Reno Nevada

Virginia city Courthouse

Our first totally tourist day started by visiting Virginia City. The road up here was exciting, gaining lots of altitude quickly and as we approached the town you could believe it was an old silver town. This was the home to the Comstock mine, the first and largest silver mine in the U.S. The equivalent of $4 Billion dollars worth of silver came out of this mine. It was the reason Nevada became a state in 1864, since it financed the civil war, and the transcontinental railroad. Unfortunately, the town is the ultimate of tourist traps today – lots of old time picture, candy, and tourist trinket shops. But we did the walking historical tour of the buildings with some of their intricate iron works and brick facades. Most of the town burned in 1875, so the buildings are the second set in most cases. Probably the most ornate was the county courthouse with its un-blind- folded statue of “justice” My destination was to be the Mark Twain museum. Since this is the town where Samuel Clements started his career and picked up the name “Mark Twain” said here to be the marking of credit for $2 in the bar, not the depth of the water. Unfortunately, it was closed, so we headed to Carson City.

            In Carson city, we took in the Nevada State Museum, which had a little bit of everything. We started with the Indian exhibits, explaining how the Indians lived in this desolate country. Of particular note, was the different viewpoints presented from the archeologists, who are trying to understand early mankind, and the Indians, who want their dead and ruins to be respected. Most interesting was the mint room, where silver and gold coins were minted. They had the original coin press and we happened to encounter a tour which explained the intricacies of minting the coins. For example, did you know that women had well paying jobs here, making sure that the coins were of proper weight, rejecting the slugs that were too light and shaving those that were too heavy? Another interesting exhibit was an underground mine simulated in the basement floor – the movie that explained the process of mining was especially well done. 

Coin Press

             Our final stop for the day was the Mormon Station State Historical Park in the town of Genoa. Now there really wasn’t much to see here – a building and a stockade with a small museum, but what a history! As you might guess this was originally settled by Mormons. This is the first permanent settlement in Nevada, here was the first political gathering, this was a stopping point along the California trail, and it was a pony express station. That was quite a bit of history for one little cabin.