All the churches, halls, district court-house, theater, and other public buildings are finer than those destroyed in the big fire, and again are seen trees and grounds of handsome appearance in various parts of the city. In the city are several school-houses that cost from $20,000 to $60,000, besides which there are a number of private schools, and the fine school of the Sisters of Charity. There is also a hospital—St. Mary’s, a commodious brick structure—under the charge of the Sisters, as well as a large and well-conducted county hospital. Both are located beyond the eastern suburbs in quiet and pleasant places. The halls belonging to the many societies and secret orders are elegant and costly. The city now has electric lights, two daily newspapers, and one weekly.
The mills and hoisting works are a striking and characteristic feature of the place. The immense waste dumps, high trestle-work car tracks, trains of ore cars on the railroad, clouds of black smoke belched from many tall stacks, trains loaded with wood and timber, all tell that mining is the great industry of the city; then much of the street talk heard is of mines and mining stocks.
The International Hotel is the oldest in the city. It was founded in 1860, when it was a mere frame shanty fronting on B Street. The hotel destroyed by the big fire was a commodious brick structure, but the present building is far finer. It now extends from B to C Street, is constructed of brick, stone, and iron, and is six stories in height. It is capable of accommodating in excellent style a large number of guests.
Views from the City and Vicinity.
Though the landscape visible from the city cannot be called beautiful, yet it is grand and picturesque. On all sides except the east, the town is shut in by near ranges of high, rocky, and barren mountains. To the eastward the eye reaches over a vast area composed of tracts of sandy desert, valley lands, dark and rocky hills, and rugged and towering mountain ranges. The chief of these is the Humboldt Range, seen blue or purple in the distance, from 150 to 190 miles away. These mountains and their snow-clad peaks stand out against the dark-blue of the sky far beyond the green cottonwood groves that follow the meanderings of the Carson River, far beyond the Forty-mile Desert and the lake and sink of the Carson, and beyond Humboldt Lake and Sink.
To the northeast are seen several sharp and splintered peaks, while to the southeast, from twenty to fifty miles away, rise the huge and grand peaks of the Como Mountains. From the Divide (the dividing ridge between Virginia and Gold Hill) may be obtained a magnificent view of the main Sierra Nevada Range and its many mighty snow-capped peaks as they trail and circle away from west to south till they are lost to view behind lower interior ranges at a point over 150 miles away.
The View from the Summit of Mt. Davidson.
From the peak of Mount Davidson may be obtained a grand and extensive view of the country in all directions. To the westward is seen Washoe Lake and the green meadows and fields by which it is surrounded. Although Washoe Valley and its lake seem to be just at the foot of the mountain they are from eight to ten miles distant. Beyond and high above the valley tower the pine-clad Sierras, with, along their line, several giant granite peaks, snow-capped the greater part of the year. Prominent among these stands out Bald Mountain, just north of Lake Tahoe, and within plain view Mount Lincoln, Job’s Peak, Silver Mountain, and many other peaks that have names. Twenty miles to the northward are to be seen the green pastures and alfalfa fields of the Truckee Meadows, while to the southward we have the Sierra Range and Eagle and Carson Valleys. Carson City is hid by intervening low hills. To the eastward are the same deserts and mountains that compose the landscape viewed from the city, but from the top of the mountain the eye ranges over a vastly wider field.
The Virginia and Truckee Railroad.
From our elevated position on the peak of Mount Davidson we may trace nearly the whole course of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad. This road runs from Reno to Virginia City via Carson City, and is fifty-two miles in length. Besides being in one part the most crooked railroad in the world, its whole course is a great curve. The distance from Virginia City to Reno as the crow flies is only about seventeen miles, and but twenty-two by wagon road, yet to connect the two points by rail required a road fifty-two miles in length.