Virginia City, Nevada in the context of "Bonanza"

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced", with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature". Twain's novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel". He also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894) and cowrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner. The novelist Ernest Hemingway claimed that "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn."

Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later provided the setting for both Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He served an apprenticeship with a printer early in his career, and then worked as a typesetter, contributing articles to his older brother Orion Clemens' newspaper. Twain then became a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River, which provided him the material for Life on the Mississippi (1883). Soon after, Twain headed west to join Orion in Nevada. He referred humorously to his lack of success at mining, turning to journalism for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise.

The Comstock Lode is a lode of silver ore located under the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range in Virginia City, Nevada (then western Utah Territory), which was the first major discovery of silver ore in the United States and named after Canadian miner Henry Comstock.

After the discovery was made public in 1859, it sparked a silver rush of prospectors to the area, scrambling to stake their claims. The discovery caused considerable excitement in California and throughout the United States, the greatest since the California Gold Rush in 1849. Mining camps soon thrived in the vicinity, which became bustling commercial centers, including Virginia City and Gold Hill.

The Virginia and Truckee Railroad (stylized as Virginia & Truckee Railroad) (reporting mark VT) is a privately owned heritage railroad, headquartered in Virginia City, Nevada. Its private and publicly owned route is 14 miles (23 km) long. When first constructed in the 19th century, it was a commercial freight railroad which was originally built to serve the Comstock Lode mining communities of northwestern Nevada.

At its height, the railroad's route ran from Reno south to the state capital at Carson City. In Carson City, the mainline split into two branches. One branch continued south to Minden, while the other branch traveled east to Virginia City. The first section from Virginia City to Carson City was constructed beginning in 1869 to haul ore, lumber and supplies for the Comstock Lode silver mines. After the federal and state governments began competing with the railroad with highways that operated at a loss, the railroad was abandoned in 1950 after years of declining revenue, constrained by the requirement to turn a profit. Much of the track was pulled up and sold, along with the remaining locomotives and cars. In the 1970s, with public interest in historic railroads on the rise, efforts began to rebuild the line. The portion from Virginia City to Gold Hill has been rebuilt by private interests, and is operated separately from a portion from Gold Hill to Mound House, that was rebuilt with public funding and private donations.

The Territorial Enterprise, founded by William Jernegan and Alfred James on 18 December 1858, was a newspaper published in Virginia City, Nevada. Published for its first two years in Genoa in what was then Utah Territory, new owners Jonathan Williams and J. B. Woolard moved the paper to Carson City, the capital of the territory, in 1859. The paper changed hands again the next year; Joseph T. Goodman and Denis E. McCarthy moved it again, this time to Virginia City, in 1860.

Noted author Mark Twain wrote for the paper during the 1860s along with writer Dan DeQuille. To cover for DeQuille, who took time off to visit his family in Iowa, the young Sam Clemens was hired. Located steps from the Enterprise offices, Mark Twain and Dan DeQuille, lifelong friends, shared a room at 25 North B St. in Virginia City.

Mount Davidson is both the highest and most topographically prominent mountain in both Storey County, Nevada, and the Virginia Range. The mountain forms a backdrop for the mining boomtown of Virginia City which was built above the Comstock Lode silver strike.

Mount Davidson was named after Donald Davidson, a geologist.

Henry Tompkins (or Thomas) Paige Comstock (c. 1820–September 27, 1870) was a Canadian miner after whom the Comstock Lode in Virginia City, Nevada, was named. The Comstock Lode was the richest silver mine in American history.

Gold Hill is an unincorporated community in Storey County, Nevada, United States, located just south and downhill of Virginia City.