Virginia City is a census-designated place (CDP) that is the county seat of Storey County, Nevada, and the largest community in the county. The city is a part of the Reno–Sparks Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The Virginia and Truckee Railroad is a privately owned heritage railroad, headquartered in Virginia City, Nevada. Its private and publicly owned route is 14 miles (23 km) long. When first constructed in the 19th century, it was a commercial freight railroad which was originally built to serve the Comstock Lode mining communities of northwestern Nevada.
William Wright (1829–1898), better known by the pen name Dan DeQuille or Dan De Quille, was an American author, journalist, and humorist. He was best known for his written accounts of the people, events, and silver mining operations on the Comstock Lode at Virginia City, Nevada, including his non-fiction book History of the Big Bonanza.
Lucius Morris Beebe was an American writer, gourmand, photographer, railroad historian, journalist, and syndicated columnist.
Charles Myron Clegg Jr. was an American author, photographer, and railroad historian. Clegg is primarily remembered as the lifelong romantic partner of famed railroad author Lucius Beebe, and was a co-author of many of Beebe's best-known books.
The Reno Gazette Journal is a daily newspaper in Reno, Nevada. It is owned and operated by the Gannett Company.
Thomas Fitch was an American lawyer and politician. He defended President Brigham Young of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other church leaders when Young and his denomination were prosecuted for polygamy in 1871 and 1872. He also successfully defended Virgil, Morgan, and Wyatt Earp along with Doc Holliday when they were accused of murdering Billy Clanton, and Tom and Frank McLaury during the October 26, 1881 Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Reno station is an Amtrak intercity train station in Reno, Nevada, served by the California Zephyr train. It is also serviced by five times per weekday, and twice on weekends, Amtrak Thruway routes to Sacramento.
Virginia City Historic District is a National Historic Landmark District encompassing the former mining villages of Virginia City and Gold Hill, both in Storey County, as well as Dayton and Silver City, both to the south in adjacent Lyon County, Nevada, United States. Declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961, the district is one of only six in the state of Nevada.
The Virginia and Truckee 18 Dayton is a historic standard gauge steam locomotive on display in Sacramento, California. It spent its working life on the Virginia and Truckee Railroad.
The Nevada Appeal is a twice-weekly newspaper published in Carson City, Nevada, by Pacific Publishing Company.
Lemuel Sanford Bowers was an American teamster of Irish descent, miner and owner of the Crown Point Mine near Gold Hill, Nevada. Bowers and his wife were the Nevada Territory's first millionaires. Their home, the Bowers Mansion, was the first of the stately homes built in Nevada with the wealth from the Comstock Lode.
Virginia and Truckee Railroad Engine No. 27 is a historic standard gauge steam locomotive. It was on display at the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City, Nevada, but was traded with The Dayton and is currently on display at the Comstock Historical Center in Virginia City. It was the last locomotive acquired new by the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, and pulled the last commercial train for the V&T on May 31, 1950, the date that freight and passenger services officially terminated for the company. The locomotive was placed on the National Register of Historic Places due to its association with the Virginia and Truckee Railroad and transportation development in Nevada.
Joseph Thompson Goodman was an American journalist, writer, and epigrapher. During the Comstock silver boom in Virginia City, Nevada, he was owner and editor of the Territorial Enterprise, one of the largest and most influential newspapers on the West Coast. He hired Samuel Clemens as a reporter for the paper, giving Clemens his "start" as a professional writer. He later became interested in deciphering Maya inscriptions and made significant contributions in the field.
The International Printing Museum has one of the largest collections of antique printing presses in the United States. It offers educational programs for school groups at the museum, and also has a Ben-Franklin-type printing press on a trailer that travels to schools and public events for living history programs.
The Sierra Seminary was a private, co-educational school in Carson City, Nevada, US. With the support of the Nevada Territory Legislature, Governor James W. Nye and U.S. Senator William Morris Stewart, it was established in 1860, and founded the following year, by Hannah Keziah Clapp, the first instructor and librarian at the University of Nevada, Reno. Clapp was assisted by Mrs. Cutler and later by Miss Elizabeth C. Babcock. Many of Nevada's prominent citizens of the day were educated at this school. By 1864, there were about 40 students, and in 1865, a new building was erected. Mark Twain visited Sierra Seminary twice, subsequently incorporating some of what he observed into his 1876 novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. It existed until approximately 1886.
The Sagebrush School was the literary movement written primarily by men of Nevada. The sagebrush shrub is prevalent in the state. It was a broad-based movement as it included various literary genres such as drama, essays, fiction, history, humor, journalism, memoirs, and poetry. The name Sagebrush School was coined by Ella Sterling Mighels, who stated:
Sagebrush school? Why not? Nothing in all our Western literature so distinctly savors of the soil as the characteristic books written by the men of Nevada and that interior part of the State where the sagebrush grows.
Virginia and Truckee Railroad No. 22, also known as the "Inyo", is a 4-4-0 "American" type steam locomotive that was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1875 and pulled both passenger and freight trains. The Inyo weighs 68,000 lb (31,000 kg). Its 57 in (140 cm) driving wheels deliver 11,920 lb (5,410 kg) of tractive force. In 1877 it was fitted with air brakes and in 1910 it was converted to burn oil rather than wood.
The use of the pen name of Mark Twain first occurred in Samuel Clemens's writing while in the Nevada Territory which he had journeyed to with his brother. Clemens/Twain lived in Nevada from 1861 to 1864, and visited the area twice after leaving. Historians such as Peter Messent see Clemens's time in Nevada as "the third major formative period of Mark Twain's career" due to his encounters with "writers and humorists who would both shape and put the finishing touches on his literary art." The Routledge Encyclopedia of Mark Twain states that despite the few "disagreeable experiences" he had there, Twain "thrived in Nevada." Among those things he learned was "how far he could push a joke", a lesson learned from some "disagreeable experiences" he brought upon himself.
From 1862 to 1865, Samuel Clemens wrote for Virginia City, Nevada's leading newspaper, Territorial Enterprise. There, his literary skills were first realized and he first used the pen name Mark Twain.
