Austin Smith, 16, a Civil War reenactor takes aim during a street battle in Virginia City on Monday.
The Labor Day weekend brought about the annual Virginia City Labor Day parade, to honor the history of Virginia City and celebrate the hard workers around the country.
The parade had thousands of people lining C Street to watch the hour long event. With a cloudless blue sky and an abundance of parade participants, patrons thought this was one for the books.
“It was really good, they had a lot more participants and the weather was perfect,” said Bretta Inman.
The Inmans, Virginia City residents, have been coming to the Labor Day celebration for years. For Bretta’s 8-year-old son Reese, with more participants this year, the candy handed out from the parade goers was bountiful.
“It was good because the candy was better than last year,” Reese said. “And I liked the cars, they were nice.”
As usual, the parade featured the historical re-enactors that portrayed the Battle of C Street. The gunslingers and soldiers marched through the street, giving patrons a glimpse into the past.
But to also honor the purpose of Labor Day, several union organizations walked the parade to showcase their labor forces. Organizations from all sorts of industries were present from construction workers and railroad workers to bartenders unions from across Nevada.
No matter if it was the first or fifth time attending the Labor Day parade, patrons enjoyed the different aspects to the event.
“We were coming up to Virginia City anyways, but we didn’t know this was happening so we are delightfully surprised,” said Judy Holmes. Holmes and her husband were in Nevada for a friend’s birthday and had never attended the parade before.
“It is just wonderful, the energy, the way people really get together, it is like a big family up here,” Holmes said. “This was our first time up here and what a welcome. We will definitely come back.”
After the parade, the re-enactors held the Battle of C Street, with burned gunpowder and deafening blasts filling the air. Patrons could also learn more about the history of the Civil War at the Great Civil War Days, which was set up like during the war with Confederate, Union and Civilian camps. Patrons could walk around and learn about the history in a fun and interactive way.
“Lots of people came this year,” said organizer Izabella Hunt-Jones. “We had a school day on Friday and they just learned a lot.”
Hunt-Jones said that having events like these are important because they’re able to preserve history as it was.
“They need to learn about history because right now unfortunately politics is intruding into it,” Hunt-Jones said.
“We say we don’t do politics, we do history.”
