"Labor Day week in Virginia and Neveda City" Virginia City by Dymphna1

Winter was coming and I wanted to get out! So I called a good friend and we chose to go to the Virginia City area. By looking at the small town web sites we were able to find a hotel room really cheap, which is what we could afford. The hotel was actually in Ennis, MT just a few miles from Virginia City. The two cities are old gold boom towns. I had visited them in my youth, but wanted to go back to see what was left. About 10 years ago there was a fire that took out most of the nickelodeons. There had been the greatest collection of nickelodeons in the world there when I was a kid and it was great fun to put the money in and see them, some were far too racy for children. But I always thought it a shame that they were now gone. Gratefully I did find that a few, very few had survived the fire.

The cities are located in the Tobacco Mountain range. These were the first cities in Montana to have telephones, but still have no cell phone coverage. There are zero bars, turn it off, they can't get you here.

Need a ride?

The city has been brought back to much of it's original board walk. The store fronts are great. There is also a few buildings you might feel strange walking into. One in particular my friend and I had to walk back out of. We then read the history plaque and it stated that 5 outlaws had been hung from the rafters of the building. There is a spirit about the buildings and at night, there is a ghost story walk. I wish I could have taken the walk, but by the end of the day my feet and legs just said 'No'. It didn't help that we had gone to the Lewis and Clark Caverns - which I plan to write about separate.

The hanging of Jack Slate

Both cities were at one time Territorial Capitals. We were there for one of the two weekends that they do a re-enactment of a hanging. This one was of Jack Slade. Jack was part of the vigilantes who kept the law around there. But he had gone against this oath and gotten drunk again and shot up the town again. This time they had, had enough and they were hanging him for it. There was an impromptu trial and sentence given and carried out with very little expense! I don't think he even got a new rope. He was gone before his wife could even get there for him to say goodbye. These men did not mess around. If you got a notice on your door that said, "7-7-77" you wanted to get out of town yesterday. It was a notice that if you didn't you would be in a box seven feet long, seven feet deep and 77 inches wide very soon.

• Pros:This near so much to do. I wish I could have more picture space to show.
• Cons:No cell phones - which can be a good thing.
• In a nutshell:It is the wild west!