C Street is the historic main street of Virginia City, running along the hillside with wooden boardwalks, Victorian-era commercial buildings, and an improbable density of history per block. The street looks much as it did in the 1870s and 1880s, preserved partly by intent and partly by the fact that nobody had the money to demolish and rebuild when the silver ran out.
Walking C Street you pass old saloons (several still serving), the site of the Territorial Enterprise newspaper office where Mark Twain worked, the entrance to the Ponderosa mine tour beneath a bar, and shop after shop selling antiques, silver jewellery, and period tchotchkes. The overall effect is cheerfully commercial but the bones are genuine. Come on a weekday morning in spring or autumn to see it without the summer crowds.