A Short History of Virginia City

by Ronald M. James and Susan A. James

Founded in 1859, Virginia City quickly became world famous for its extraordinary prosperity. Over the next two decades, the mines of "the Richest City on Earth" yielded millions in gold and silver. The newly wealthy built mansions and churches, opera houses and schools, with furniture, fashions, and entertainment imported from Europe and the Far East. Here young Samuel Clemens, reporting for the Territorial Enterprise in 1863, first called...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0874179475
• ISBN13: 9780874179477
• Release Date: September 2014
• Publisher: University of Nevada Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.9" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

The Bonanza Town

It is indeed a brief history of Virginia City of Nevada. The authors did a fine short and yet comprehensive on this silver town. It was the legendary gold and silver town where people boom and bust in the gold and silver mines, especially in Comstock Lode. It attracted fortune seekers around the states and the world. It even absorbed a Missourian, Samuel Clement of Hannibal who enhanced his prestige of Mark Twain. This town did not die out as the mines were exhausted. It resurrected in the TV show Bonanza for fourteen years and attracted thousand visitors to this national registered site of western setting. The last chapter covers the walking tour of interesting places. This book is a good reminder who visited there; or motivate to make a tour trip to recall Nineteenth Century American Western life.