The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1920-08-05
CAPITAL
SHOULD ADVERTISE
NOT AN INCH OF ALDER GULCH
THAT is NOT SOAKED WITH
ROMANCE SAYS CLARK
Pretty Girls Shimmy Modestly Over
the Spot Where Wild Bill Once
Shot Up the Bar; Fishing Good in
Alder Creek, Which Once Produced
Millions.
By A. j. CLARK

By A. j. CLARK
For many years l have wanted to
see Virginia City because of it's his
toric interest, but like many another
have put it off from year to year,
probably because / forgot when there
was time and opportunity.
1t seems a pity, in this day of easy
advertising, that any town should al
low itself to be forgotten, and espe-
cially is this true of Virginia City,
where so much of romance and ira
gedy had it's inception.
There isn't an inch of Alder gulch
but what is soaked with romance,
and ghosts of 60 years ago haunt
every nook and Granny of it.
The little old shack that does duty
as a museum contains relics of the
old time that should be priceless, and
will be if they are not burned in
some careless fire. A careless glance
through some of the old books and
records there is like peeping into the
grave of the makers of history who
long ago passed away.
Many Bret Harte Stories
There is evidence of barter and
sale in ounces of gold, of credit ex-
tended carelessly, of pillage and muir
der, and love and life as portrayed
by Bret Harte many years ago.
The people of Virginia City are
careless of their town and have not
yet come to a realization of the fact
that they have a very attractive show
place for the tourist. The old mis-
sion towns in California that daily
entertain thousands, have no more
historic interest than has this almost
forgotten stage of so much western
drama.
Virginia City has tried to renew
itself, instead of trying to preserve
the old things, which looks like a
mistake. One is surprised to find
there electric lights and running
water and good hotels and cabarets,
without enough people to make them
pay, while the main attraction to the
stranger goes unheralded.
The tourist who hits into Virginia
City elf happily he finds it without
sign posts or directions) will be sur
prised to learn that he may get any
thing he wants there from a really
automobile fixer to a clean bed, and
the sheriff will show him an empty
Jail to prove that there is no more
booze.
Virginia City is a picturesque place
and has much to interest the casual
visitor-if he hunts for it. The
dredgers have turned most of the
valley upside down and that in it
self makes rather an impressive sight.
The old log shacks that housed the
boisterous spirits of long ago are ra-
pidly falling apart, but n can cas-
lily conjure up the romance that is
of their very bones.
Trout are abundant in the waters
of the gulch, and it is said that they
often are found to contain very fine
nuggets. On account of the high al
titude it is. said the fish eat nuggets
for ballast.
They sell ginger ale and pop and
ice cream sodas over the spot where
Wild Bill used to, in better days,
shoot up the bar, and pretty girls
shimmy modestly to the strains of a
$1,000 music box with subdued and
boiled shirted SWANS, who never saw
a gun. The old things pass away.
The Beam of Agony
lu0y Drag dUOuL d 10 SIOly uOL6l
built sideways Il story high and Is
wide) and can show you the
beam from which the last road agents
we're hanged, and their graves on the
hill, and as the sun goes down you
sit outside and conjure up the doings
Of long ago, when the gulch was alive
with b~ewhiskered adventurers, Chi
nese and Indians and all of the vio-
lent and woolly things that thrive on
lawlessness and disorder.
The roads to Virginia City are fair
y good, and there isn't a more pleas
ing adventure to be had than an auto
ride to that historic relic of by-gone
lays. We would ride and ride and
whenever we met a native ask how
it was to our destination and
the native would pull his
whiskers, mediate deeply and guess
t was about 35 miles more" The
noticeable thing to the travelling
stranger is the woeful lack of sign
POSTS that would direct him On his
way to some good place to spend his
Many tourists will drop into
Virginia City this summer if they can
ind it.