Earlier this summer my daughter Catherine and I spent the
day in Virginia City, Nevada. The contrast in scenery as we crossed Kingsbury
Grade, leaving the alpine coolness of Tahoe, for the dry barren high dessert of
Nevada, was startling. Mark Twain once
said, “Even the devil would be homesick in Nevada.”
Virginia City sprang because of a silver strike in 1859. The
Comstock Lode is unequaled in the history of the American West. Believe it or not, more money was produced in
the silver and mineral mines around Virginia City than in the entire California
Gold Rush, just ten years before. Mark Twain got his start there as a reporter
for the Territorial Enterprise. Even today, it is not hard to imagine what life
was like when this town was a thriving boomtown.
While I am a big fan of American history, being in Virginia
City was just good old fashioned fun! We walked along the boardwalk streets, popping into
saloons, restaurants, and shops of every type. Our first stop was for lunch in the Delta Cafe & Saloon. This is where the famous suicide
table is located. Legend has it that
entire fortunes were lost at that gambling table, causing three men to take
their own lives!
We enjoyed a “Suicide Mary,” (a gigantic Bloody Mary,) with our lunch! Oh, why not, we were on
vacation, right? We did also stop and repent our sins at the amazing Our Lady
of the Mountains Church.
One of our last stops was for a couple of beers at the Bucket of Blood Saloon! A fun day with my Catherine!
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