A road trip through the past from Reno to Lake Tahoe

I am fascinated by ghost stories and special places.

But I didn’t expect to discover them so quickly during a 145-mile road trip from Reno to Lake Tahoe, which starts in Reno and offers breathtaking views of the Sierra Nevada on the way to Lake Tahoe, North America’s largest alpine lake.

Just half an hour after driving away from the famous Reno Arch, which declared casino-dominated Reno “The Biggest Little City in the World,” we arrived in the historic town of Virginia City, considered one of the most haunted places in Nevada.

The town looks like a set from a western movie, with Gilded Age mansions dotted around. It’s a quirky town and its residents have plenty of ghost stories to tell.

With me was my childhood friend, who, like me, had grown up watching reruns of The Twilight Zone and was happy to postpone our long-awaited first visit to Lake Tahoe due to possible paranormal sightings of our own.

Virginia City, often packed with tourists during the day during the high season, is eerily quiet at night. After dinner, we walked the now empty wooden boardwalks that lined both sides of Main Street, wondering which of the false facades and old brick buildings might be haunted.

During the day we saw the shopkeepers busy serving tourists (more than two million people visit each year), but this evening we seemed to be the only ones left.

The authentic Victorian-era town, designated a National Historic Landmark, sprang up almost overnight in 1859 with the discovery of one of the world’s richest silver deposits, the Comstock Lode. Today, Virginia City is home to just 1,000 people, but at its peak it was about the size of San Francisco, with a population of about 30,000.

One of the first settlers was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who began his writing career as a newspaper editor for the Territorial enterpriseHe would later adopt the alias Mark Twain while living here between 1861 and 1864.

To get a good idea of ​​what Virginia City looked like in Twain’s day, his book The rough life describes a town full of miners, bartenders, bandits, robber barons and prostitutes.

“Virginia had grown into the most ‘lively’ city, for its age and population, that America had ever produced. The sidewalks were thronged with people—so much so that it was generally no easy matter to stem the human tide,” Twain wrote.

“The streets themselves were equally crowded with quarter wagons, freight teams, and other vehicles. The procession was endless. So large was the procession that carriages often had to wait half an hour for a chance to cross the main street… Money was as plentiful as dust… There were military companies, fire companies, brass bands, banks, hotels, theaters, hurdy-gurdy houses, wide-open gambling houses, political powwows, civic processions, street fights, murders, inquests, riots, a whiskey mill every fifteen paces… and half a dozen jails and railroad stations in full operation, and talk of building a church.”

My friend and I stayed in the heart of town at the Tahoe House Hotel, one of the original hotels built in 1859. It’s also where Twain lived, when it was “part men’s boarding house and part brothel,” according to owner Paul Hoyle.

“When you bring in thousands and thousands of people, they need somewhere to stay, so one of the very first things that gets built is boarding houses. In the old days, you would get a cot, or two cots in a room, a tub of water, and the bathrooms were in the back. They were very modest accommodations,” he said.

Today, guests can stay in one of 14 renovated rooms, each with a private bathroom and furnished with carefully selected antique furniture, or in the private cottage behind the hotel.

I was fortunate enough to stay where Twain once lived, in the “Mark Twain Study,” which opens onto a semi-private balcony above the boardwalk, with views of the hillside and some of the old mine shafts.

Although the hotel is haunted, I saw no signs of Twain’s presence anywhere.

Hoyle is convinced that he never saw anything unusual during his stay at the hotel.

However, the hotel’s housekeeper/bartender, Jennifer Reed, said she heard footsteps stomping down the hallway when she was alone in the hotel. But she added that most of her paranormal encounters occurred at the nearby Washoe Club, built in 1862 and featured on the Travel Channel’s Ghost adventures show.

“I was in the club and I was joking about Ghost adventures. You know, the way they did the show, when I felt a push, my arms started tingling, and I’ve never joked about ghosts since then,” Reed said.

She said she was there once with her son and they both saw the ghost of a dead miner, they have a photo to prove it.

After Reed told me that a number of tourists taking the Washoe Club’s daily ghost tours had been haunted by a malevolent spirit said to haunt one of the upstairs rooms, I decided to skip the tour and take a quick peek inside the saloon instead.

But I love visiting historic homes, so my curiosity got the better of me when I went to the Mackay Mansion, where actor Johnny Depp stayed during filming Dead man in 1995 and said he had seen the ghost of a little girl at the foot of his bed.

The girl, the daughter of a servant who died of tuberculosis, is apparently not the only one haunting the mansion, our guides tell us. Others have seen the shadow of a man, believed to be the mansion’s former owner, John Mackay, who made his fortune on the Comstock Lode, but we haven’t. We didn’t see anything otherworldly in Virginia City, either, but we still thoroughly enjoyed our stay — ghost or no ghost.

> See TAHOE, xx

Before heading to Lake Tahoe, just an hour’s drive from Virginia City, we drove through the scenic state capital, Carson City, and stopped for lunch in Genoa at the historic Pink House. We also visited “Nevada’s oldest thirst quencher,” The Genoa Bar & Saloon, built in 1853.

Genoa is also quirky. You only have to step inside the bar to see why. Hanging on deer antlers, next to a dusty buffalo head and other Western memorabilia, is Raquel Welch’s bra.

The story goes that the actress and movie star, who rose to fame in the mid-1960s, came in for a drink and donated her bra after the owner promised to get rid of all the other bras hanging from the ceiling. Again, not something I expected to see on my “Reno to Lake Tahoe” road trip, but definitely memorable.

IF YOU GO

Where to stay

Reno — Located on the banks of the Truckee River, the Renaissance Reno Downtown Hotel & Spa is a great option for visitors who want a non-gambling hotel. The hotel features a Mediterranean restaurant, sports bar, outdoor pool, gym, and bocce ball court. It is also within walking distance of the Nevada Museum of Art and the National Automobile Museum.

Peppermill Reno Resort is a Tuscan-themed casino hotel conveniently located 2 miles from Reno-Tahoe International Airport. Rooms are decorated with what some would call kitschy custom mahogany furniture and feature marble bathrooms. The resort also features 11 restaurants and bars, two outdoor pools, a fitness center and a spa.

Virginia City — You too can experience the Old West as it was in the 1800s at the quaint yet comfortable Tahoe House Hotel, where guests are greeted with a complimentary beverage in the historic lobby bar/great room in the heart of this historic town. Bring a book, as guest rooms do not have televisions.

Lake Tahoe — Harveys Lake Tahoe is the first casino built on the vibrant South Shore and features stunning views of the lake and the Sierra Nevada. It also has two celebrity-led restaurants — Gordon Ramsay’s Hells Kitchen and Lisa Vanderpump’s recently opened Wolf — with a diverse menu that ranges from fine dining to more affordable, casual options.

Located right on the water, Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort, Spa and Casino in Incline Village offers a choice of modern suites in the main resort or private lakeside cottages. The Lone Eagle Grille is a great fine dining restaurant with a beautiful view of the luxury lakeside resort’s private beach.

Edgewood Tahoe Resort in Stateline has a park-like setting right on the lake and is home to Lake Tahoe’s only lakefront golf course. Opened in 2017, the 154-room luxury lodge features a grand lobby with vaulted ceilings and large windows, and is inspired by old National Park lodges. Although it’s expensive, you can still enjoy the property by stopping in for a meal. We had breakfast at The Bistro Edgewood and then spent some time relaxing by Edgewood Lake.

Kim Pemberton was hosted by Travel Nevada, which has not reviewed or approved this article. Follow her on Instagram at kimstravelogue.