A Day in Virginia City

We arrived home last night at just a bit after 10:00 p.m. We drove (I should say, Clare drove, I rode shotgun!) all the way from Lee Vining, California, where we had spent Sunday and Monday nights at the Mono Vista RV Park. Having driven from Dayton, Nevada, on Sunday down U.S. 395 and experienced some rather harrowing curves AND high winds, Clare decided that we'd take a less stressful (but not as scenic) route home through Hawthorne, Nevada, over to Fallon and then onto I-80 east. It turned out that it was not only less stressful but shorter by about 1/2 hour which, when one is traveling across Nevada, shorter is better!

But, this post is about our day in Virginia City, Nevada, the "legendary Nevada mining town, at the heart of the Comstock Lode." Years ago (back in the late 50's) our family vacationed in the Eastern Sierras at Silver Lake for two weeks each summer and we had occasion to visit Virginia City (and Carson City). Well, the main street, "C" Street buildings look very much the same as I remember but the shoulder-to-shoulder tourists is something I don't remember! That aside, it was fun to meander down the boardwalks and snapping photos of, most notably, the saloons, that I remembered from those visits nearly 60 years ago.

Tread by many feet since the 1860's.

We had come into the city from the southeast, again over Geiger Grade (not the truck route we had taken Friday but the route through Gold Hill and Silver City) in the car this time . . . we thanked our lucky stars that we hadn't driven the motor home this way as it has a 15% grade and is very curvy and narrow. I mention this because the first thing we visited was the prominent Fourth Ward School House at the south end of town, the lovingly restored last-one-standing schoolhouse museum in Virginia City. It is bigger than the courthouse (Virginia City being the seat of Storey County, Nevada) and is interesting in that it tells the story of the real West in its interpretive center, " A Comstock Lesson." Here are a few photos we took on our "field trip:"

This is a view of the south side of this imposing four-story schoolhouse. From where I was standing, it was difficult to get it all in!

The "Comstock Lesson" interpretive center is housed in the first floor front left classroom and was truly interesting; it took us most of the time to look at all the "lessons" here which described the history and development of the great Comstock silver mining operations that made this area so rich. 

Of course, I had to take a photo of the seamstress's display. It was quite interesting that one of the seamstresses of the time wrote that the women of Virginia City were very fashion-conscious and took opulence to the extreme in some cases.  Not only were the upper classes dressed to the hilt but middle class women dressed their families in unusual finery.

The changing gallery on the first floor houses examples of mining the Comstock Lode as well as the various ores found there. It also had pictures of Virginia City and surrounding country then and now; interestingly, nature has reclaimed many of the abandoned mines to the extent that there are barely any clues to their existence. The first floor also had the Alumni Room, displaying class photos, histories, and family trees of Fourth Ward School students from when it opened in 1876 to the last senior class graduated in 1936. Here is a photo of the Historic Classroom Exhibit, also on the first floor:

These are original desks and they do show the wear of many students over the years. There has been meticulous attention paid to every detail of what the classrooms looked like during the years the school was in operation.

This was a fun riddle . . . can you name the birds?

Write the answer in the comments section at the end of my post, if you want!

We went on up to the second floor and took in the Printing and Mark Twain Exhibit (of course, Mark Twain was famous as a reporter for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise from 1861 to 1864 and his book, Roughing It contains vivid antidotes of his time there. The school had its own printing operation and the "Senior Dynamo" was published and printed monthly by the Virginia City High School which was in the Fourth Ward School. We liked this little ditty in a souvenir copy of the paper:                      

FORGET IT, by Harriett Gladding, Class of 1922

Forget the troubles of this life;

Forget the struggle and the strife,

Forget the scandal you have heard,

Forget the spoken unkind word.

Forget the fights and blackened eyes,

Forget the gossips, truths and lies,

Forget the bills you have to pay,

Forget the things the papers say,

Forget the first and only kiss,

Forgetting brings you untold bliss,

Forget most things that have gone by,

But DON'T forget Virginia High.

It seems appropriate for this election year!

The stairway up to the Second Floor. The treads are certainly worn down!

Reading Roughing It in the Printing and Mark Twain Exhibit classroom. Each of the desks here had a copy of one of Mark Twain's books. The back of the classroom (behind me) has the printing set up including many vintage typewriters.

Since the school had grades K through 12, the desks were full size and I fit in them comfortably!

The third and fourth floors are off limits to the public but at least the third floor has been restored for offices and archives work rooms. The fourth floor contained only one finished room where gym-type equipment was found. Since the school stood abandoned from 1936 to 1983, there was extensive damage to the unfinished walls, ceiling, and floors of the fourth floor. We left the Fourth Ward School Museum after ringing the bell (with the assistance of the docent) and drove north on C Street to find a parking spot so we could join the other tourists walking up and down.

Here are photos of the Red Dog Saloon, the Delta Saloon, the Tahoe House Hotel, and the Bucket of Blood Saloon (stood out in my mind from those childhood visits!):

Red Dog Saloon and view of C Street. Yes, the day before we drove the motor home down this!

My mom's name was Delta - no relation to the saloon!

We didn't go inside any of the saloons or stores - even to see the Suicide Table - because we had Rango with us and we didn't want someone to mistake him for the Sheriff (his full name, don't you know, is Sheriff Rango, after the chameleon in the 2011 computer-animated Western action comedy).

We were getting a bit hungry so we stopped in at an outside BBQ stand where there were tables set up and had a wheat beer and a pulled pork sandwich with potato salad on the side.

Yum!

There are three churches in town that have been restored and are in use still. The Catholic church, St. Mary's in the Mountains, is quite beautiful and I took one too many photos of it. Here a just two:

The steeple showing to the left is the St Paul's Episcopal Church one street down.

A bird (not sure if it was a pigeon, a hawk, or a crow) was perched up on the steeple's cross the entire time we were there.

Here are a few more photos taken on our walk back down to where we'd parked the car:

I don't know anything about this except that I liked the rustic-ness of it.

Oh yes, this is Bernadette, mentioned in Part IV. 

Here's the story on the donkey. Unfortunately, her owner was standing away from her when I took this photo - quite the character. At any rate, we stopped to chat with him and pet the donkey (and donate a couple $$) and the old guy told us that he'd adopted this donkey from the BLM Wild Horse and Donkey program four years ago ("You know what the BLM is, don't you ma'am?"). One thing he and the donkey had in common was she had not been trained and he had not ever trained a donkey. Seems that things worked out, although he noticed that she was getting rather fat soon after he adopted her. Not fat, pregnant; she birthed a little jack on the fourth of July that year. The old guy named him Independence but does not bring him along to C Street to entertain the tourists as he's still a bit wild. He calls this donkey Bernadette after his late wife - "Every time I look at her I think of my wife. I'm a romantic kind of guy."

Speaking of donkeys - a rusty bit tucked between buildings.

We finished out our visit by driving away from C Street to take a look at the rest of the town's buildings and where its 855 residents (as of the 2010 Census) live and work.

A beautifully restored mansion on B Street.

View looking out over the Comstock mining area towards Reno.

Looking east towards the train depot (Truckee-Virginia Railroad). We didn't go there because there was a huge group, including tour buses, there and we wanted to avoid that.

Just a cool shot from the Fourth Ward School view area.

We had spent about four hours here and were ready to head back to Dayton, pick up a few groceries, and get ready to leave Sunday morning for Lee Vining and our Yosemite adventure. Now we can say that we've been to Virginia City!

Watch for the next installment of our Northern California (and Nevada!) Road Trip Adventure.

Ta!

Northern California Road Trip Adventure - Part IV

Today is Day 7 of what is a stellar trip for us! I took 95 photos today while we toured Yosemite - unbelievable beauty that had our heads spinning. However, I will have to edit those photos before contemplating a blog post here!

This post is about our trip back over Donner and onto Highway 395 to Dayton, Nevada where we stayed Friday and Saturday nights. Why Dayton? It had a nice RV park and was close to Virginia City that we wanted to visit to say we'd been there . . . Dayton, sadly, is not terribly interesting except perhaps from an historical viewpoint. That is, it is the site of Nevada's first gold discovery in 1849 which, I suppose, is memorable in that it is smack dab in the middle of silver mining country. With that tidbit of information, here is the way things went Friday (in photos and a few words):

Railroad bridge over I-80 East at Colfax

We had left Dad and You Bet Road around 7:00 a.m. which put us driving into the sunrise over the Sierras. The views over the Pass were gorgeous, especially at the Donner Summit view point.

I posted this on Instagram and made it my cover photo on Facebook - seen with my own eyes!

We hadn't had breakfast before we left Dad's, so because we were so impressed with the two meals we'd had at Mel's Diner Boomtown, we pulled in there for an encore. 

From there, it didn't take long to get to the turnoff for Virginia City and we didn't know that we were in for a very intense journey over Geiger Grade, a "short cut." We could've stayed on Highway 395 to Carson City and turned onto Highway 50 to Dayton, but it looked like an opportunity for something different and indeed it was! This is Nevada Highway 341, often called the Virginia City Highway and dates back to the 1860's, providing the most direct route from the Comstock Lode to Reno. Here are a few photos taken on the way up to the summit:

See that winding road? Steep too!

Oh my!

Compared to what elevations we experienced today over Tioga Pass, this is not that high; however, for the Nevada desert, it was an incredibly ear-popping height.

Day 5 was spent visiting Virginia City (Gold Hill and Silver City on the way and back) and, I believe, deserves a blog post all its own. As a teaser, here are a couple photos of that wild West town:

View of the West side of C Street, Virginia City (lots of tourists)

Bernadette, the donkey. This has a story for another day!

Our plan is to pull out of Lee Vining (where we are staying again tonight at the Mono Vista RV Park) and traveling back home to Utah on Highway 50 (the Loneliest Highway in America), stopping one last night on the Nevada desert, probably Winnemucca. 

Until we meet again.

Northern California Road Trip Adventure - Part III

Good afternoon from Dayton, Nevada! We are now into Day 5 of our autumn road trip but this post will regale you with photos from Day 3 and Day 4 (maybe) only. I take many more photos than there are hours in the day . . . in the waking day at any rate!

Thursday morning saw us pretty much just visiting with Dad and spending quiet time on the property. Dad had made it clear that he wanted to go out to breakfast as it is not often that he has someone to go with, so we drove to the IHOP (International House of Pancakes) in Grass Valley. Of course, the waitress knew him and loves him so we had excellent service, a few laughs, and a pretty darn good breakfast! When we got back to You Bet Road we chilled, like I said.

Sun just touching the tops of the trees. By the way, that extremely tall tree in the foreground is a tulip tree gone wild! :)

Next up are four random photos of the property's flora:

A fallen oak leaf on the branches of one of the many incense cedar trees on the property.

The incredibly huge holly bush at the junction of the driveway and upper pad. Every year for Advent and Christmas, the Grace Lutheran Church members come out and cut branches to decorate the sanctuary. They have been doing this for over 20 years.

Toyon berries - I looked this up to make sure and yes, that's what they are. Kind of pretty but, as I found out, quite poisonous!

An almost dead oak leaf on dead oak leaves.

The next photos show some of the industry that goes on here. Dad has made his four acres a virtual park with mowed grassy slopes, "logging" roads, and just plain organized beauty. He has a small herd of deer that pass through which we didn't see much of since there was the scent of dog around. On that note, though, Clare had gotten up early Thursday morning to let Rango out but because there was a doe standing right at the steps, he waited!

Clare and Dad at the tractor shed where the 1954 Oliver Cletrac and 1929 Cletrac tractors are housed.

The log splitter and chipper. The logs on the cart are from a Douglas Fir that Dad cut down this summer.

I thought this was a really "artsy" shot - Dad and Clare discussing engine stuff.

Dad driving up to the motor home on his 1947 Farmall tractor that he's had for nearly 40 years. He built the roof on it because he got tired of getting snow down his neck when plowing the drive in the winter.

There were naps taken and snacks (grapes) eaten during the afternoon and then Dad wanted to take us out for Mexican food at Margarita's in Grass Valley. Before we left though, there were a few more photos taken most particularly of our motor home on the upper pad taken from the house. We really wanted to see how steep the driveway actually is!

Our home away from home at You Bet Road.

The driveway - narrow and steep but manageable, even for a 34 foot motor home!

Dad - 93 years old and his 66 year old daughter.

So, that is it for Day 3, Thursday, October 20, 2016. Good times are being had by all!

Bye for now.

Northern California Road Trip Adventure - Part II

...We pulled out of Verdi, Nevada early Wednesday morning after a hearty breakfast at Mel's Diner Boomtown (boy, that place has super food and service and lucky for us, it was open 24 hours!). Here are a couple photos taken before we started toward Truckee and Donner Pass:

Sun coming up over Reno, I-80, and the Truckee River (view from the KOA RV Park)

Had to take a photo of this. Boomtown is not only the best horse in the world! 

Pulling the pass was a delight, as always, because the views are breathtaking; this time of year especially, the contrasts of evergreen and bright yellow to red deciduous trees against the granite Sierra mountains is wonderful! Of course, taking photos from the passenger seat of the motor home is iffy at best but here a few:

Capturing the Stateline sign was almost a miss, just like the Nevada Stateline sign!

The journey over Donner Pass was not as bad as we thought it might be in the motor home, especially pulling the car behind and we made it to Colfax in less than two hours. We pulled over at a wide place on Highway 174 just outside Colfax to take the car off of the tow dolly and I drove it behind Clare (and Rango) in the motor home to Dad's place. Clare skillfully maneuvered the motor home down Dad's very steep driveway to the upper pad where we plugged in and set up camp for a couple nights. Next up are photos taken Wednesday afternoon. I went down to the house with makings for a stew and while I was getting that ready, Dad and Clare drove downtown to get a few groceries. Once the stew was on the stove (a brand new unit Dad acquired just weeks ago!), Rango and I had a walk down on the "prapity." As you can see, Rango had a grand time.

I posted this on Instagram too. I love, love, love the fact that Dad is so healthy and has made this place so very inviting!

Dad in one of three "wheelchairs." This is his newest; a 1954 Oliver Cletrac tractor.

The next bunch of pictures are proof that a dog can have the time of his life here!

Dad covers the paths with wood chips from all of the trees he cuts and splits for firewood. Makes for a soft running bed!

In the background is the tractor shed and Dad's 1929 Cletrac.

On the "logging" road down by the spring. the dogwood is just turning to red.

At the top of the spring.

I will close this post with one picture of the view towards the bottom of the four acre park. 

P.S. The stew was delicious and there was plenty left over for Dad to enjoy this weekend. He had gone to the Happy Apple Kitchen in Chicago Park and got an apple-cherry crunch pie for our dessert. Talk about delicious! Oh my! 

So very beautiful and peaceful!

Ta for now.