The Kit Carson Trail in Carson City, Nevada, is haunted by history. The footsteps of Abe Curry, the first superintendent of the Nevada City Mint, still echo in the halls of the building. Mark Twain's niece, Jennie Clemens, died of a fever when she was nine; her spirit peeks from the upstairs window of the family home and is said to visit the Lone Mountain Cemetery. In the 1800s, V&T Railroad baron Duane Bliss built his home on a burial ground. Today, the house occasionally chimes with laughter and music as spirits gather in the parlor in evening finery. Take a walk through Carson City's haunted history with author Janet Jones and meet the spirits that linger in the city's historic district. Janet Jones currently works with the Carson City Convention and Visitors Bureau and participates as a guide or presenter in their seasonal ghost walks. Janet is a psychic medium and has been researching the spirit world professionally for more than twenty years. She has traveled extensively to work on assignment and was a presenter on the first My Ghost Story television show. Haunted Carson City By Janet Jones The History Press Copyright © 2012 Janet Jones All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-60949-764-4 Contents Introduction, 1. There's a Party Going On!: Bliss Mansion, 2. Always a Home-Cooked Meal Waiting for You at The Bender House, 3. "She Was a Heaven Born Child": Orion Clemens House, 4. Mr. Curry, Is That You, Sir?: Nevada State Museum/Carson City Mint, 5. Mr. Maars at Your Service: Carson Brewing Company/Brewery Arts Center, 6. "Well There, Pilgrim ...": Krebs Peterson House, 7. The Wedding Crasher: Ferris Mansion, 8. Time for Tea: Rinckel Mansion, 9. Things Will Levitate: Roberts House, 10. Tall Tales Told by the Fire: Ormsby House Hotel, 11. The Home that Springs Eternal: Woodacre House, 12. Jimmie's Place: Bliss Bungalow/Chartz House, 13. Indian Boarders: Stewart Indian School, 14. The House that Comes with a Maid: Edwards House, 15. A Place for a Founder to Lay His Head: Abe Curry Home, 16. A Hotel Full of Family: St. Charles Hotel, 17. The Nonpaying Riders: Virginia and Truckee Railroad, 18. Unmarked Graves: Chartz House, 19. Paiutes in the Wetlands: Carson City Convention and Visitors Bureau, Bibliography, About the Author, CHAPTER 1 There's a Party Going On! Bliss Mansion Not every couple has a venue as lovely as the Bliss House or gets the ghost of Mark Twain sharing a wedding toast. — Cydne and Steve As you walk through the historic district of Carson City, you may often wish these homes could tell their histories. During an evening walk past the Bliss Mansion, you just might glimpse history being relived by the past residents as if it was still 1879. In 1859, Duane Bliss moved from San Francisco to Nevada to work as manager and partner of the private Gold Hill Bank of Alvin Paul. He was only twenty-six years old at the time. In 1864, the Bank of California (known today as Bank of America) took over the bank, and he continued working there as a cashier and made outside investments for the bank. In 1868 and 1869, he took part in forming the now world-famous Virginia and Truckee (V&T) Railroad, which began by running between Virginia City, Reno and Carson City. He later also helped organize the Carson and Colorado Railroad, which ran to southern Nevada. Bliss was influential in obtaining the right of ways for the Virginia and Truckee Railroad to Virginia City. He also persuaded many residents to help fund the project by promising them that hauling lumber from his Carson and Tahoe Lumber and Fluming Company at Lake Tahoe over that railroad to Virginia City would more than repay them for their investment. During the construction of the V&T Railroad, Bliss was sent to New York for business. Before he left, Bliss gave his stock in a Comstock mine, which was going up in value at a rate of about $100 a day, to one of his trusted business associates, Mr. Sharon, for safekeeping. The stipulation was that while Bliss was gone, if the stock in the mine went down, Mr. Sharon was to sell the stock. When Bliss returned, he found that Mr. Sharon did not sell the stock when it dropped, and Bliss lost everything, leaving him $300,000 in debt. Mr. Mills, another of Bliss's business associates, offered to lend him this amount at 6 percent interest based only on Bliss's work ethic and astute business sense, and between 1870 and 1871, Bliss paid back this loan. Mr. Mills then financed Bliss to purchase fifty thousand acres of timberland at Lake Tahoe for his Carson and Tahoe Timber and Fluming Company for the purpose of furnishing over three million feet of timber monthly for shoring up the mines and three thousand to four thousand cords to be used as fuel for the Cornish pumps. Bliss realized early on that the new residents of Carson City had very little lumber to build with and thus were living and working in adobe structures or canvas tents. He knew that ample supplies of