The gold-rush-era town of Virginia City, recently purchased by the State of Montana to preserve for posterity, makes a fitting first subject for the Montana Mainstreet series. Once it was Montana’s acting territorial capital and the center of trade for Alder Gulch, the site of the richest placer mines in the world, but Virginia City became a town almost frozen in time once gold deposits played out and the state capital moved to Helena in 1889. Today, Virginia City attracts visitors from all over the world, who marvel at its intact architecture. If walking down Virginia City’s streets is like a trip backwards in time, the road map for that journey is Guide to Historic Virginia City.