It is worth making a trip from Truckee (or Lake Tahoe) to Virginia City, 68mi / 110km away in Western Nevada. The city was founded in 1859. The best route is the U.S. 80 east, the NV 395 south and then the NV 341. Virginia City lies immediately above Comstock Lode, rich in gold and silver. Comstock Lode covers an area only 2mi / 3km long and
500ft/150m wide, yet within a period of 20 years gold and silver ore worth more than 400 million dollars (in terms of purchasing power at that time) was mined. A point of interest is that the American Civil War (1861-65) was in part financed by the gold and silver found in this town.
Virginia City is now purely a tourist town which has retained its historical character surprisingly well. Even the "Territorial Enterprise", the newspaper on which Mark Twain began his career as a writer, has now appeared once more in this town of only 800 inhabitants. Ten times as many people lived here between 1860 and 1880; at that time Virginia City was in fact the most important town between San Francisco and Denver.
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