Virginia City, one of America's largest Historical Landmarks, was a mining boom town during the mid to late nineteenth century. The Comstock Lode silver strike of 1859 created a population of almost 30,000 people in the tiny town in the hills of Storey County, Nevada. Sitting at a 6,200 foot elevation, the town is nicely tucked into the hills with fantastic views and spirits, not just the kind you drink.

After the Comstock Lode ended in 1898, the population of residents was drastically reduced , but a huge population of spirits remained. Many people died in the mines and the cemetery down the hill from the town is filled with their decaying tombstones. Over the years people have come to the cemetery to see the aging tombstones, take pictures of the epitaphs and some even stole parts if not all of the tombstones. These parts are usually mysteriously brought back and placed somewhere to be found with a note saying something like, "Returning haunted item from cemetery, my life has been full of bad luck since I took it."

The town itself is filled with ghostly residents occupying the saloons, the hotels, the stores, the Opera House and private residential homes. Many a tale has been told in the past, and even today, of sightings of these wandering spirits. A little girl of about seven is often seen walking down the main street, dressed in her clothing of the 1860's, oblivious to the fact that time has left her in the past. A lady of the night, wearing her filmy negligee, is often seen gliding back and forth in the second story windows of the Old Washoe Club. I have seen this apparition with my own eyes and she seems to be lost in time, not realizing her days have passed.

The Old Washoe Club has a few other ghostly haunting tales. The women's restroom has a lock that seems to want to open or close on it's own. Could it be some spirits playing tricks on unsuspecting ladies? And if you are sitting down having drinks with friends, beware of the grizzly old prospector who loves to gulp down your drink when you are not paying attention. The club was once used to store corpses when in the winters the ground was too frozen to dig in. There are often voices heard of men upstairs in a back room, playing poker, and the smell of their cigars linger on. This room was found at the top of a winding staircase with a secret entrance and two secret exits. It was called "The Millionaires Club" and kept the men entertained discreetly with gambling, liquor and prostitutes.

Piper's Opera House once boasted of the stars who played there. Lillie Langtry, Maude Adams, Buffalo Bill Cody and Edwin Booth all gave performances at Piper's during the great days of Virginia City. The Opera House is weather beaten but still stands, overlooking the town, a splendid memory of the brilliant past it had. Often there are children's voices heard in the balcony, laughing and whispering when there is actually no one up there. Lillie Langtry's spirit has made herself known by approving of a performance that she herself had performed many years before. A young actress had performed on stage at Piper's, singing a song that Lillie had sung often on the same stage. At the end of the song, a poster with Lillie's picture floated down and landed at the young woman's feet.

Most of the spirits and tricksters, however, are still in the mines. Deep down in the dark corridors that run under the town and all through the hills for miles, twisting, turning, crossing, back switching and confusing. Wandering aimlessly, they have not been able to find their way out. This is where the little Cornish imps, elfish miner companions, the Tommy Knockers, employed their trade of trickery.

Just a few miles down the hill when leaving Virginia City, is Gold Hill, the site of where the gold strikes began. The hotel that stands there, as it did back during the gold rush days, is the home of 37 miners who were killed at the bottom of a mine shaft where a fire broke out in 1873. Their bones still lie where they died at the bottom in The Yellow Jacket mine. The mine is right behind the Gold Hill Hotel & Saloon where the spirits linger even today providing guests and staff with their ghostly sightings and hauntings.

Mark Twain spent some considerable time in Virginia City. The "Mark Twain Museum" in the Territorial Enterprise Newspaper Building still displays the desk he worked at when he was editor of the paper. Twain loved to write ghost stories. Twain had his office in the basement and it is still set up the way it was when he spent most of his time there, writing.

Are we to be scared to death every time we venture into the street? May we be allowed to go quietly about our business, or are we to be assailed at every corner by fearful apparitions. As we were plodding home at the ghostly hour last night, thinking about the haunted house humbug, we were suddenly riveted to the pavement in a paroxysm of terror by that blue and yellow phantom who watches over the destinies of the shooting gallery, this side of the International. Seen in daylight, placidly reclining against his board in the doorway, with his blue coat, and his yellow pants, and his high boots, and his fancy hat, just lifted from his head, he is rather an engaging youth, than otherwise; but at dead of night, when he pops out his pallid face at you by candle light, and stares vacantly upon you with his uplifted hat and the eternal civility of his changeless brow, and the ghostliness of his general appearance heightened by that grave-stone inscription over his stomach, "to-day shooting for chickens here," you are apt to think of spectres starting up from behind tomb-stones, and you weaken accordingly--the cold chills creep over you--our hair stands on end--you reverse your front, and with all possible alacrity, you change your base.

Mark Twain, date unknown.


Virginia City currently has a population of about 1000 residents - alive, that is.
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