Living History and Around Town, Sunday, 6/29/14 and Monday, 6/30/14

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Today’s weather was sunny and in the sixties.  Chuck worked at the gold panning operation and Cindy worked again in Nevada City.  Elise looked really cute in her 1863 clothing, but her hair is too short for that time period.  Her fellow living history interpreters explained that by saying that she had suffered from “the fever,” and she wore a hat all day.  She made biscuits and learned to bake them in a wood fired stove, and then she went for some more spinning lessons. 

We got off work at 6:30 p.m. and then went out to eat at the local steakhouse.  We were both recently awarded $25 gift certificates from our employer, so we used them to pay for tonight’s meal. 

Elise and Daniel

Monday, June 30, 2014

 It was nice, sunny weather again today.  Chuck worked at the gold panning operation, but Cindy had the day off because Jaimi begged her to switch days with her.  It is somewhat inconvenient, because now the only day off we will have together is Thursday and we are getting desperate for groceries.   

Cindy mostly piddled the day away.  She cleaned the bathroom and did a load of laundry.  She returned the Victorian clothes that we borrowed from the ball organizer, and she mailed a package at the post office.  

Since she had never been to the Virginia City cemetery, she spent a couple of hours there wandering among the old graves.  There was a veterans’ memorial near the cemetery entrance, and a flag was flying for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Merchant Marines, and Coast Guard as well as an American flag and a state of Montana flag.  The cemetery was on top of a hill overlooking the city and was adjacent to an old baseball field with a sign proclaiming it was the, “Field of Dreams.”  Several of the headstones were large, smooth rocks that had been engraved with the pertinent information.   William Fairweather is the man who discovered gold here, and his grave was prominently marked.  Seeing the graves of many of the pioneers was a reminder that a lifetime is but a blip in eternity and that the pioneer era was not really that long ago. 

At 1:00 p.m. Cindy went to get Chuck and took him to lunch at the only restaurant in Nevada City.  Upon returning him to work, she saw Duel and he suggested that she check out the Nevada City cemetery so that is what she did.  George Ives, one of the road agents that was hanged by the vigilantes is buried there, but Cindy was unable to find his grave.  Supposedly, he is buried next to a 17 year old Dutch man named Nicholas Tibalt who was murdered by Ives and their graves make a T-formation.  Legend has it that Ives was buried face down to speed him on his way to hell. 

After returning home, Cindy took a walk downtown and went into the Courthouse that was built in 1875.  It is still in use today, so she went inside to look around.  It is a striking building and the bottom floor houses county offices.  The upper floor contains a still used courtroom and the woodwork was lovely including the old-fashioned chairs in the jurors’ box.  A picture of town founder William Fairweather hung in a place of prominence.   

At 6:00 p.m. Cindy drove to the River of Gold to pick up Chuck from work and they spent a quiet evening at home as the other inn mates went to Dillon for the evening.  

Bill Fairweather