LeDandy's Summer Vacation, Part II of II

The first leg of the trip was spent in Reno, as I discussed in a post earlier in the week. After Reno, Jon Dean and I headed out to Virginia City which is about twenty miles away. Jon Dean's cousin Tamara and her husband Steve joined us. Virginia City was at one time larger than Los Angeles in population during the late 19th Century. This place has a rich history as an Old West mining town.

The main thoroughfare in Virgina City, "C" Street, can give you the wrong impression of this historic city. There are several good stores on this street, but most of them remind me of the tacky tourist shops seen in the movies. If you've seen National Lampoon's "Vacation," you know what I'm saying.

Virginia City was home to a prominent dandy / author / socialite by the name of Lucius Beebe. Mr. Beebe moved to Virginia City in 1950 with his partner Charles Clegg (yes, Lucius was 'family'). As you can tell by the Life cover from 1939, Lucius was clearly an exponent of Orthodox Dandyism. He had a very colorful history and he held a deep interest in railroads. He even had two private railroad cars. Two of the chairs from his private railroad car were in our suite.

I plan on writing a separate article on Mr. Beebe in the future. For those of you in a rush, I recommend the Wikipedia article on him as a starting point. The interesting thing about him is that his style is the polar opposite of LeDandy. He, along with LeDandy, are characters worthy of historical preservation.

After two days in Virginia City, LeDandy and Jon Dean headed out to Carson City before returning home. I had a strong desire to see the old Carson City mint since I have an interest in coin collecting. The mint is now part of the Nevada State Museum and there are many other interesting exhibits. The museum surpassed my expectations and I recommend a stop here if you are in the area. Please see my review and photos on Yelp.

This was a wonderful little vacation and I'd definitely go back to Northern Nevada. I far prefer this area to Las Vegas. There is a lot of Old West charm and the people are friendlier than Vegas.