Virginia City Madness

Braxton inspects the devil dog house

On September 2nd, the Academy level as part of Land & Water theme, took a trip to Virginia City. The bus ride was long, but once we got there, we realized the trip was well worth the ride. The ghost tour at a ghost town is always fun and the scavenger hunt gave us time to look around and discover what a ghost town is all about.
We started the day with lunch and learning to "sweep". Kathy was an excellent instructor. The next stop was ghost tour or scavenger hunt, we split in half. One of the ghost stories focused on a little girl who haunts the costume shack for the Virginia City Opera House. The costumes in the rooms move around and people have actually seen a little girl standing inside of the house, but she seems to disappear in an instant. Another ghost story tells of a nun who helps people who are sick and walks from her little house to the Bonanza Inn, right next door.
Some of the things that impressed everyone from the scavenger hut was:
Boot Hill, where the outlaws were buried.
The candy store where the clerks pull taffy in the window.
The building where the Vigilantes hung people
and the original buildings are preserved as part of the town.

Ghost in the Costume Shop

The day went by fast, we could have spent several more hours hunting for ghosts or just sight-seeing. On the way out of town we stopped at the Virginia City Museum to see a mummified human "club foot" as well as a petrified cat ... which was just plain disgusting.