Reno and Virginia City, Nevada
Gambling aside two great cities offer lots of other things for visitors
Reno, Nevada, which bills itself as “The Biggest Little City in the World” is also the friendliest little city in the world. Unlike Las Vegas where you need transport to cruise around, downtown Reno is compact enough to allow you to cover it all in a leisurely stroll. While Las Vegas dazzles you with its razzmatazz glitz, Reno beguiles you with its folksy charm. And, unlike Vegas where we are nonentities among millions of visitors from all over the world, Reno knows and loves us Canadians.
Smaller than Las Vegas as it may be, Reno doesn’t lack glitter. The Flamingo Hilton Hotel, Atlantis, Pepper Mill, Eldorado and Silver Legacy, among others, are all world-class hotel-casinos, which host big-name Broadway entertainers. The city also has a lively calendar of events: parades, rodeos and festivals. And last, but far from least Reno, in combination with nearby Lake Tahoe, boasts a total of 51 golf courses a different one for almost each week of the year.
Reno’s history of gaming is part of the psyche of the old West, where risk-taking was part of everyday life for rugged prospectors looking for gold and silver in ‘them thar hills’ a chancy business if ever there was one. However, it wasn’t until the 30s, when gaming was legalized in Nevada, that the Smith family and Bill Harrah arrived in Reno to set up the city’s first “legitimate” casinos. The rest, as they say, is history.
Aside from gaming, however, Reno has a wealth of other attractions. Browse through the National Automobile Museum with its astounding collection of antique, vintage and classic cars sleek little beauties, many of them part of Harrah’s private collection. Not far away is the enormous National Bowling Stadium, which hosts the annual Women’s Bowling Championships.
It’s a good place to take the weight off your feet while watching a feature presentation in the complex’s geodesic dome. The Wilbur May Center is worth at least an afternoon. At this ranch style building, which incorporates a museum, arboretum and botanical garden, visitors are treated to a display of fabulous objets d’art, including a collection of rare Chinese pottery. Enjoy the tranquility of the rose garden, or the rare opportunity of viewing a pair of ancient plants whose roots run as far back as the age of dinosaurs.
Historic Virginia City is a 45-minute bus-ride away. The route runs through the outskirts of Reno-Sparks, past white-fenced horse paddocks, sprawling ranches and llama farms. Then the road begins to hairpin past precipitous gorges as it makes its ascent through the Virginia hills. These ochre-colored, Ponderosa pine-stubbled crags are where it all began a hundred and fifty years ago, with the discovery of gold and silver ore and the opening of the Comstock mines.
In its heyday during the second half of the last century, Virginia City swarmed with miners, prospectors, gamblers, gunfighters and swaggering adventurers. It was a hard-living, hard-drinking town, where men staked their claims and brawled over whiskey and women with equal fervor. Bordellos thrived. Dancers and vaudeville artistes performed to rowdy audiences. And Piper’s Opera House, which is still open to visitors, lent a touch of class to the rough façade of the city.
Author: Margaret Deefholts
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