@movernie
Virginia City was once a booming mining town back in the days. As of today, the main source of business relies heavily on tourism. This town has preserved all the historical buildings, rich history with cowboys and ghost stories. The moment you have arrived to this town, you feel like you are back to the future. I personally find this place fascinating as I live in a busy downtown core of Toronto, Canada, I would never imagine a town like this can be preserved til today’s modern age.
Since Virginia City was once a mining town, it offers a number of guided mining tour and I highly recommend it. The one that we visited was the Ponderosa Saloon. It is a bar that serves food and drinks as well as a guided mining tour.
As we walked to the back of the saloon, we saw a staff registered the individuals for the guided tour. We could see all the gem stones and other rocks on both sides of the walls that could be found in the land mines back in the days. After a 10 minute wait (as there are guided tours each hour), it was our turn.
For safety, the tour guide introduced himself to us, then he gave us a brief story about the mine that we are about to explore. No saddles or bare feet are allowed for the tour, everyone had to wear closed toe shoes. Additionally, we had to wear a safety hard hat during the tour. The route to the mine was narrow, with some part of the section that we had to bend down to pass through. This really gave us an experience and the taste of the hardship for the miners who had to work in these types of dangerous and rough conditions.
The route took about 10 to 15 minutes long to walk, along the way, we could see the machines, equipment, the gold digger tools that the miners used to find gold or other minerals. It’s dark, cold and dam down here, ventilation wasn’t great, it made me feel more and more of how lucky I am living at a time when there was no war and don’t have to be working in a land mine.
I highly recommend you to check out this guided mining tour to get to learn more about the life of a miner as well as learning the history of this town called Virginia City.
Ponderosa Saloon
Website: https://m.facebook.com/ponderosasaloon/
Address: 106 S C St, Virginia City, NV 89440, USA
Phone: +1 775-847-7210
Want to know more about my press trip experience and adventures during my visit in Virginia City, Nevada? Follow my journey on Instagram (@RealMoVernie) and Twitter (@MoVernie).
The Ponderosa Saloon Guided Mining Tour and this press trip were provided by Travel Nevada. However, as always, the opinions expressed in this post is entirely my own.
Travel Nevada
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MoVernie Fun Fact: What is “DFMI” stands for? It stands for “Don’t Fence Me In”, which is the main slogan & identity for Travel Nevada.
