Both John and I had some other things to work on in the morning, so we had a late start to our tourist day. Our first sightseeing adventure of the day was a hike to Skunk Harbor. This is a small cove just north of Zephyr Cove on the Nevada side of the lake. It was originally the site of the summer home of George Newhall, a San Francisco auctioneer who “mined the miners” during the Gold Rush. The path down to the water from Highway 28 offers lovely views. We stopped here and ate out picnic lunch.
We found a tennis ball and had fun throwing it to Eli. It landed in the snow once. He did not want to put a snowy ball in his mouth, so he nudged it with his nose to brush the snow off. To his chagrin, that only added more snow. He kept at it until he had rolled something almost large enough for a snowman’s head! Then he couldn’t smell his ball anymore and he became somewhat agitated! We shook off the snow for him and he was happy again.
We continued on to Carson City. This must be one of the smallest state capitals, and generally it is not that memorable. There is a small old downtown which has its charms, but the majority of the city is a sprawl of big box retail and chain restaurants, all with large parking lots. We tried to concentrate only on the older, more attractive part. This is the old state legislature building. There is a newer one in a post-modern style next to it.
Spring, has you can see, was in full flower in Carson City. Still, cherry blossom time in Nevada is not the same experience as it is in Japan. But, hey, where in Kyoto would you find a casino right across the street from the offices of the legislature?
We walked past a parking lot where they were having some kind of sale or auction of old casino items such as the slot machines you see below. They also had a pile of telephones with wires. Weird. Can you believe that back then they didn’t lose the signal halfway through a call?
From Carson City, we headed up the hill to Virginia City. This was the site of the Comstock Lode silver mine. At its height, Virginia City had a population of over 25,000 people and was the largest and most important settlement in between Chicago and San Francisco. There was a six-story hotel with the only elevator west of the Windy City and 20 theaters or opera houses. There were over 110 saloons in town and several opium dens. Women and children were not as scarce during the silver rush as they had been in the gold rush, so they had to build schools for them. This is the only one preserved, the Fourth Ward School.
There were several churches, too. We went inside the largest of them, the Roman Catholic church, and had chat with the lady who ran the gift shop inside. Next to it was the less impressive Episcopal church. It was, alas, locked.
Virginia City’s population fell rapidly after the silver ore was exhausted, and by the 1930’s only about 500 people were left. It was well on its way to becoming a ghost town, but in 1959 NBC premiered Bonanza, perhaps the most popular television western of all time. In that series the Cartwright family lived only a sprawling ranch near Virginia City, and forays into town were frequent parts of the story line. As a result, Virginia City experienced a rebirth as a tourist destination. The shops on the main street were converted into the usual places to buy tee shirts and souvenirs, but the exteriors were largely left untouched. John and I found nothing interesting to buy (except for some fudge, of course), but we could not resist some of the picture-taking opportunities.
The cemetery on the edge of town, however, gives a solemn reminder of the people who lived and died here. The Comstock mine was extraordinarily dangerous, and many of the headstone show men dying at very young ages.
We returned to our cottage in time for sunset. We took a short walk down the path to the beach and watched the sun drift down into the clouds above the Sierra Nevada mountains on the west shore of the lake.
It was a peaceful end to a pleasant day.
