Nevada City shows even more evidence of the efforts of Charles and Sue Bovey than Virginia City (see preceding entry, pages 194–197). While the Boveys were purchasing portions of that town in the 1940s to preserve it, they were also buying a series of buildings in various old towns and ranches and having them placed on the fairgrounds of their hometown of Great Falls, Montana. When that community needed more fairground space, the Boveys had their entire “Old Town” exhibit moved, in 1959, to their latest acquisition, Nevada City.
In the 1860s, Nevada City was essentially a suburb, at about one-fifth the size, of Virginia City. They were linked by the same source of income, Alder Gulch. People moved freely from one town to the other for commerce, entertainment, and services; they also suffered the same violence brought on by Bannack’s Henry Plummer and had the eventual retribution by the Vigilance Committee.
When Alder Gulch mining faded by 1868, Nevada City virtually disappeared, while Virginia City merely declined to a shell of its former self. The second life that Virginia City received in 1899 when dredging operations began had no effect upon Nevada City: By that time, the latter town was mostly a memory.
Enter Charles and Sue Bovey and the renaissance of Nevada City.
WALKING AROUND NEVADA CITY
Several “pioneer towns”—places where historic buildings have been brought together to be preserved and enjoyed—exist in the West. South Park City, Colorado, mentioned earlier in this book (page 44–47), is one of the best, and Nevada City is in the same class. Of the sixty-nine buildings I counted on the site, only nine are original to Nevada City. But virtually all others are documented, historic structures that were carefully disassembled, transported, and reassembled with expert care from sites all over Montana. Virtually all of them would no longer exist if it were not for the Boveys. The overall effect is a charming, interesting town worthy of being in the movies—and it has been, including Little Big Man and Missouri Breaks, along with several television programs.
You will be given a walking guide and map upon paying an appropriate admission fee (which covers two days, if you wish to return). The guide begins, as did the one at Virginia City, with the town’s depot, one of Nevada City’s few unauthentic structures. It is a replica of a depot in Minnesota.
On the north end of Nevada City’s California Street stand, from left to right, the Parmeter House, once the home of Sheridan’s mayor, O. F. Parmeter; a residence from the vanished town of Iron Rod; and the former Twin Bridges Schoolhouse.
From 1867 until 1873, this tiny schoolhouse served Twin Bridges, northwest of Nevada City. Note that one of the vocabulary words on the blackboard is, appropriately, “Vigilante.”
Nevada City’s Sedman House, which stands dramatically at the end of Brewery Street, was built in 1873 in nearby Junction City.
Many of Nevada City’s buildings contain portions of the huge collections of memorabilia that the Boveys accumulated, so visitors really can have a nineteenth-century experience. Some of the better examples are found in the Dry Goods Store, the Cheap Cash Store, the Applebound and Crabb Store (used in Little Big Man—Dustin Hoffman’s character was Jack Crabb), Sullivan’s Saddlery, the Sedman House, the schoolhouse, and, especially, the Music Hall, where you will find an astonishing assortment of mechanical musical devices.
To visit the Nevada City Cemetery, drive .2 of a mile west of town, turn north, and proceed another .2 of a mile to the cemetery entrance, where you will see wrought-iron and wooden fences and several headstones. On your way to the cemetery, you’ll pass the elaborate 1895 Guinan House, which was moved from nearby Laurin and which is not, at this writing, open to visitors.
WHEN YOU GO
Nevada City is 1.5 miles west of Virginia City on Montana Highway 287.
The Elkhorn Barber Shop (left), now located in Nevada City, once stood across the street from the two halls still standing in Elkhorn (see photo, page 209). Next door is Sullivan’s Saddlery, where renowned Western artist Charles Russell once hung out as a youth in its original location, Fort Benton. The small log building beyond is an original to Nevada City: its jail.
Nevada City’s Applebound and Crabb Store, which was featured in the film Little Big Man (Dustin Hoffman played Jack Crabb), was originally an outbuilding on a ranch near Ennis, east of Virginia City. Beyond the store is a building now used to display assay equipment.