Eleven-section Victorian burial ground established 1867, holding the miners who built and died in the Comstock Lode
381 Cemetery Rd, Virginia City, NV 89440
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Public access at no charge. The cemetery gates open late on Halloween night for after-dark visits.
Access
Limited Access
Uneven hillside terrain with gravel paths; some sections have unpaved ground between grave markers
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1867 · Comstock Lode Era Burials · Victorian Garden Cemetery Design · Captain Edward Faris Storey Memorial · Multi-Denominational Fraternal Organization Sections
By 1867, the various community organizations of Virginia City had consolidated most of the settlement's existing burials into the hillside site on Cemetery Road, creating what became the Silver Terrace Cemeteries. The complex was organized into eleven distinct sections, each administered by a separate fraternal order or religious group: the Masons (est. 1863), the Order of Oddfellows (est. 1862), the Knights of Pythias (est. 1873), the Pacific Coast Pioneers (est. 1872), the Catholic Cemetery, the Ancient Order of Redmen (est. 1873), the Exempt Firemen (est. 1860), and others including a Wilson & Brown Funeral House section.
At the height of the Comstock boom in the 1870s, Virginia City's cemeteries were described as among the most elaborate in Nevada. The thirty-acre site was fully irrigated and sustained non-indigenous flowering plants and trees, supported by the same infrastructure wealth that built the town's opera house and private clubs. Victorian-era architectural ironwork divided the sections, and marble headstones marked the graves of people who had arrived in Virginia City from dozens of countries of origin — few adults buried there were born in Nevada.
The largest category of interments is miners and their families, reflecting the occupational reality of a town built on underground silver extraction. Mining in the Comstock's deep, hot workings carried significant mortality risk from cave-ins, flooding, fire, and heat-related illness. The cemeteries also hold the grave of Captain Edward Faris Storey, the man for whom Storey County is named, who was killed in an 1860 conflict at Pyramid Lake.
The Virginia City visitor authority now offers a 29-stop audio tour of the cemetery, which takes approximately ninety minutes to complete. The gates open after dark on Halloween night each year for an annual public visit.
Sources
Silver Terrace Cemetery appears consistently in Virginia City paranormal surveys. The most frequently described visual report is a small glowing figure described as a young girl, moving between rows of gravestones in the older sections of the burial ground. A second recurrent report describes blue orbs or floating lights observed near specific older grave clusters on the hillside.
Visitors have described the iron entrance gates swinging open and then closed again without apparent physical cause, and this detail has appeared in multiple independent regional accounts. An apparition described as an older male figure — characterised as an unfriendly groundskeeper — has also been noted in some accounts.
The cemetery's atmospheric conditions contribute to its reputation. The site is exposed on the windswept hill above Virginia City, several sections have fallen into varying states of disrepair over the decades since the boom ended, and the combination of unusual topography and Victorian ironwork creates a visually distinctive environment. The oldest grave markers date to the late 1850s.
Each October, Virginia City's annual Hauntober programming includes cemetery events, and the Silver Terrace grounds remain open after dark on Halloween night by local tradition. The 29-stop audio tour offered by the visitor authority provides historical grounding for those interested in who the cemetery actually holds, rather than solely its paranormal reputation.
Notable Entities
A free public visit across the eleven distinct sections of the cemetery, divided by fraternal order and religious affiliation — Masons, Oddfellows, Knights of Pythias, Catholic, and others. The grave of Captain Edward Faris Storey, the county's namesake, is the most prominent individual marker. A 29-stop audio tour is available for download before visiting.
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