Comstock craft: Virginia City unveils mural

VIRGINIA CITY — A mural that will eventually adorn two 20-foot concrete walls of the parking lot across from Virginia City’s Bucket of Blood Saloon was unveiled Friday to visitors celebrating Nevada’s 150th anniversary of statehood.

Painter and stained glass artist Corrie Zam-Northan said the idea is to visually present the history of the Comstock in a series of paintings ranging from careful reproductions of historic photographs of miners to a painting of the V&T Railroad’s Inyo locomotive, another of the Storey County Courthouse’s statue of Justice, famed because she isn’t wearing a blindfold — all around Zam-Northan’s painting of the state seal as a centerpiece.

Those who “are not with us anymore,” she said, are painted in Sepia tone. The others are in vivid color.

“This mural has been amazing for me,” she said.

She said it’s important to do all the research so each historical element is as accurate as possible.

To help guide visitors through the historical journey when the walls are completed, she said the history of each part will be written on the concrete buttresses that reinforce the wall.

She and six other artists are painting the different elements.

Dozens of people turned out for the event, which also featured two bands: Lady and the Tramps and the U.S. Navy Band Northwest. A number of Civil War and old west reinactors were also there including Marilou Santiano dressed as Sarah Winnemucca.

She said the completed parts of the mural will be carefully sealed to protect them from winter weather once it gets too cold to keep painting. Work will resume in the spring and continue until not only the west wall of the parking lot but the south wall are decorated with the history of the Comstock.

In addition to the celebration at the site of the mural, Virginia City had a number of other events on tap for the state’s 150th Nevada Day celebration.

Visitors enjoyed a ride on the V&T along with the unveiling of Steven Saylor’s portrait, “Nine Cheers for the Silver State,” the parade down B Street in the evening, Safe Trick or Treatin in the evening after the parade and the Nevada 150 Maaquerade Ball for adults at Piper’s Opera House up the hill behind the Mural.