According to history or legend or a mixture of both, Henry finagled the miner's claim away from a couple of Irish miners. In the end it did him no good. Even though he had the claim to millions of dollars of silver and gold, he died a pauper in Montana. Wonderful family history! Still it was fun to see Virginia City for myself and show my family.
We toured the town via a carriage ride and heard a bit of the colorful history of this town which was at one time the largest city west of St. Louis! Our carriage driver had a dog named Scooter who would bark at the horse and tell him when to stop and turn around. He was quite a little horse boss.
We also toured a very old Catholic Church called St. Mary's of the Mountains. This church has been up in these Nevada mountains for over 150 years. The original burnt to the ground when the entire town of Virginia City caught on fire in 1857. It was a stunning church set on the mountain with the blue skies behind it was breathtaking.
Blake and I also took a stroll through the town's cemetery. It was getting cold and grey and windy and the trees and plants in the cemetery were not yet in bloom, so it looked sort of what an old west cemetery should look like. I'm not saying spooky or creepy but more like forlorn and forgotten.
We also took advantage of some of the strange eats in town. Walking down the planked sidewalks we noticed a place advertising deep-fried candy bars. We simply could not resist and we tried a Snicker's Bar deep fried and covered with marshmallows, chocolate sauce and caramel. Of course divided by seven, the little bite we each had was not a heart attack waiting to happen as it could have been. We also had some of the "best beef jerky" in the world while in Virginia City.
There were lots of attractions that were closed for the season during our visit to Virginia, but the crowds were also low and we really had a nice day.
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