Daniel's Last Hanging and Summit Tour, Saturday, 8/9/14 through Monday, 8/11/14

Saturday, August 9, 2014

The weather was in the seventies again today.  Chuck worked at the Virginia City depot, but the train driver went home sick at 2:00 p.m. and Chuck had to take over the engineer duties.  There were lots of people in town today, and every train ride was sold out. 

Everyone loves a good shooting and hanging, and it was hectic at the Nevada City museum.  Cindy worked there and thought it was busier today than it was on the Fourth of July.  Below are some pictures of the Nevada City schoolhouse.  Tommy Lee Jones visited here in the spring of this year to scope out a movie location.  He is purportedly going to remake the movie, “The Cowboys” and will reprise John Wayne’s role.  Word on the street is that our schoolhouse will be used in one of the early scenes where a rancher goes to the school to enlist young boys to help him move his herd of cattle.   

We worked until 7:00 p.m. tonight as it took that long to clear out all the people and count the money.  Chuck was asked to participate in tonight’s lantern tour, so we went home and had a quick sandwich before returning to Nevada City at 8:00 p.m.  Chuck changed into some borrowed 1864 clothes and again played the part of a bartender.  He got 30 lashes with a whip for supplying a gun to Daniel who then shot a man.  Daniel got hung once more and he gets better at it every time. 

At the end of the tour, the historical interpreters were standing out front to greet the tourists.  Two deputy sheriff’s showed up and wanted to know what was going on.  They said that someone from the hotel next door had called them to report that they heard shots and screams so they had come to investigate.  Oh my gosh!  How can anyone that lives in this area not know what goes on here?  Duel’s dad spoke to them and invited everyone on the force to attend the next lantern tour so they would be in the know for all future performances. 

We got home at 11:15 p.m. and had a piece of leftover cake with the inn mates before retiring for the night.

 

 

 

 

Sunday, August 10, 2014

 It was warmer today than it has been lately.  Chuck worked at Nevada City with Duel, and they had a steady crowd because of living history.  Daniel got hung for the last time today, and Chuck took his lunch break so he could video the event.  A three year old boy broke into tears when he thought Daniel was dead, so Daniel arose from the dead and went to console the boy. 

Cindy worked at the Virginia City depot, and it was a pretty boring day.  Many of the train seats were booked yesterday, and when they sell out there is not much to do at the depot.  The most entertainment at the depot today was when a couple came in to give Cindy a quarter to use the bathroom.  Someone in town told them they had to pay to use the bathroom at the depot, but Cindy informed them that someone was pulling their leg as we do not charge for that amenity. 

We got off work at 6:30 p.m. and went home to grill hamburgers and sausage dogs.  Duel came over to eat with the inn mates, and we all told Daniel goodbye and good luck.  We are surely going to miss him. 

 

 

Monday, August 11, 2014

It got up to ninety degrees today, but it didn’t feel that hot.  We left the Bonanza Inn at 6:30 a.m. this morning and headed to Helena Ford.  We had an appointment at 9:00 a.m. because they were going to fix the heated and cooled seats that they ordered parts for last week when we were there.  When we arrived after driving for two hours, we were informed that they did not have all the necessary parts to make the repair.   Could they not have called us?  However, we sat in the showroom for two and one half hours while they put on two of the four new parts.  They are to call us when they receive the remaining parts. 

Upon leaving Helena Ford, we stopped and bought a few items at Wal-Mart and Costco before eating lunch at Panda Express.  The food was better today as the new cook was nowhere in sight. 

 On the drive home a gravel truck passed us going in the opposite direction.  A small rock blew out of the back of the truck and struck our windshield on the passenger side.  There is now a crack right in Cindy’s line of site, so we will see if the Ford place can replace the windshield when we make the next trek back to Helena.  We arrived home at 3:50 p.m. and rushed inside to unload the refrigerated food. 

 At 4:00 p.m. we made our way to the Virginia City depot and boarded an old Army M923 six-wheel drive truck for a tour of the Alder Gulch summit.  The massive truck (which seats 20 people) drives on a really rough dirt road for seven miles along the most concentrated gold strike in U.S. history.  It was recorded that 1.2 billion dollars in gold came from this area.  We went up to an elevation of 7200 feet and saw the remains of several old gold mines and processing mills, and we also saw an old gold claim marker which is still standing after all these years.   It was a dirty ride, but it was most interesting and we appreciate the free tickets which were provided by the Montana Heritage Commission.   

We returned home at 6:00 p.m. and finished unloading our groceries.  We visited with the inn mates for a short time and then spent a while surfing the net at the rehearsal hall before calling it an evening. 

Gold Claim Marker