Silver State Sights: The Silver Queen Hotel

It was the 1870s when Virginia City was absolutely booming, and it was during that decade, when the

was first built.

“It’s kind of like you go back in time when you are in there. If you go upstairs you can rent those rooms. You feel something in there. Its pretty neat.”

And while some things have been restored, the hotel has, in large part, remained the same. James Matthew is a bar tender and minister, at the Silver Queen.

“They are restored 1876 rooms,” he explained. “The ceilings are 16 feet tall. There is no AC, no microwaves or anything else so if you want to get away this is a good place to do it.”

There is also a picture of the Silver Queen herself, which features 3261 silver dollars. That’s because the deepest mine in Virginia City was 3261 feet deep.

In the front of the silver queen, is where the most famous man to ever set up shop in virginia city, once had his office.

“This is where he started using the name Mark Twain,” Matthew told us.

Twain ran Territorial Enterprises, which was located in the front of what is now the Silver Queen.

“He came up here to do some gold mining but he quit that because it was too much work,” Matthew explained.

In addition to the historical value of the building, there is another word that starts with an h, that tends to get used to describe it.

“It’s haunted,” Matthew stated bluntly.

One story you will hear states that a prostitute named Rosie operated in the hotel before killing herself in room 11, and Rosie is said to have never left building. Matthew also says there is other evidence.

“We have a camera in the chapel and you can see the orbs going through there. Just to make sure we hung some tissue paper and it didn’t move, but there were still orbs going thru there.”