Silver and Rust

Another day of my Reno visit took us up into the hills to Virginia City, the old boomtown built on the silver of the Comstock Lode.

The town still looks the part, with brick storefronts, faded painted signs, and wooden balconies lining the main street. The Storey County Courthouse stands watch, and grand Victorian homes cling to the hillsides. Away from the main street, history sits right out in the open: rusted trucks and a weathered safe overgrown with brush, an old hillside cemetery, and a grand piano left to the elements, its keys peeling in the sun.

Virginia City wears its age honestly. Wandering through what the silver rush left behind, I felt how quickly fortunes rise and fall, and how much character a place keeps long after the boom fades.