The story
A mile below Virginia City, Nevada City shared the Alder Gulch boom and hosted its grimmest scene: the 1863 miners' trial and hanging of George Ives that launched the vigilantes. Dredging in the 1900s destroyed most of the original town.
The Boveys used the cleared ground for rescue work, moving more than a hundred doomed historic buildings from across Montana onto the site alongside its dozen originals — making today's Nevada City less a preserved town than an ark of them, complete with a legendary collection of music machines and a summer living-history program.
What remains today
108 historic buildings (14 original to the site), the music hall's mechanical organs, and the operating Alder Gulch shortline railroad to Virginia City.
Questions from the field
- Is Nevada City authentic?
- It's an honest hybrid: original townsite and buildings plus a curated village of rescued structures from around Montana — presented as a museum, not passed off as untouched.
From the field
The most valuable part of this record is the part only visitors can write.
Stamp your passport
Check in at Nevada City — GPS-verified visits earn an inked stamp.
File a field report
Road conditions, what's still standing, what's gone — your report joins the record.
Add photographs
Credited, dated, and preserved as part of Nevada City's permanent record.
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Sources consulted
- — Montana Heritage Commission — Nevada City
- — Bovey restoration records
- — Madison County histories