Virginia City, Nevada

Summer 1982. While the world outside of the Virginia City Limits began to change with the times of the new decade upon them, the small mining town of only 700 residents seemed to miss the memo--yet again. Doing their best to adapt to the changing times but also sticking to their roots, it was safe to say once you stepped foot inside the city limits, you stepped back in time to what it used to be like back in the 1800s. Residents tried turning old brothels in the red light district into bed and breakfast inns, old time casinos into bars and the opera house into a museum to help perverse the past they still somewhat lived in. Though with all the changes and up-keep of the changing times came some interesting discoveries, new rumors and harsh realities of just what this town was in for. The old souls are restless. The new souls are itching for an escape, but what will happen when both of them meet and only one can win?

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St. Paul’s Church

St. Paul’s Church is one of the handful they have in the city, but the one with the most history attached to it as it was rebuilt on the same ground the original had burned to. While it is there to serve it’s members the faith they believe in, it’s also there to serve as a reminder that even in the darkest of times, they could always make something of it and rebuild themselves. Some members have taken it literally and have packed their bags and moved on, not wanting to be there when the worst was still yet to come after all the rumors and stories that were told about the place and the restless souls lingering around, trying to get attention of the living, but some have chose to stay and ride it out with the parish.

History

St. Paul’s Church was the cause of The Great Fire of 1875. After a candle had tipped over in the church without knowledge to anyone, it was only a matter of minutes before the entire building had gone up in flames. Since Nevada was in a dry spell with dust and dry brush all over the place, the fire quickly spread to the neighboring buildings leaving the town on it’s way to ruins within a matter of minutes that felt like hours. As the church burned to the ground and spread, brick buildings could be seen going down like paper boxes. Businesses and homes were destroyed as everyone ran fearfully for safety and even their lives.

John Mackay was more concerned about the money and his mines. He was quoted to say ‘damn the church and everything along with it, as long as it dpesn’t spread to the mine.’ The fire did manage to reach into one of the shafts, reaching down to almost 400 feet into the tunnels. The carnage was unbearable as miners scurried to get out of the mines and into safety, trying to taking their last breaths of fresh as with their mouths put up to the cracks in the timbers, but sadly they had perished along with nearly 80 percent of the town they knew. When the blaze had been put out and the dark smoke clouds finally broke free from lingering over the city, the residents that were left along with the owners looked around and tried thinking of what needed to happen. John Mackay still believed in this place and still believed that there was more left to mine, so he invested 12 million dollars to help rebuild the city. Within 18 months, the city was back to how we look at it today, but just a little more dark.

The fire would be the turning point of Virginia City in more ways than just one.

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Yellow Jacket Mine

Yellow Jacket Mine is an abandoned mining and dreading area just outside of Virginia City. While some argue that it isn’t technically in the city limits and holds no purpose, it still holds the history of the town. Back then, it held a foreshadowing purpose of the giant fire that broke out in the mine, only letting the residents of Virginia City know what was destined to happen to them only six years later--nearly to the day. For residents of Virginia City, the lingering mine shafts and decrepit buildings are what nightmares are made of as residents claim to hear screaming coming from the site and can often smell the lingering smoke that blew through their town, reminding them that this couldn’t be forgotten. Most know to stay away and to never cross into the Yellow Jacket Mining territory, but some have failed to listen and either came back pale as a ghost and shaken to the core or not at all.

History

On the morning of April 7, 1869 the worst mining accident in Nevada’s history had happened. As the mine’s day crew began descending, a fire had broken out on the 800 foot level of the mine causing soldering timbers to collapse and sent poisonous air into the mine shaft as well as the two neighboring mines. While fire fighters tried entering the mines to battle the fire, the flames and the smoke had pushed them back, not to mention the trampling stampede of miners trying to escape while they could and save their own lives. Residents couldn’t help but to stand and watch as the smoke pillowed out of the mine shaft, leaving them to wonder if they would ever seen their loved ones or anyone come out of there alive. At least 35 miners died in the fire but sadly some of the bodies were never retrieved from the mine and single workers may have vanished without the record being known. The fire had persisted so miners that were alive sealed off the offending levels, causing them to remain hot for years to come.

Since the fire had happened, the mine was closed down and deemed to be beyond repair. No one wanted to open the doors to the mines and see the sights of miners bodies scattered as they passed from smoke inhalation, burns and panic. Though many have spoken about knocking down the buildings and the mining dredges that still sit abandoned since the decision to close it down and make something of the land it was denied by many. The reasoning being that it needed to just be left alone and deteriorate over time, serving a purpose to remind everyone that the looming mining fields in their backyards is their history.

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The Silver Queen Hotel

The Silver Queen Hotel is one of the few hotels still open within the town for curious passerby's and runaways. Though the saloon on the first floor is open for daily bar needs from the residents in this town and the hotel rooms up on the top floor, it still has a habit of creeping out anyone that dare stepped for inside. Keeping true to the roots of the small ghost town Virginia City has become over the years, the Silver Queen Hotel is a three story building located in the heart of town ready for anyone to come inside and take a step back in time. With dust on the shelves as ancient as the town itself, the owners of the hotel did it’s best to keep everything original with a few improvements to bring it in to the modern age. Though the residents are weary of the hotel knowing the history behind it, they wish anyone staying there good luck and hope they won’t be another person to leave in the middle of the night due to the old souls that lurk around the building.

History

Built in 1876, The Silver Queen was one of the busiest hotels on the main street of the small mining town as it housed miners not about to settle down and buy a house or the few pioneers who passed by town looking for a place to rest their heads for the night. It was sought to be one of the best around and a place for luxury, but just like every other place in the city, the Silver Queen Hotel met with a grim tales that would try to be brushed under the rug so it wouldn't deter anyone from coming in and spending their hard earned money.

Along with most of the hotels and inns within the city limits, the Silver Queen had alternative motives when it came to some of the rooms being rented out. Prostitutes lingered the saloons and taverns around the famous main street of Virginia City looking for a way to keep themselves satisfied and make money at the same time and once they found the miner that took them up on an offer they couldn’t refuse, they headed back to the room. One night however, death had come over one of the prostitutes in the bathroom of one of the rooms, leaving the hotel staff and owner to sweep everything under the rug and act as if nothing had happened--leaving that emotional impression scarring the room

Down on the first floor of the building which was the bar, held a good ole time for the miners and residents. As prostitutes floated around and helped run the beers to the table, miners sat playing card games between shifts and did their best to make their small paychecks into something bigger with gambling. Of course, games were taken out of hand, cheating occurred and debts were added up and it only lead to trouble. back then, the hotel made sure no left-overs of the blood that had shed in the building could be seen as they covered up bullet holes in the walls, scrubbed the rooms from top to bottom and made sure to push any murders aside if they knew what was good for them.

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Virginia City Cemetery

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord are the words written on a sign above the threshold to the cemetery. Though the sign is suppose to be spiritual and put everyone at ease, it seems to have the opposite effect on anyone that dares to walk past it. Among the weathered and desecrated grave sites of those who lived in the town before, lies mystery and dark secrets taken to the grave, giving the chills and thrills to a place that should seem so peaceful. It’s anything but peaceful these days. While it is one of the areas that is heavily guarded by the older residents of the city and caretaker, the people who have dare crossed the threshold to the cemetery after the sun goes down or even walk past alone at any hour of the day have stories to tell of hearing the screams of the past and even seeing mourners one moment and gone the next--all within a blink of an eye.

History

Also known as Silver Terrence Cemetery, is a series of cemeteries dramatically located on a steep, windswept hillside of Virginia City. Due to the success of the city with it’s rising numbers of population thanks to the silver and gold mines, the residents needed a cemetery to give the ones who lost their lives a final place to rest. Inside the decaying gates of the cemetery rests the bodies of miners, pioneers, infants, housewives and possibly even some murders most record books don’t know about. Nearly every plot in the cemetery is fenced and boarded, a common practice in the Victorian period.

What residents and most record books fail to know is that some of the plots in the cemetery are just a headstone and the remains are elsewhere in the city. Before the cemetery was constructed together and while St. Mary’s Art Center was still running as a hospital, the ones that had sadly passed away were said to be buried on the property as they were put to rest. Their rest was disturbed when all the headstones were removed--but only a few graves were dug up so the bodies could be transferred over to the cemetery. Many residents believe this is what caused the turmoil within the city to begin from opening a door and never being able to shut it. Most residents never dare to talk about it, in fear that the stories passed down from generation to generation will only cause more of a stir.

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Fourth Ward School

Standing four stories tall, Fourth Ward School is one of the first building you see when you’ve reached the Virginia City Limits coming from the south side of the town. The ominous building stands tall against the mountainous backdrop almost giving visitors a small shock to come upon a town after driving and seeing nothing for miles upon miles. While this still serves as a school for children in middle and high school age students in the town, it’s seen it’s fair share of trauma within the walls and students today still seem to say that things with the building aren’t right. Though the one’s who curiosity wandered a little further than administration would like, they are the ones who know that something more is out there and this town isn’t your average ghost town.

History

As Fourth Ward looked over the Comstock that built this city they all lived in, it was almost as if the students in the building were looking into their futures. Sure, some aspired to be something else besides a housewife to a miner or working within the mines and others had the dream of leaving this small dated little down just like the future students would, but they’d come to find out that this was truly all the town had to offer. Most of the students that spent their days in the four walls of the building were children from immigrant miners and they spent their days learning the new customs to the country they were in before heading home and trying to stay out of their parents way.

Currently, the school is still in use after major updates throughout the years to keep it standing and in working order. While some schools in the cities around the country had it better off with books and lessons that didn’t skip over this town’s history, the outdated information, run down building that stood since the town had become known to the world and the small class sizes were all the residents in Virginia City knew. It was rough to deal with and to get an education, but it was quite easy to wonder what more was out there and why everyone was so secretive around this town--just like they did way back when.

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Chollar Mine

Coming across the entrance into Chollar mines has enough power to raise the small hairs on the back of your neck and give you the sinking pit feeling in your stomach. There’s something about seeing the old tracks on the ground where the mining cars would be and the old equipment left to sit in the elements of the desert that can get a person’s heart pumping wondering what happened to leave this area looking like the miners had just left their shift for the very last time. Falling into disrepair and becoming abandonded, the Chollar Mine is one that shouldn’t be messed with especially with how deep the tunnels are within the earth--but that’s not the only reason.

History

The Chollar Mines were established in 1859 by a group of prospectors lead by a man of the name Billy Chollar. Within a few years the mining claim was sold to the Bank of California. The Bank of California was ran by John Mackay, James Fair, James Flood and William O’Brien, who would come to be the wealthiest men in America by buying the claim and selling stocks of it. The Chollar eventually produced $17,000,000 in both silver and gold. The mining technology of the time was surprisingly sophisticated with underground generators, pneumatic drills and square set timbering all due to the fact they were gearing up to take over the west and produce millions in silver and gold. As riches “poured” out from underground, the world of the 1860’s and 1870’s was watching, setting this town up for what would be failure in the end with how fast it grew and how fast it fell.

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The Old Washoe Club

In the heart of the main street of Virginia City, rests one of the biggest building that stands out above the rest. While back in the day when miners and the families they created for themselves here lined the streets daily to head to work and attend to their daily needs, The Washoe Club was where the wealthiest of them all came to look over the town they created. Dubbed to be the ‘millionaires club’, the three story brick building is one of the notorious ones in the town, but in today’s day and age, everyone knows better than to enter the building during the witching hours and dare look at the windows from the stories above ground level in fear that the ones who once ran this town still meet in the abandoned rooms above the present day saloon and are unhappy with what their town had become.

History

Opened for business on the first day of June in 1875, The Old Washoe Club was a place for the high-rolling residents of Virginia City to come and take a break from the dusty old roads and their families. In exchange for a membership fee, the members could spend their time with other business competition and other men they deemed as friends, sitting around smoking cigars and drinking whiskey on the rocks. With a wine parlor, a billiards room, reception halls and sitting rooms, it was clear that this club was truly only meant for the richest of the rich in the town and it could only be drilled in more as it was decorated lavishly, giving the members a taste of luxury in one of the smallest, dustiest mining towns in the west.

Sadly in October of that same year, The Old Washoe club had suffered damages caused by the Great Fire on 1875. Along with destroying nearly 75 percent of the town in it’s process, the club was wiped away and trickled down to the main four men who owned the town, so to speak, since members failed to keep up with membership fees and payments. With the Washoe Club only truly belonging to the money hungry four men, they needed to turn it into something that would bring them more money while the town rebuilt itself, mourned the loss of the hundreds of lives it claimed and tried keeping up with the changing times. Opening the club up to the public, the bottom floor of the Washoe Club had been turned into a saloon for miners to waste their money on when they weren't with their families or working in the mines. As times went on, the top floors of the building were turned into a secret brothel business as a way for more money to be made and to take advantage of the residents some more.

The Washoe Club had died out when the owners had either left the town or passed away, leaving it in the hands of the family members connected to the four men who owned the town. Though when no family wanted part in it, it was left to the county to decide on what to do with it. Laying abandoned for years until someone gained the courage to open the doors back up, the bottom floor of the Washoe Club is currently in business as a bar. Though no one has been able to step foot upstairs as it as been locked and closed away from anyone who even dared to think about it.

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The Gibb’s Garage

Near the center of town right before the main street, an auto garage rests. Though the building isn’t dated back to the beginning of the mining town and the years after the decline of it all, the auto garage has some years on it and isn’t in the best shape for what it could be. Just like everything else in the dusty old town, Gibb’s Garage stands out as being dated with the building having spots where the paint is chipped off, the neon on the sign doesn’t always want to work once the sun sets and some windows have been busted out as well from local teenagers growing restless with usual sites in this town.

Above the office space of the building rests a small one bedroom apartment. It used to house the original owners of the building before it transferred to the next family member, but currently it houses one of it’s workers. Cheap rent in exchange for tidy up the shop and get it more modernized was an offer a new resident to the town couldn’t refuse.

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Leeuwenhoek’s General Store

Founded in 1859, Leeuwenehoek’s General Store (then Smith’s General Store) was one of the first incorporated businesses in Virginia City. Ashley Smith and his wife Sara, built the building themselves and worked along side the post office to supply the residents of Virginia City with all the supplies they would need. To this day, little has changed within the building and it’s interior. Some small adjustments were made for the sake of health and safety, but other than that it looks just like it would back in the mining days.

When the building was purchased by the Leeunwenhoek family in 1946, the building was named a historical destination, allowing for a full restoration to restore the building to a near perfect replica of what it once was. Even the items available in the store are as close as they possibly can to original products. Stop inside for vintage candies, local produce and other small necessitates!

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St. Mary’s Art Center

A re-purposed building in a town such as Virginia City wasn’t going to hide the horrific past it seemed to have, especially when the building used to be a hospital which lost more lives than it seemed to save back in the day. While some have embraced the new sense of the building and only knew it for what it stood as today, there are some who shudder when the name of the building is uttered or when they steal a glance of it as they walk by.

History

What is now known to be St. Mary’s Art Center, used to be a hospital to the bustling mining town back in the day ran by the catholic church. This four story building took care of residents falling ill to epidemics that occurred in it’s time, injured miners, gunshot victims, anyone else who was in need of help from accidents and injuries. The hospital even took in mentally ill patients and housed them on the top floor of the building. After 18 years of service, this building was handed over to the county which continued serving as a hospital until 1940 due to declining population. After that, it was left abandoned and left to those who still lingered.

In 1964, county officials were on the verge of knocking the building down but the town was divided on what to do and it created an uproar. The residents who didn’t believe in the rumors and the strange occurrences around the town wanted to see it gone so they could slowly move on to become a modernized town. They wanted the past gone but others who swore by the stories handed down from their parents and the town within the years, they knew better than to touch it. Luckily, a catholic priest saved the day and voted for it to be an arts center for the community. Though when it as being remodeled to be more accessible, grim details of the past began to creep out and cover ups began to happen. Grave sites from the 1800s that were located on the property were moved to the cemetery, but as some would find out only all the head stones were moved and a handful of graves were dug up, leaving the other bodies unmarked along the property.

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Macaky Mansion

At the peak of the notorious comstock lode, mining tycoon John Mackay was one of the wealthiest men to step foot in Virginia City. In 1875 he purchased the mansion where he lived for the next 20 years. But in the years since he has departed, this mansion has become infested with many of Virginia City's restless souls that still linger around town. To help pay homage to the the lost souls and John Mackay himself, the town has kept the mansion the way that it was back in the day. Though residents who do not own the house know better than to ever dare step foot inside the building in fear for what actually might be in there. Some souls have been brave enough to enter. Some had made it out alive by the skin of their teeth, leaving everyone to wonder what happened inside that building, but the survivors wouldn’t dare tell a single soul the horrors that were witnessed. As for the other’s that weren’t as lucky, the town could only bow their heads and do their best not to let another become victim. 

History

Before John Mackay bought the mansion and resided inside, the building belonged to the Gould and Curry mining offices with the mine shaft directly across the street. 700 feet of mining tunnels are located underneath the mansion's property; in the basement of the mansion there is a doorway that leads to the tunnel--some believe it was sealed up, but no one has been brave enough to enter the basement of the mansion to see if the rumors are true. In June 1897, a fire had broken out and killed 11 of the miners. Some believe that the miners that have perished in the fire are still lingering around the mansion, looking for their paychecks they were owed and to tell their bosses that they had passed in the mining fire.

There is also documentation that back in the hay day of the town, two residents or passersby of the town went into the mansion and found John Mackay’s vault he had in the house. Upon finding the room where the vault was kept, the two were shot dead in the doorway of the room for attempting to rob the mining tycoon of his money.