Virginia City, Nev., toasts Halloween with a new spirit, whose creepy name is part of mining lore

A new spirit will appear in tiny Virginia City, Nev., on Halloween, but this one has nothing to do with ghosts.

Cemetery Gin, an adults-only beverage, will be unveiled -- and, of course, imbibed -- during a haunting celebration the evening of Oct. 31 at historic Piper’s Opera House.

The gin is a new product; it’s distilled in nearby Fallon, Nev. But hooch has been the stuff of area legends for years.

C Street, the main drag through Virginia City, Nev., looks much as it did in its mining heyday in the mid-19th century. That age has given rise to a new alcoholic beverage, to be unveiled on Halloween in Virginia City.

(Virginia City Tourism Commission)

The tales date to the 1850s, when the Comstock Lode, a silver and gold deposit, was discovered in Virginia City. Suddenly, hardscrabble miners, who worked under difficult, dangerous conditions, became multimillionaires.

Fast forward about 150 years. The Virginia City Tourism Commission  began selling T-shirts and souvenirs promoting the mythical “cemetery gin,” so named because of the frequent deaths of the early miners, an average of one a day.

Those who survived the mines said the only safe way to drink the local water was to mix it with two parts gin.

To roll out this new gin, a vintage, horse-drawn hearse promoting the new spirit will roll through the streets of Carson City, the state capital, as part of the Nevada Day Parade.

The annual parade steps off at 10 a.m. Oct. 31, which is the day in 1864 that Nevada was admitted to the Union.

Cemetery Gin, which will be sold by various merchants in Virginia City, is made from locally grown pine nuts by Frey Ranch Distillery, a grain-to-glass operation in Fallon.

Its tasting room is open noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Various distilled spirits as well as local wines can be sampled.

Info: (775) 847-7500.

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