Yellowstone Day 3

Today we planned a big adventure in Montana. We wanted to drive up the highway and see two historical cities: Nevada City and Virginia City. They are located very close together, but they are a bit different when you visit.  

Nevada City is a ghost town, and has no actual residents. Instead, the preservers of the town have bought up a bunch of historical buildings and added them to the existing ghost town over the years. It is run like a museum, and you can walk through each of the buildings as if you were visiting a ghost town with actual exhibits. We found it to be a bit pricey, but the family pass included panning for garnet and riding the train, so we decided to splurge. 

This is definitely the kind of town that Randy would love to live in!

We love exploring with the cousins and Brittany!

We paid the fee and began our tour in the music room. There were a bunch of old player pianos and other music makers that you could put a few quarters in. Dad really wanted to operate the largest one, a huge carnival organ that cost a whole dollar. This monstrosity was built in 1905 and used at fairs across the country. We paid the fee and leaned in expectantly. Suddenly the organ roared to life, nearly scaring the life out of us as we jumped right out of our shoes. It was well worth the dollar.

 
We walked around the rest of the buildings, which were arranged like a small town. We peeked into the blacksmith shop, the school, and many houses. The boys enjoyed collecting stamps in a small booklet as they found certain destinations. 

The organs and player pianos were fun to listen to, and very scary sometimes.

These kids are in jail.

It was really fun exploring the old historic buildings.

Dax tried out the old swing.

Mark pretended to be the sheriff.

Seth liked peeking out of the window on this door.

Eventually it came time for our train ride. This was a real train ride that lasted about 25 minutes over to Virginia City. They employed a wye to turn the train around on the track using switches, and then we were on our way. We rode along for nearly 25 minutes with a fully narrated tour. We even managed to see a few wild turkeys along the way.

The train was slow, but we learned a lot of history.

Virginia City is an actual town that maintains an Old West style. We walked along the boardwalks past the shops and bought some ice cream. This town wasn’t as interesting and had a much more touristy feel, but it was still small and cozy. 

Mom and Dad ended up with all the cousins while Steph and Mel took care of things, and everyone in town thought we had 8 kids. 

We found an ice cream shop AND a candy shop.

Waiting to ride the train back.

We could only fit 4 or us, so Seth rode with Grandpa and Brittany on this trip.

By the time the train got us back to Nevada City we needed to do our panning for garnets. There were actually a lot of rocks to collect but most of us went after the pretty red ones. Dax saved a whole phial to give to Grandma, and we spent a good hour and a half sifting through our pans of dirt. Tragedy struck when Dax opened the van door and his phial fell out and shattered. It took him a long time to get those tiny garnets picked up and transferred to another container, but he finely got them safely to Grandma.

Mom mostly helped the boys find gems.

Grandpa had fun panning for gold.

Mark was very focused.

We had a blast planning for gems and gold.

That night we decided to take it easy. Most of the kids went swimming, but those with broken arms, like Mark, stayed in the bunkhouse and watched a movie. Dad even took Mark for a short animal drive, and they saw two moose and a white red-tailed hawk.

The kids had a ton of fun swimming!

Mark took this photo on the drive.