There’s gold in them thar hills!! That’s what we were told anyway.

One of the things I was looking forward to doing in Montana was visiting Virginia/Nevada City. Online it looks so…western! In the pamphlets it all looked like such a unique experience! Well, I was less than impressed with Virginia City or Nevada City. There were a few highlights of the day and I’m glad we went just so we can say we went, but I don’t imagine we’ll ever want to go back.

Virginia City was founded by William Fairweather back in 1862 when he and a group of his buddies found gold in Alder Gulch. Within a few months of the first person finding gold, over 10,000 gold miners flooded into the 14 mile stretch of land seeking their own claims. The town drew prospectors, but also drew merchants and outlaws. Every social and economic class was represented in Virginia City. While it all sounds exciting, human comforts were few and far between.

Here’s a picture of some original buildings along the main stretch in Virginia City. Most of them are kind of like a museum where you can walk into the doorway and stand to look at the display. The old buildings line a board sidewalk that is mostly original to the town.

Some of the displays, like the one above, are nice and organized while quite a few of them were more like items shoved into an old building and forgotten. I was dissapointed with the shops that were actually open for business. The merchant shops were just as rundown as the original buildings and the items they were trying to sell weren’t much better.

Today, Virginia City is a National Historic Landmark. The buildings that have been preserved in large part due to Mr. Charles Bovey. I’m not going to go into the full details of it…he was an heir to the General Mills Corp. and had a love for history…

We drove around and found the exact location Mr. Fairweather found the first gold in the area. There was actually someone panning for gold in the creek!

There’s a little train that runs between Virginia City and Nevada City.

It’s a 25 minute ride where they point out some rocks and tell you a few interesting facts. We rode it both ways and then drove our car to the little pond you see in the picture above to have a picnic lunch. Yes, I’m too cheap to pay $20 for a bison burger.

We somehow lucked out and actually found a shady spot with enough room for all five of us to sit and have lunch! The weather was fantastic!! After lunch we headed toward Nevada City.

I spotted these  orange flowers while we were on the train. I love them! They’re so bright!! Does anyone know what kind they are?

We also stopped to pan for some gold!

They gave us a lesson first.

Then turned us loose to find our own treasure. I’m not the most patient person…panning for gold takes a lot of patience and hard work.

I rushed through mine (I found some very pretty and very small garnets and amethysts) and then took some pictures. We didn’t find gold, but we will always remember trying and we all walked away with a little vial of amethyst and garnet chips.

While Virginia City is an authentic town with the original restored buildings, Nevada City is a fictional historic town or a “living museum” where on weekends costumed interpreters bring the city to life. There’s a fee to get in and it’s not bad. We got the Family Package that included the train, panning for gold, and entrance to Nevada City.

The buildings along the highway in Nevada are original, but the “living museum” is what you have to pay to see.

The Star Bakery is one of the original buildings.

The buildings in the museum part of Nevada City were all brought in from other parts of Montana and restored.

Some are less restored than others, but give the museum a feeling of authenticity.

We didn’t stay long in Nevada City. We got there kind of late in the day and were the only ones walking around and to be honest…it kind of creeped me out to see the interpreters walking around in costume. I kept thinking about those movies where the unsuspecting tourist goes to a town and gets trapped there. I’m a dork.

We ended our tour of the area with a trip up to Boot Hill Cemetery.

Where you can see the graves of five men who were hanged in Virginia City. You can see the post where they were hanged in the Hangman’s Building.

All in all, it wasn’t a horrible day. The drive to get there was beautiful and the picnic lunch along with the panning for gold are great memories!

See y’all down the road!