining town is more radiant than ever.

On this bright, windswept morning, the high-desert sunlight paints the boardwalk gold and slants beneath the low wooden balconies of C Street, the town's main drag. Virginia City wakes up slowly, as I discover on a stroll with Nevada state historic preservation officer Ronald M. James.

James explains that Virginia City's gold and silver mines made it one of the most influential cities in the West (see "Silver and sin in old Virginny," at right) from the 1860s to 1880s. "It was an important source of wealth during the Civil War and helped keep the Union solvent," he says, noting that Nevada was awarded its statehood in 1864 in part because President Lincoln needed the region's votes.

Set high in western Nevada's Virginia Range, the town rambles helter-skelter down the steep eastern flank of Mt. Davidson. As we look out over Virginia City's compact downtown, we can see its streets were designed with mining needs, not urban planning, in mind. The tan, corrugated hills to the east present a picture of mining headframes set in silvery sagebrush, all very much as it looked in the Comstock days.

We continue along C Street, passing one- and two-story brick buildings, many with hand-painted wood signs swinging out front. Even this early in the day, honky-tonk music and the clang of dropping coins drift from the open doors of a few small casinos. It all renders Virginia City as slightly garish and yet, somehow, still charming.

This is a vast improvement over how the town used to look. It wasn't too long ago that tawdry signage and tacky architecture ran rampant. But Virginia City's cleanup has earned the town its current designation as a national historic landmark. An architectural review commission now carefully monitors proposed building alterations and additions to ensure historical accuracy; even shop signs are now regulated.

Even with the casino jangle, the town is much more tranquil now than in the mining days. "Imagine the din!" James says with a grin. "Steam engines clanged, horse-drawn wagons rumbled, and dozens of stamp mills pounded around the clock" Today the only racket is the roar of a tour bus laboring up one of the city's precipitous streets.

It has taken time and a variety of efforts to polish up Virginia City without sacrificing historical accuracy. At the south end of C Street, for instance, Mark Preiss shows off the 1876 Fourth Ward School, currently being restored to act as a grand four-story museum and cultural center. "On this floor we have a microcosm of local mining," says Preiss, pointing to small iron sleds, ore carts, hand drills, and miners' headlamps. On another floor is a classroom with wood desks, books, and a world map from 1936, the last year the building served students. The school was the only Nevada recipient of a Save America's Treasures grant from the National Park Service last year. The money was well spent: A new roof, period windows, and stonework will be unveiled at the reopening on May 1.

Up on B Street, in the section known as Millionaire's Row, we check out the opulent French chateau called the Castle, renovated and open for tours. Farther along B Street, the Friends of Piper's Opera House are breathing new life into the 1880s theater whose hand-painted olio (curtain) rose for stars like Lillie Langtry and Buffalo Bill. The opera house, which recalls a time when Virginia City was a center of culture in the West, has reopened for concerts plays, and musicals.

Down the hill at Taylor and E streets, St. Mary in the Mountain Catholic Church has been restored to all its steepled Victorian glory. Its presence bears witness to the powerful Irish contingent that settled here in the early mining days.

As the wind picks up, we wander down a steep slope outside town to the Silver Terrace Cemeteries, which also have been spruced up recently. James points out small clusters of marble headstones: the Irish Catholic section here, the Masons over there, and in another section, the Jewish plots, evidence of diversity in 19th-century Virginia City.

Ambling back up the hill, we can't help but admire the city, her windows aglow in the afternoon's amber light. She shines from her hillside perch as though her glory days never ended and the next big bonanza is just around the corner.

Virginia City travel planner

Virginia City is 24 miles southeast of Reno via State 341 and 16 miles northeast of Carson City via U.S. 50 and State 341. Locals say Nevada's mountain weather has two seasons--winter and summer--and they alternate daily; dress in layers.