Virginia City Cemetary

This is one of the prettiest cemetaries I've seen! (The one in Logan is my favorite because of the view, but this is close!)

Virginia City is one of America's largest historical landmarks and is supposedly the most haunted. While I've never seen any ghosts (except for a few questionable pictures), I love Virginia City's history. It was a mining town, full of people wanting to get wealthy from the "Comstock Lode," a rich vein of some of the purest silver discovered after California's gold rush died out. There were rich people (only a few...although tons of people tried), poor people (working in the mines, making a living on $4/day), gamblers, prostitutes, servants...and there was even a "Chinatown" for Chinese immigrants working in the mines. Opium was big in those days too.

Anyway, my friend Louise Murch from Vernal visited me and we decided to visit Virginia City for a few hours, then head to Carson City to see some museums and historic sites. We only made it as far as Virginia City....and still didn't get to see everything we wanted to! There's way more there than either of us thought and of course, there's never enough time to see everything. She was on her way to California to visit her brother and called me. I only had one day off with her and she needed to get going so she decided she'll just have to come back!

Here are a few pictures from the cemetary. Of course I didn't pay close enough attention to what "sections" we were in but....you get the idea. The view and history make up for it!

This one is at the very top of the hill. The man's last name is Storey (he was an important man...unfortunately I'll have to look up his history again) and his name is now the name of Storey County and Virginia City is the county seat. This one is in the Masonic section of the cemetary. There was a Firefighters section, Chinese section, Irish, etc.

Louise Murch, exploring the grave yard. Some of these graves date back into the 1860s, when the Comstock Lode was disovered....and it also matches the time period of Fort Churchill, where I work. In school I was never a history fan, but now that I'm living in the middle of all this history I'm lovin' it!

View of the city from the cemetary. If you blow up the picture you can see St. Mary's in the Mountains, the 1st Catholic churchh in the area. I've visited the church twice and still didn't see everything I wanted to! This church, along with St. Paul's Episcopal Church, is supposed to be haunted as well....both from prior leaders of the churches. I think they're old buildings that settle and make lots of noise....but then again, I don't live there so I don't know! I've heard and read that pretty much every building in the city is haunted in some form. If it is, it's because of the violent history--mining accidents, murders, suicides...you can't read anything about VC without encountering ghost stories!

Another pretty view of the cemetary. This is the last thing we got to see, as it was getting dark and we wanted to get back for dinner! We got "home" to the Wildlife Refuge and went through our pictures...comparing "ghost" pictures from the Old Washoe Club. I'll post about that one soon...but for the most part both of our ghost pictures were debunked. Sad and relieved at the same time!

Interesting Day...blood and cannon fire!

Today's my Friday (yes, I know for most people it's Tuesday)! This morning before lunch was....interesting. Interesting is much better than boring but in some situations, boring sounds great! I have four restrooms/sites to check every morning--River Access, Scout Camp, Buckland Station and the Orchard. I check Buckland Station and the Orchard first because they're close, then head out to the Carson River Ranches portion of the park. When I get better, reliable internet I will post a map and pictures.

I parked at River Acess and headed for the bathroom. By the way, these are all pit toilets/porta-potties so usually they are really easy to clean: a quick disinfection and mopping if needed. Then I empty the trash and head back for the office. Today I walked up to the restroom and there was blood all over the concrete by the door. Enough so that it made me seriously not want to open the restroom door! I opened the door and peeked in...no bodies or parts anywhere but the whole floor, toilet and walls were totally covered in blood splatters. Not horror-movie quality or anything but there was a lot of it! I stepped outside and kinda thought, "now what?" I peeked around the restroom building and looked at the bushes (but didn't walk into the sagebrush at all...) but didn't find anything.

I called my boss, Paul, on his cell phone and described what I found. He had been trying to call me on the radio because he'd forgotten there was a tour scheduled in half an hour, so he told me to lock the restroom and head over to Buckland Station to open it and turn on the video, so that's what I did. He told me he would go over later and check it out, then clean it with bleach water.

The tour went fine, they all walked through the building and watched the movie, then headed to the main entrance for the museum, Living History Talk and cannon fire. Paul told me I could load and fire the cannon so immediately I was thinking "are you sure...?" I'd seen it done twice but had never done it on my own. I did it, and got a round of applause and a high-five from Paul. That thing is LOUD!!!!!

Paul cleaned the blood while I was arranging my office and getting organized. He said he had no idea and didn't even want to guess what happened. It is hunting season so it's possible someone shot a bird and was cleaning it..cut themselves....whatever. So...let's hope my next week is exciting, but not that exciting!

Courting Candles

I know this picture is dark (another cell phone picture), but I wanted to share because it's a cute story. These are called "courting candles." A suitor would come to the girl's family's house and visit the girl he was interested in. These candles would be lit when he arrived and when the candle burned out it was time for him to go.

Notice anything about the candles? They can be rolled up or down. If the father liked the suitor, he would roll it so more candle showed and had more time to burn, so the suitor could stay longer. If the father did not like the suitor and didn't want him hanging around, the candle wasn't very tall and would burn out sooner. "Time to go!" I forget how many minutes/inch...I'll have to read the caption close next time, but I thought it was a great trick. I wonder if the daughters had any influence on how high the father rolled the candle?

These are inside Buckland Station at Fort Churchill State Historic Park, where I will be working, starting on Monday! When I find my camera charger (it's currently packed and still in the back of Dave's truck) I will upload more pictures and have more stories!