Virginia City for Bob's Birthday...

It wasn't lost on us that we have a mining theme happening this week. Virginia City is just one of those places in which one should meander every now and again.

Virginia City sprang up as a boomtown with the 1859 discovery of the Comstock Lode, the first major silver deposit discovery in the United States, and numerous mines were opened. At the city's peak of population in the mid-1860s, it had an estimated 25,000 residents.

How can one not love the town considered the "birthplace" of Mark Twain? It was here in 1863 that writer Samuel Clemens, then a reporter on the local Territorial Enterprise newspaper, first used his famous pen name. Oh and a banjo player accompanied by a player piano is pretty special, too.

The main road to Virginia City was closed, so we entered through the trucking route. What a delightful surprise to see horses. Nevada is home to almost half of our nation’s free-roaming wild horses, and many of these elegant animals have decided to make the grazing lands around Virginia City their neighborhood.

The Virginia Range herd, steeped in the history of the Comstock Lode, is over 1,400 strong and can be found living wild and free between Virginia City, Reno, Dayton and Carson City. What a great end to our afternoon in this uniquely interesting place, celebrating our uniquely interesting friend.

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