Virginia City's fate hangs in the balance

Haunted by dwindling silver veins and lower precious metal prices, the Comstock receded into a state of economic depression. Like many other small historical towns, Virginia City decided to market its last and perhaps most enduring commodity: its colorful trappings and priceless tales.

As you'll see in the following excerpt from the Sacramento Bee's commemorative series on the V&T, the proper way to accomplish this transformation - from mining town to tourist destination - was a topic of heated discussion and frequent disagreement.

"The (Virginia City Foundation) Trust, for all its worthwhile intentions, has met financial troubles. Entirely dependent on public subscription, it has found Nevada resort owners - the group most likely to benefit from a restored Virginia City unwilling, with some exceptions, to back the venture with the hard silver cartwheels for which the state is famous.

"In line with this campaign, Senator Patrick McCarran of Nevada has introduced a bill to Congress which would make a national monument of Virginia City. The legislation would authorize the Interior Department to acquire the property in Virginia City which is deemed appropriate to commemorate.

"Meanwhile, the people in Virginia City, unable to agree on a plan of action, have divided into warring factions. An outsider, asking about restoration, gets the answer, 'You'll find 17 different sides to that argument. I don't want to get mixed up in it.'

"One faction states Virginia City should be restored as it was, an authentic replica of the deceased Comstock queen.

"Another leans toward comic opera restoration, willing to twist fact and tradition for the will of a movie going public which expects to see a horse opera sample of the old West atop Mount Davidson.

"A third, the smallest, is prepared to bring the silver, in the form of minted dollars, back to the Big Bonanza any way it will come and the devil take the hind-most.

"The latter groups ignore the fact the tourist bonanza can be milked dry as fast as the Big Bonanza was if Virginia City loses her authentic atmosphere - that the American public finds out fast when it is being gypped and will not come back for a repeat performance.

"As an authentic replica of the past effectively restored, Virginia City can live forever and the Big Bonanza, in the form of silver dollars,will flow back up Mount Davidson. As a fake or a desert Coney Island it will, eventually, die of malnutrition and the dead goose will lay no more golden eggs.

"Something must be done and fast. The one-time Queen of the Comstock, now queen of America's ghost towns, must be restored or crumble into the dust.

"The only truly solid large buildings left in the city are the Storey County Courthouse, where Justice stands, wide eyed and strangely unmasked, and St. Mary's In The Mountains, where Father Peter Fisher stands guard over his treasures from the past.

"One monument to her colorful past already has escaped Nevada. Thousands of feet below, in the Washoe Valley, Virginia City's companion in the Comstock, the V&T, is rolling on dying wheels."