I Ain't Afraid Of No Ghost

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Today we took a break from the parks and wildlife hunting and went to visit a couple of ghost towns. We did not have any special suits or ammo to battle any ghosts, but we went to the towns regardless. We did not get up early like other days and took our time through out the day. It was needed as we were all still tired from yesterday's hike.The route from our cabin to the ghost towns took about 1 and a half hours - taking us through Idaho for a bit and then back into Montana. We passed by lakes, ranches, cabins, pastures, mountains and some of the best scenery around. Montana roads have the best views and if all roads had views like that, I could just ride forever.

We arrived in Virginia City to find very few people about. Though it is home to a ghost town it is also a functioning town. I guess they all slept later than we did today. We parked toward the end of town and started walking around looking at some of the old buildings and relics. Many of the buildings had the inside set up like museums and gave a visual of how things were way back in the time period of that town. Most of the buildings were closed for the season, but we still got to see quite a bit of it and without all of the tourists. I think we all liked seeing the historic part of Montana.

After exploring the Virginia City ghost town, we traveled a mile down the road to the Nevada City ghost town. It is not a functioning town and the buildings are only open from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The structures in the town are authentic from the 1800s but many were brought to the area and are not part of the original city. They have it set up for you to pay to do a walking tour including a gate and fenced in buildings, but since it was closed we did a partial walking tour for free. It was not long before a few other people joined us.

There were many interesting structures and unique history to the city. Some of the structures have been turned into rentable units for overnight stays. It is a bit sad to see these buildings in their run down shape but also nice to see so much history. One of the most peculiar buildings was a 2-story outhouse - you could use the bottom unit or the top unit. I did not go inside to see how it fully operated, but I would hate to be in the bottom unit while someone was in the top. There were many buildings including a fire station, barber shop, cheap cash store, bakery, train depot with old railcars like a wooden caboose, and a marker depicting the location of the trial and hanging of George Ives. George was an outlaw and a member of the Road Agents (a notorious gang). The gang was a crude bunch and George was ultimately hung for killing a man to steal his gold. It was really weird to stand beneath the tree where old George hung to his death.

After finding no ghosts in either town we decide to head back the way we came, but when we reached Virginia City, we noticed some the buildings were open and the city was starting to look alive (it was lunch time). We stopped by the saloon, a couple of shops and then ate lunch at the only place to eat in town. It was good, but service was not so friendly. After last lunch, we drove to an old historic cemetery on Boothilll which had very few graves. The graves were those of members of the Road Agents and all were hung the same day. And across the road from those graves were 3 tiny graves marked 'Rodent Agents'. I took a picture of these tiny graves and that picture explains what they were.

We left the ghost towns without seeing any ghosts and stopped in the town of Ennis. It was a cute town and had several unique shops and antique stores. We all enjoyed browsing through and each found something we just had to purchase. So with some new found treasures to add to our collection, we headed back to our cabin. Along the way we enjoyed the awesome views again and saw many, many pronghorn in the fields beside the road. We had to have seen hundreds of them. They do not seem afraid for they are all out in the open and I think their numbers far exceed the squirrels.

Today we were all able to experience something new and different. We not only added another state to our 'traveled to' list of states, but got to visit some new cities and ghost towns. We saw a lot of history from the area and some amazing scenery. I am just glad we did not have to call Ghost Busters.

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