Lovers of Western history in general and ghost towns in particular owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Charles and Sue Bovey. In 1944, they bought more than one hundred Virginia City buildings in an effort to save the historic frontier town. As a result of their efforts, the town was designated a National Historic Monument in 1961. As great as their contributions to Virginia City were, however, the Boveys would do even more ambitious things in Nevada City (see following entry, pages 198–201).
In May 1863, a group of prospectors from Bannack (see previous entry, page 188) intended to see what the Yellowstone River might offer, but the Crow Indians “encouraged” them to go back the way they came. In Alder Gulch, only about fifty miles from Bannack, the prospectors found potentially promising placer deposits. Sworn to secrecy, they returned to Bannack for supplies. Secrecy is relative: When they returned to their claims, nearly two hundred men accompanied them, and the rush at Alder Gulch was on.
By the next year, a string of camps along Alder Gulch, proclaimed a “fourteen-mile city,” had a total population of ten thousand people. Virginia City was the largest, followed by neighboring Nevada City.
Virginia City’s name came as a result of a kind of compromise. The Civil War was in full force in 1863, and the miners were fairly evenly split between Union and Confederate sympathizers. The Rebels wanted to name the town Varina City after Jefferson Davis’ wife, but a judge with Union leanings, and with considerable wisdom, decided upon Virginia City, named for a state that had divided Civil War sympathies as well.
The early history of Virginia City was marked by the same lawlessness that plagued Bannack. Bannack’s rogue sheriff, Henry Plummer, was the de facto power in Virginia City as well, until the Vigilance Committee put an end to the chaos. For more on those events, read the Bannack entry (pages 188–193).
The gold rush at Alder Gulch was still booming as Bannack’s placers were playing out. Although Bannack was chosen as the first territorial capital, seven months later Virginia City took the honor. The town proudly held that banner until 1875, when the capital was moved to its present site, Helena. By that time, Virginia City seemed to be in serious decline, but in 1899 dredging of Alder Gulch began. Six huge dredges pulled out nine million dollars in gold before being retired in the mid-1920s. Dredging evidence is obvious today along the highway from Nevada City west to the town of Alder.
Virginia City’s Masonic Temple (second building from right) was erected for the then-huge sum of thirty thousand dollars, making it the most expensive edifice in Montana in 1867. To the left of the temple is the Pfouts and Russell Building, built in 1865.
With the end of large-scale mining along Alder Gulch, much of Virginia City dried up, even though it remained, and still is, the seat of Madison County. The business district was heading toward terminal decay—only to be saved by the efforts of Charles and Sue Bovey.
WALKING AND DRIVING AROUND VIRGINIA CITY
Wallace Street, the highway that runs through town, features most of Virginia City’s historic buildings. On the west end of town is the visitors’ center, housed in a railroad depot that was moved from Harrison, Montana, in 1964. An excellent walking tour map available there will give you plenty of historical details. The map is set up to begin at the depot.
Of the sixty-six sites highlighted by the tour map, by my count thirty-eight are Virginia City originals. The others were either moved to the community, like the depot, or are reconstructions. Unlike Bannack, where nothing is for sale except for a few items in the visitors’ center, Virginia City has restaurants, saloons, an old-time photo shop, an active theater, lodgings, and a train that offers rides to Nevada City. But the town also has several museumlike attractions, such as the Sauerbier Blacksmith Shop, the barbershop, and the E. L. Smith Store.
Charles and Sue Bovey, who purchased and saved Virginia City, turned the 1899 building on the left into the Wells Fargo Coffee House in 1947. The adjacent building is a 1950 reconstruction. The other structures down the street date from 1863.
East of the main business district is the 1918 Thompson-Hickman Museum (and public library), which offers an eclectic selection of artifacts from the town’s history, including one truly grisly item: the club foot of George Lane, one of five road agents hanged in 1864 by the Vigilance Committee (his foot, exhumed, later proved which grave in Boot Hill was his).
Speaking of Boot Hill, Virginia City’s two cemeteries stand on a hill above town. From the museum, head north from Wallace on Spencer Street and follow the signs; the tiny Boot Hill Cemetery, which was abandoned not long after the road agents’ burials (respectable people didn’t want their loved ones near such nefarious characters), is up to the left, while the New Cemetery, which replaced Boot Hill, is to the right. A road across the saddle of the hill connects the two, so it doesn’t matter which you visit first.
Idaho Street, one block south of Wallace, features a variety of houses from the crudest hand-hewn log cabin to modest wood-frame residences and elegant Victorians.
Also on Idaho Street are two very different churches, the handsome 1902 to 1904 St. Paul’s Episcopal and the incredibly austere 1875 Methodist church, which has no front-facing windows, no steeple, and a stucco exterior scored to look like stone.
E. L. Smith opened a dry goods store in 1880 in what had been a billiard hall built in Virginia City in 1863. Much of the original merchandise is still on display. The store is reputed to have had the first “show windows” in Montana.
Ribbons and spools of thread stand in their original case in the E. L. Smith Store.
WHEN YOU GO
Virginia City is 13.6 miles west of Ennis on Montana Highway 287. Or from Bannack, drive 25 miles east to Dillon. From Dillon, head 29 miles northeast to Twin Bridges on Montana Highway 41. From there, take Highway 287 for 30 miles to Virginia City. You will pass through Nevada City 1.5 miles before reaching Virginia City.