Lantern Tour, Saturday, 5/31/14 and Sunday, 6/1/14

Saturday, May 31, 2014

Chuck worked at the Gypsy Arcade today and Cindy worked again at Nevada City.   However, today there were a few living history interpreters dressed up and chatting with folks around town.  Cindy took a break and made a quick tour of the grounds.  Our inn mate Daniel was working in the blacksmith shop again, so Cindy took some pictures for him to send his college instructor.   She also met the sheriff, a merchant, and encountered the mountain man Whiskey Joe.  We have been told there will be many more interpreters here when the season gets in full swing. 

There were two people assigned to Nevada City today, and it was so slow that Cindy was asked to go home at 1:30 p.m.  Once there, she cleaned the bathroom and did some laundry and travel agent business. 

Chuck arrived home about 5:30 p.m. and we cooked supper and later played some cards with Libby and Connor as Jaimi and Daniel went to work tonight at the lantern tour in Nevada City.  The rest of the inn mates arrived for the start of the lantern tour at 9:30 p.m.  As soon as it got dark enough, we were greeted by ladies dressed in 1800’s garb holding old fashioned oil or candle burning lanterns.  The tour was not narrated, but we walked around town witnessing different vignettes played out by local volunteer actors.  (The actors did not acknowledge the tourists, and we were told that we were the ghosts in this event.) 

We stopped at the saloon and watched a poker game being played out.  (Duel was the dealer, and Daniel was one of the players.)  When a man rode up on a horse and called the men out to an important meeting, the game broke up and Daniel drunkenly staggered out with his winnings.   

We saw some children playing outside and being called in by their mother, and we observed some ladies chatting outside on their front porch.  We watched a grief stricken woman go talk to the undertaker and ask that he come get her dead husband out of her bed.  (There was a coffin standing up on the porch, and suddenly drunken Daniel came stumbling out of it with his bottle of whiskey in hand.)  The widow and the undertaker started negotiating on the price of the coffin and burying.  When the widow agreed to pay $12.00, she asked the undertaker to come get her husband out of bed.  He told her he would be there to get him the next day so the widow went to the boarding house rather than sleep with the body.   

We observed some men attending the important meeting that had been called earlier.  They were discussing the many recent robberies and murders that had occurred in this new gold rush town, and they decided to form a vigilante committee and take justice into their own hands.  If they were positive a man was guilty of a crime they would hang him without compunction.  If there was the slightest doubt about a man’s guilt, they decided to warn the man of their intentions.  If the numeric symbol 3-7-77 was painted on his house, a man had half a day to get out of town.  (No one knows why the vigilante committee chose this symbol, but the Montana Heritage Commission has chosen to include 3-7-77 on the tee shirts that we wear to work.)

Next we walked by the post office where the postmaster and Whiskey Joe were reading all the letters before they were distributed to the addressees.  They said that was the best entertainment in town. 

And finally, we ended up back at the saloon where Daniel was accused of cheating at cards.  As he was backing out of the saloon, he touched his gun which was interpreted by others as a threat.  As Dan was quickly retreating, he was gunned down by his accuser and there was a dramatic death scene.  The witnesses to the event searched the body and found marked cards in his pocket, so there were no repercussions to the killer.   

Our tour lasted about an hour and then all the inn mates waited for Jaimi to close up so we could escort her across the street to lock up the money in the safe.  We got home at 11:00 p.m., and we all agreed that the lantern tour was a fun way to spend the evening and learn some more about the history of our great country.   There are five more lantern tours scheduled throughout the summer and each will portray a different event in the history of Nevada City.  We plan to take the camera with a flash next time so we can get some better pictures. 

 

Duel and Daniel

 

 

Sunday, June 1, 2014

 We wore our jackets again today as it was overcast and in the fifties all day.   Cindy worked at the gold panning operation with Duel.  (Worked is really a misnomer as all she did was sit in a chair by a heater and visit with Duel.)  At 12:30 p.m. she went home because there were no tourists and no need for the state to pay two people to sit around. 

Chuck started his day off at Nevada City, but it was slow there also so he rode back to Virginia City with Cindy when she got off work.  Chuck took his lunch break and we went to walk around the mountain man rendezvous.  It was just a bunch of tents erected with the artisans selling their hand crafted wares.  We thought the most interesting offerings were wild animal hats and purses.  It was difficult, but Cindy resisted buying a skunk purse for only $95. 

After his lunch break, Chuck spent the afternoon manning the Gypsy Arcade.  That job is not too demanding as he is only required to make change for people to feed the machines and occasionally winds up some of the machines with a hand crank.  There are various games, photoscopes depicting old movies, and music machines that people can enjoy for only a nickel.  The sounds of old fashioned music drifting outside really draws folks in off the street.  Chuck likes talking to the tourists, and he has become very adept at answering people’s questions about the focal gypsy fortune telling machine.