I avoided Virginia City for years, thinking it was only C Street, stores, bars, and tourists galore. However, there is more to explore beyond these things. So much of the time, you will have history to yourself, and you will not see another person in the Comstock Lode.
Instead of lunch out or on the trail, we decided to start our day with breakfast at the Cider Factory. I had a delicious eggs benedict which powered me through the day.
Before heading to our destination of Washington, we visited the Combination Shaft, Sutro Tunnel air shaft #4, and a pioneer graveyard. We ended our Virginia City tour at the grave of Julia Bulette, the famous prostitute known for her heart of gold. Following her murder in 1867, mines, mills, and saloons closed for a period of mourning for the woman who nursed the ill and supported the fire department.
Our big stop of the day was Washington, a ghost town, not the state. Washington was an 1860s stage stop to Virginia City and briefly a milling town for mines. But, unfortunately, mines did not produce significant silver, and the settlement was a ghost town by the 1870s.
I donated a framed picture and ghost town tour for a local charity’s silent auction. I was pleased to see how many people were interested in history; the winner got an early start on Christmas shopping. I am looking forward to planning a fun trip to introduce the winners to some great ghost towns.
I am still tweaking the interactive map. First, I got rid of the grey box, only to have another minor issue arise. The biggest problem has been developing the map to work well on various devices, mainly the phone. So I am getting some real work done before I go down the rabbit hole of my map.
I am looking forward to adding new markers today.
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