Day 32: Talkin' 'bout a Ghost Town

Yesterday Alie's grandparents took us to a ghost town called Virginia City. At one time it was the capitol of Montana. That was around the 1840s or so during the gold rush era, when the town was a big deal. Now a days its a neat little side trip. Everyone who works in town has to ware period outfits that would fit their profession. The creamery guy wore a vest and a string tie. The man manning the ticket booth at the opera house wore a bowler and the woman who ran a shop in the old school house wore something that a spinster would've wore. It was pretty neat. A lot of the buildings in the town are restored, but sealed off from the outside. If you peer in the windows you see mannequins all dressed up in period cloths as well posed to do their specific jobs. Like the switch board operator at the Bell Telegraph shop was sitting and in the process of manipulating some cables.

The history of the town is pretty neat, like I said it was the capitol of Montana for a short while, but before that, there was this vigilante government. Where locals decided to clean up the town and the surrounding area and distribute justice to the outlaws. Well once they did that and there was gold discovered in the surrounding hills. They got power hungry and started becoming the oppressors. Eventually they were removed from power somehow (I never got that far.) And the town basically folded up in the mid 1940s. Today as I described above its a tourist attraction and a neat one at that.

At night we had a delicious steak dinner cooked by Alie's grandmother's nephew, Bob. Then went to a real cowboy bar called Stacy's it was great. The country band player not only country but some good classic rock tunes as well, but still had a distinctive country feel. Alie and I danced to a slow version of Rocketman and Bob sang with the band for one song. Good people, good drinks and good times. Certainly one for the memory banks.

Today we shove off and head for South Dakota an 8 hour trip! But tomorrow we hit Mt. Rushmore! I'm psyched. No stats today since we did not really travel very far and we did not have the GPS with us. ;)