23 June 2019 Virginia City

The Ranger also suggested we visit Virginia City. Virginia City and its companion city, Nevada City just 3 miles down the road, were built during the Alder Gulch Gold rush in the early 1860s. The Adler Gulch gold find was the largest ever found in the US and was mined from 1860 to 1941. By the 1920s, the gold mines were winding down and the old buildings were falling into disrepair. Charles Bovey took an interest in preserving Montana’s Wild West heritage and began buying up the old 1860 buildings in Virginia City and Nevada City and repairing them to be turned into museums. He also built replica buildings where the old buildings could not be saved. His wife Sue, decorated the buildings in period wall coverings and furniture. After their death in 1946, their son held form the Montana Historical Preservation Society which bought up the old buildings and maintains them. In 1961 Virginia City was declared a National Historic Site. We walked the main street and looked in the various preserved building. We were a bit disappointed. The buildings and displays are in serious need of work to preserve them. The rest of the buildings were the usual tourist trap tee shirt and cheap gift stores. But some of the private Victorian homes off the main street were very well preserved and looked beautifully maintained. We drove through Nevada City but did not stop since it had the same character as Virginia City. On the way back to the Wanderer, we stopped in Ennis and walked the small historic downtown area. There were multiple outfitters since this is a big fishing area. Unfortunately we do not have time for fishing for now. But we did get a recommendation from the Orvis store manager, Justin (well informed about fishing, hunting and birding hunts, we enjoyed our visit with him) for an outfitter near Missoula for when we are in that area in a couple of weeks.

The solar system had been doing a reasonable job of charging the batteries despite the mostly cloudy and rainy days. But today the sun never came out and the batteries had been slowly discharging over the last three days. With the house voltage below 12 volts when we got home, David decided to drag out the portable generator to get us charged up for the evening. We rand the generator for a couple hours and brought the house voltage back up to 13Vs. We have done really well on water as well and still had 20 gallons in the fresh water tank after four days and nights. The worst things we missed with not having electrical hookups was not having the hairdryer for Leslie and the electric recliners not working for David! We know, were spoiled!

Original 1860 building in Virginia City

Virginia City

Downtown Ennis