Daily Dose - Day One

In my last post, I revealed the cover for Gambling on the Outlaw, which releases on June 23, 2015.

Because the novel is set in the fictional town of Palmer, Nevada in 1873, I thought it might be fun to share some daily pictures, trivia, and information about the place, time, and people.

Let's start off today with Virginia City, Nevada. Part of the story takes place in Virginia City, which sprang up around the Comstock Lode, the first major silver deposit discovered in the United States.  At it's boomtown peak, the population averaged 25,000, but after 1878 it declined and in 2010 was somewhere between 800 and 900.

Virginia City in the 1870s

Today, Virginia City is a tourist attraction. When I was a little kid in the 1970s my grandparents lived in Carson City, and I remember on one trip to visit them, they took us to Virginia City. Grandpa gave me and my sister centennial silver dollars and we were in awe of the huge coins!

A more modern Virginia City

A couple of bits of Virginia City trivia:

1. Louis L'Amour's book "Comstock Lode" takes place in Virginia City during the silver rush.
2. The fictional Ponderosa Ranch from the TV show Bonanza is near Virginia City and the characters visit town often, but the Virginia City shown in the TV show is actually a set located on the RKO lot in Hollywood.
3. The Red Dog Saloon in Virginia city is where Janis Joplin, Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Charlatans, the Grateful Dead, and others got their start in the summer of 1965, and contributed to West Coast hippie culture.



Come back tomorrow for your next Daily Dose of the 1870s!

~Margaret