November 4th, Virginia City, Nv.

Have ya ever heard of Bonanza? Ok this is one of the oldest running westerns that is still seen on TV. Virginia City is where the Cartwright's would go to see the Sheriff in the program. In it's time it must have been a pretty lawless place where it appears to this day a person could get a drink on any corner. The city still has sidewalks or boardwalks that line the streets.

Virginia City is one of the oldest established communities in Nevada. Folklore indicates that the town got its name from a man named James Finney who was nicknamed "Old Virginy". Finney was credited with discovering the Comstock Lode. His real name was James Fennimore, and he had fled his home state of Virginia after killing a man.

Like many cities and towns in the state, Virginia City was a mining boomtown; it appeared virtually overnight as a result of the Comstock Lode silver strike of 1859.

Mining operations were hindered by extreme temperatures in the mines caused by natural hot springs. The miners would snowshoe to work and then descend into the high temperatures. This contributed to a low life expectancy. Adolph Sutrobuilt the Sutro Tunnel in support of the mining operations. The tunnel drained the water to the valley below (Dayton). Conceived in 1860, it was not completed until many years later, after much of the silver had been mined.

At its peak, Virginia City had a population of over 15,000 residents and was called the richest city in America.During the 20 years following the Comstock success"about $400 million was taken out of the ground."^[ Most of the miners who came to the city were Cornish or Irish.In 1870, Asians were 7.6% of the population. When the Comstock Lode ran out in 1898, the city's population declined sharply.

Between 1859 and 1875, Virginia City experienced five serious fires. The 1875 fire, dubbed the Great Fire of 1875, caused $12 million in damage.

The population of Virginia City is about 1,000 people in the town. 4,000 live in Storey County

Bonanza is an NBC produced western television series that ran on the NBC network from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series (behind Gunsmoke) and still continues to air in syndication. The show centers around the Cartwright family, who live in the area near Lake Tahoe, Nevada. The show stars Loren Greene, Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker, Michael Landon, and David Carnary. The show's title "Bonanza" is a term used by miners in regard to a large vein or deposit of ore, and commonly refers to The Comstock Lode. In 2002, Bonanza was ranked No. 43 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV shows of All Time.

The family lived on a 600,000+ acre ranch (over one thousand square-miles) called the Ponderosa on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe in Nevada. The vast size of the Cartwrights' land was quietly revised to "half a million acres" on Lorne Greene's 1964 song, "Saga of the Ponderosa." The ranch name refers to the Ponderosa Pine, common in the West. The nearest town to the Ponderosa was Virginia City, where the Cartwrights would go to converse with Sheriff Roy Coffee (played by veteran actor Ray Teal), or his deputy Clem Foster (Bing Russell).