Tourism Cares to restore Virginia City
About 300 tourism-industry volunteers from around the country arrived in Virginia City, Nev., on May 19 to clean, paint, polish and restore its famous attractions in an annual one-day project led by the national organization Tourism Cares for Tomorrow.
Nevada’s largest and most famous historic mining town, Virginia City is the first city in the West ever to be chosen by Tourism Cares, a nonprofit organization that selects one prominent U.S. destination each year for restoration. The four prior restorations were at Ellis Island, St. Louis Cemetery in New Orleans, George Washington’s estate at Mount Vernon and the flood-ravaged Mississippi Gulf Coast.
“The Nevada Commission on Tourism is honored to have Virginia City join the ranks of such nationally known tourism attractions as Ellis Island, Mount Vernon and the other Tourism Cares restorations,” Commission Director Tim Maland said before restoration began. “The volunteers will demonstrate by their hard work how much the tourism industry really does care, and we hope they will claim bragging rights when they revisit the attractions they helped to renovate.”
Volunteers fanned out across Virginia City in organized teams to reconstruct, rebuild, repaint and revive the city’s landmarks.
Tourism Cares for Tomorrow is dedicated to restoring and preserving tourism sites and natural treasures and allowing tourism industry professionals and students to “give back” to a tourism destination. Additional information about Tourism Cares for Tomorrow is at http://www.tourismcares.org/
The renovation and restoration projects were as follows:
Virginia & Truckee Railroad – Participants will restore tracks and an original caboose for the remaining section of V&T Railroad, part of an original railroad line that extended 15 miles to Carson City and now takes visitors into the heart of the historic Comstock mining region.
Piper’s Opera House – Tourism professionals will work to rebuild the outdoor staircase to the 1880s opera house where top-name performers of the day entertained.
Silver Terrace Cemeteries – Participants will clear brush and debris to reduce the risk of fire in these historic cemeteries, which feature beautifully etched tombstones and mausoleums.
St. Mary in the Mountains – Participants will restore pews and paint the museum in the basement of this beautiful church, the most prominent structure in Virginia City.
Fourth Ward School and Cultural Center – Workers will categorize, archive and organize the latest exhibit, a collection of 18th- and 19th- century dresses at this historic 1876 school.
St. Mary’s Art Center – Participants will repaint the inside of this former hospital, now an art center providing cultural enrichment.
Storey County – Street lamps will be restored and a staircase near the middle school will be rebuilt.
Courtesy of grouptravelblog.com
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