Attractions In Virginia City, Nevada

The Bucket of Blood Saloon came into existence in 1931. It was called the Bucket of Blood because every morning when they washed the floor there was blood in the bucket. It is really a national treasure. Also because Virginia City used to be such a booming town, there are a lot of old mansions here. Private residents own some of them, but we do have a mansion that's open to the public.

The train is a huge component of Virginia City's tourism. The VNT, or Virginia Turkey Railroads will be resurrected, and the track will run from Carson City to Virginia City, which is about 17 miles, and is scheduled to open in 2009. Right now it runs from Virginia City to Gold Hill, which is about two and half miles. The track was originally installed because they needed to bring the silver from Virginia City to Carson City to mint. The Virginia City Trolley is a 20-minute trolley ride with an overview of the city. The trolley ride shows many of the town's historical buildings.

Gambling was legalized throughout the state of Nevada in 1931, so everything from slot machines to table games is prevalent in every community in the state. The odd thing about it is that Nevada does not have a lottery. Specifically in Virginia City there are no card games, but there are slots. There is a gambling museum at the Delta Saloon, which has a display of antique slot machines, but none that are in use. Everything is now computerized.

One of the main things that are really important to the tourism is the cemetery. We have several, the Silver Terrace Cemetery and the Gold Hill Cemetery. There is a huge restoration effort in place right now. The Silver Terrace Cemetery used to be very beautiful, and during the late 1800's it was showcased as a nationally recognized cemetery for the high desert of Nevada.

The Piper's Opera House was one of four opera houses that Virginia City hosted. It actually burned down three times, and rebuilt in 1985. The structure from an acoustics standpoint is there are no dead spots or difficult to hear spots. The building was famous for its stage, which was built at a slant so that no matter where an audience member sat, they could always see the feet of the actors. In the 1800s, entertainment was extremely important within the community. The Piper's Opera House had everything from prizefights to animal fights with bears versus lions. The ladies would hold walking and roller-skating events to raise money for events in the community. The first movie theater in the state of Nevada was in Piper's Opera House. They showed silent movies in the 1800's. In the 20s and 30s before the local schools had their own gymnasiums, the guys would play basketball here as well.

In terms of tourism, we have two inactive mines that are available to tourists today. Virginia City no longer has any underground mines in operation at all. There is one mining operation in the South between Virginia City and our county line. They are still pulling out about $90,000 to $100,000 a week of gold. Nevada as a state is the third largest producer of gold in the world, behind Australia and South Africa.

St. Mary's of the Mountains is a Catholic church, which opened their basement as a museum in 2004. It has incredible finds including a vestment that was given to Virginia City from Queen Isabelle made of solid sliver thread. The Church was actually founded in the early 1860s, but in the great fire of October 1875 about 75% of the community burned. It had a potential to have a major negative economic impact on the entire nation so it wasn't publicized. St. Mary's was the location that stopped most of the movement of the fire, because it was a brick structure one of the mine owners decided to dynamite the roof so that the fire couldn't pass through to other buildings. The owner promised to rebuild it and he did in 1876. The church's beauty is one of the town's major attractions today.

The Territorial Enterprise Museum is really a neat place. Territorial Enterprise is a newspaper that Mark Twain worked for, however the building itself also burned in the fire of 1875. What printing equipment was in the basement was pretty much untouched, so it was rebuilt as a fascinating old museum to showcase how the newspaper printed newspapers during the 1800's. I guess you could say it's in an "arrested decayed status." Nothing from the basement has been restored, but the history in the museum and how it relates to the newspaper is very interesting.

The Firemen's Museum was given its official status by Governor Brian in the 70's as Nevada State Firemen's Museum. The town's volunteer fire department was founded in 1979 because the town had a lot of original fire fighting equipment from Virginia City that dated from the 1860s. The equipment was stored in barns of local residents, and is now showcased to tourists. The county gave the fire department the building and they have restored all of the equipment and put it on display in the Firemen's Museum. It's probably one of the nicest Firemen's Museums found anywhere in the United States. All of the equipment is being restored lovingly in garages during the volunteers' own time.

The Way It Was Museum is at the north end of town of Virginia City. It is filled with artifacts from Virginia City like an antique dental chair and dental equipment from the late 1800s. Period costumes, fine china, and crystal are also on display. It has a video of the history of Virginia City and features the 700 miles of tunnels and shafts that go under Virginia City.

There are unique shops that are directed towards the history of the area. There are western clothing stores, custom hat makers, bookstores that specialize in the opening of the West, and the works of Mark Twain. The shops are in original historical structures and are privately owned. Virginia City is original, meaning everything is still in original buildings, original structures.

Restaurants offer everything from general cafe style food to Mexican, Chinese and high quality dinners. There are old style saloons for the person interested in having an alcoholic beverage. Cafe Del Rio is a Tex Mex style eatery that is really nice and enjoyable.

There is a full service fire department that offers everything to ensure the safety of tourists, visitors, and locals.

Virginia City is 15 miles away from Carson City and 26 miles from downtown Rio.