Virginia City, Nevada

One of my favorite places to visit is Virginia City, Nevada.  This little town, nestled in the hills above Reno, is a living piece of the American Old West.  Originally settled in the 1800's as a silver mining town, in recent years it has become a quaint Western tourist attraction and paranormal haven.  Rich in history, visitors to Virginia City have included Mark Twain, and Richard Matheson, an author who was inspired to write the book "Bid Time Return" after his visit.  His book later became the cult classic movie, "Somewhere in Time" starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour.

My first visit to Virginia City was on the weekend of Oct. 13-14, 2001 for their very first Virginia City Paranormal Conference held at the Silver Queen Hotel.  It was hosted by Janice Oberding, the author of Haunted Nevada, psychic Michele Hardison, and Khris Hamlet.

During the course of the conference, I began to feel very cold.  Over the next few minutes I got steadily colder, until my bones literally felt like they were made of ice.  I got up from my seat and went upstairs to my hotel room to get my jacket.  When I returned, there was a group of people gathered around someone with a video camera.  I walked over to see what was going on, and discovered that while I was sitting freezing in my seat, a person at the conference had scanned the room with a video camera, capturing what appeared to be a person-sized white misty "tornado" or "vortex" moving across the room behind where I was sitting.  It was very compelling and exciting, and I knew exactly why I had been feeling so icy cold!

I was to find that this experience would be the first of several for me during the weekend, which I will be adding to my blog individually...including my experience with an angry shadow ghost and another ghost named Bobby McKinney, who shared his death experience with me.