The Washoe Club is believed to be one of the most haunted locations in the West and has been repeatedly featured on ghost-hunting television shows, like the Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures and A&E’s Ghost Hunters. Known as the Millionaire’s Club in its heyday, the exclusive social club boasted luxurious fineries including a library, billiard room, wine room, and a parlor with Italian marble accents. To gain access to the club, members climbed a spiral staircase, one of only two in existence in the U.S., with no support beam.

The infamous Lena, known as the Lady in Blue, is often seen floating in a blue dress at the top of the spiral staircase. Some believe she was a prostitute who was murdered at the club. A dark figure with a menacing presence who is sometimes seen on the upper floors is believed to be her killer. Other common apparitions at the Washoe Club include a frightened little girl on the 2nd floor, a young boy named Peter who hides in a closet on the 3rd floor, and a man who hanged himself in the 1990s. There have also been reports of multiple spirits inside The Crypt – a stone room in the lower level where 72 corpses were once stored when the winter ground was too frozen to dig their graves.

The BUCKET of BLOOD Saloon-“the Original” was constructed in 1876 after the Great Fire of 1875 which destroyed up to a thousand structures in Virginia City. The masonry walls of the Old BUCKET predate the Great Fire of 1875. Shadows of doorways recall a time when enclosed stairs led down to the Boston Saloon. The BUCKET of BLOOD has long served as a local landmark in the center of Virginia City. Until recently no one realized that the Boston Saloon lay under an asphalt cap to the rear of the building.

While today it presents a charming historic atmosphere, The Bucket of Blood’s roots are in the rowdy, silver-mining boomtown that it served. Fights often escalated, and after a night of particularly gruesome violence, the bar’s staff would mop up the blood-soaked floor. The water used for cleaning would be red, and when wrung out into a bucket, it looked like a literal bucket of blood. 

The Gold Hill Hotel is the oldest hotel in the state, with its original stone and brick building constructed as the Riesen House in 1861. It has served as a hotel, bar, and boarding house since then. It is also known as one of the most haunted locations on the Comstock. The Hotel is home to Roise and William, two spirits known to move items around, slam doors, turn lights on and off, and make their presence known by strong aromas. Rosie, a lady of the evening, prefers the smell of perfume, and is said to inhabit Room 4. When William is nearby there is an unmistakable odor of cigar smoke. He is said to live in Room 5. 

The E. Clampus Vitus building, originally known as The Moran Building, is home to the darkest energy in Virginia City. In the 1800s, a secret fraternity of leading citizens and businessmen was formed to combat lawlessness in Virginia City. This vigilance committee, known as the 601’s, served notices to undesirables to leave town within 24 hours. If they did not, they were severely dealt with. It is rumored that numerous murders were committed here – the 601’s meaning six feet under, zero trial, one rope. The building eventually deteriorated until all that remained was the front brick facade. The historic property was purchased in 1969 and restored by the Virginia City Chapter of E. Clampus Vitus who now use it as their lodge hall.

John Piper’s Opera House is one of the most significant vintage theaters on the West Coast. Listed by the League of Historic Theaters, it attracted famous stars from Europe and the United States from the 1860s until the 1920s. Spirits of long-age performers are said to tread the boards in Piper’s and the sound of audience laughter and soft applause has been heard emanating from the building long after the lights have gone down and the opera house is empty. Among the spirits, John Piper himself. His cigar smoke has been seen in unoccupied parts of Piper’s. Sightings of John have also been reported especially during a production’s opening night performance.

The historic Fourth Ward School, a majestic four-story building with a distinctive Mansard roof, opened in 1876 to accommodate over 1000 students. Children of all ages attended Fourth Ward until graduating its last class in 1936. Now operating as a museum, Fourth Ward echoes with paranormal activity. Several visitors have seen the apparition of a young girl rushing happily down the stairs only to vanish before reaching the bottom. The sound of children’s laughter is often heard by passersby in the night. And the spirit of a former teacher, known as Miss Suzette, is frequently seen searching the grounds.

The Original Territorial Enterprise Newspaper Building was home to one of the most influential publications in the early American West and employed the aspiring writer Samuel Clemens, who first used the pen name “Mark Twain” while working for the Enterprise. Now the Mark Twain Museum, the building still has the original press room which was the only portion of the building that survived the 1875 fire.

Built in 1859 by George Hearst, the Mackay Mansion is one of the few remaining original structures that survived both the major fires in Virginia City. It also is one of the few buildings with original furniture, carpet, wallpaper, and chandeliers. The mansion was later sold to John Mackay, otherwise known as one of the four Silver Kings and the richest man to come out of the Comstock.

The Mackay Mansion, featured on Ghost Adventures and the Dead Files, is suspected to be home to a multitude of spirits. One, a woman dressed in Victorian clothing who has been seen sitting in the living room and wandering the third floor, is believed to be the former lady of the house, Mrs. Mackay. Also on the third floor, two young girls known as Emma and Lily, have been known to tug on clothing asking to play. The spirits of two bank robbers, who were shot in the chest attempting to rob Mackay’s safe, are said to haunt the first floor of the mansion. Harriet, a maid for Mackay, has been seen in the parlor. And a spirit known as the Shadow Man has been seen throughout the home, which many believe to be John Mackay himself.

The Yellow Jacket Mine is the site of Nevada’s deadliest mining disaster. In 1869, a fire scorched through the interconnected mine shafts, killing 35-40 miners. Many believe a miner on the night crew left a candle burning, causing a fire that smoldered for hours, generating billows of black smoke and a reserve of suffocating carbon monoxide that lingered in the depths of the mine. At dawn, when miners descended in cages to the various levels of the mine, it created an influx of oxygen, causing the fire to roar to life, the framework at the 900-level to collapse, and the tunnels to flood with poisonous gas. At least one of the miners who tried to escape in a cage was beheaded. Many of the bodies were never recovered.

The Yellow Jacket Mine is one of the most haunted locations in Nevada. Visitors and locals have reported unexplained sounds, strange occurrences, and apparitions at the Miner’s Lodge and the historic Gold Hill Hotel, which the mine runs beneath.

Discovered in 1859, the Savage Mine Pit was an important early Comstock Lode operation and was significant for connecting to the Sutro Tunnel. Its major production years were ended by floods at the 2,200-foot level.

The Best & Belcher Mine was not profitable in the gold rush of the 1800s but became of interest nearly 100 years later when the owners of the Ponderosa Saloon realized that the mine shaft entrance was only a short distance from their saloon, so they dug a tunnel to this forgotten mine and began offering tours. Visitors can get a real glimpse of what it was like working underground with a look at tunnels, crosscuts, drifts, stopes, raises, winzes and shafts.

The 150-year-old establishment, formerly the Bank of California, also features the original 1864 bank vault, which once housed millions in gold and silver. The vault was robbed in 1927, and while the armed robbers were caught shortly after, much of the loot was never recovered and is believed to still be hidden somewhere in the hills around Six Mile Canyon.

Built in 1935, the Crown Point Mill, once processed ore from the famed Crown Point Mine. Designed to extract silver and gold from the rich 1871 discovery, it operated until 1942, when wartime restrictions forced its closure. The site is believed to be the home of several spirits who perished during the Yellow Jacket Mine Disaster. The 1869 fire spread between the Yellow Jacket and Crown Point, killing at least 35 miners, many of who’s bodies have never been recovered.

Today, the Crown Point site stands as a historic landmark, where visitors can explore original machinery, ore bins, crushers, and other remnants of its mining past. 

The cursed International Hotel burned down twice. First built in 1860, it was dismantled and rebuilt in 1863. The three-story, luxurious, brick building was touted as fireproof. It burned to the ground during the Great Fire in 1875. Two years later, a third International Hotel was built in the same location and far grander than its predecessors. Considered the most luxurious hotel in the state, it had six stories, 160 rooms, and Nevada’s first hydraulic elevator. The hotel boasted many high-profile guests including President Rutherford B. Hayes. On a cold December morning in 1914, an unexplained fire burned the hotel to rubble in a matter of hours. The people inside had to escape by descending ropes and ladders or leaping out of windows. At least one person was killed, an unidentified man whose body was found in the ruins months after the fire. The wreckage of the hotel remained at the site for two decades before it was cleaned up and turned into a parking lot.

It’s said one room of the International Hotel didn’t burn in the fire of 1914. The room, which faced B Street, was the site of numerous suicides. It’s believed their spirits are the ones seen in the parking lot at night. 

Disaster struck Virginia City happened on October 26, 1875. At 5:15am, a coal oil lamp was knocked over at the boarding house of Crazy Kate, a woman of ill repute, located on A Street. Fueled by dry timbers and Zephyr winds, the fire quickly spread to the north, west, and south. The fire was too hot and too fast. Water ran out and explosives from the mines were used to blow up buildings in an effort to stop the flames. The Virginia City Fire Department could do little but direct residents to evacuate.

As reported by the Sacramento Daily Union “Women were shrieking; the cries of despair; the curses of enraged men; the roar of the flames; the dull reports of explosions as building after building took fire; the heavy thud and crash of falling walls; the snap of bursting iron bars and door.; the howl of the gale- all went to make up a scene of indescribable horror.”

Two-thirds of the city was destroyed – more than 2,000 structures – as well as mines and virtually all the city’s fire equipment. 3,000 were left homeless. Three deaths were reported – one man was killed by the falling walls of a brewery, an unknown drunk man was crushed by a rafter while refusing to leave a bookstore, and a third man reportedly died from falling walls.

*Photo courtesy the Reno-Gazette Journal

The first Chinese arrived on the Comstock in the early 1860s after working on the Reese River Ditch project in Dayton. Met with prejudice and denied basic rights—such as the ability to hold mining claims—they were often driven from jobs, including railroad work in 1869. Still, they found employment as gardeners, firewood haulers, domestics, and especially in laundries during Virginia City’s Bonanza years. Virginia City’s Chinatown was a large and bustling neighborhood east of the main downtown area that housed 1,500 to 2,000 residents in one and two-story wooden buildings. Chinatown had homes, businesses like laundries, noodle parlors, opium dens, as well as a central Joss House temple for religious and social gatherings. The community eventually declined due to discrimination and economic decline with many original structures later demolished.

Forged in the heat of Nevada’s silver boom, the Virginia & Truckee Railroad Company has been a permanent fixture of Virginia City since 1869 as is one of the most famous of all American Short Line Railroads. In its heyday, the Virginia & Truckee Railroad hauled millions upon millions of dollars in gold and silver ore from the mines deep below Virginia City and the surrounding areas, running an impressive 45 trains per day for 74 years straight. The V&T also ran passenger cars including the McKeen which is considered to be one of only three national historic landmarks that moves.

When the last original train rolled in 1950, these rails could have fallen silent forever. But they didn’t. Thanks to decades of tireless work by train enthusiasts, state agencies, historians, and community members, V&T Railway was brought back to life piece by piece. Locomotives were restored, track was rebuilt, and history was preserved in the hopes coming generations would continue to create stories that stood the test of time.

The Freight Depot was built in the early 1870s to handle large shipments to and from mills, as well as goods for the Virginia City’s booming population. Destroyed by the Great Fire in 1875, the shed that stands today was built in 1877. The depot operated until 1938 after which time it was used as a stable, lumber, and storage house. Today, it remains largely unaltered and serves as a ticket location for V&T train operations.