Creating a cryptic way to raise funds for VC cemetery

Those resting in peace must have thought it odd to see groups of tourists loitering about the Silver Terrace Cemetery on Saturday morning. The crunch of their shoes and the idle conversation caused a racket loud enough to wake the dead.

Miners, firemen, railroad workers, wives and ladies of stature buried in the cemetery all awoke from their slumber to tell the stories of their lives on the "Voices from the Past" cemetery tour in Virginia City.

The tour was guided by the Widow of Silver Terrace, played by show director Kathy Easly, and undertaker J. W. Wilson, played by Paul Dancer.

"We are in a cemetery full of history and symbolism, but more importantly, full of lives," Dancer said.

The tours are run by Funtime Theater with the proceeds going to benefit projects throughout the cemetery, including new fencing and restoration of damaged gravestones.

In addition to serving as tour guide, Dancer also discussed the practices of preparing the dead, including putting coins over the eyes, sewing the mouth shut and hanging the bodies from the rafters to keep them from the rats.

Among the residents featured on the tour were miner James Prout, spiritualist Livinia Lannen and housewife Hanna Sanders.

"The deaths we had here would shame the torture chambers of the Inquisition. When we died, we died hard," said Calvin Dillon, playing pump man James Prout.

Prout talked about life for the miners, dealing with temperatures around 150 degrees, utter darkness and working in, what was at the time, the deepest mines in the world.

"The heat was enough to boil the blood in a man's veins," Dillon said. "You would never understand what this town was all about. Virginia City is built on mining."

Dancer said, "Nowhere else do men dig for gold among the dead, but they did here on the Comstock."

Lannen, played by Debi Strode, is notorious for predicting that the city, "would be engulfed and destroyed by fire." On Oct. 25, 1875 - just one month after Lannen's prediction - a fire destroyed 33 blocks of the town, including over 1,000 homes, Piper's Opera House and the courthouse.

Sanders, played by Diane Peters, stood watch over the grave of her son, lamenting about the harsh lives of the women of the Comstock. She took out an ad defending herself after her husband began spreading lies about her to her friends.

Easly said, "Life on the Comstock was hard, especially for women, and many grew bitter."

For Chuck and Carolyn Orvis, of Carson City, this was their first journey through the cemetery's history.

"We decided to do it because of the historic experience and to help support the community," Mr. Orvis said. "It was great, I'd love to see them do more things like this."

• Contact reporter Jarid Shipley at jshipley@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1217.