Death in the Mountain Author:John Hunter The Virginia and Truckee was more mountain goat than railroad. In the twenty-one miles between the desert at Carson City and the town at rail-end, it climbed sixteen hundred feet in curves which made seventeen complete circles. And a lot of it on frail trestles with the ground falling away in a dead drop. — To Ken Murdock, raised on the sturdy ... more »firmness of the Oregon plains, the journey up the mountain was a nightmare. But it was just the beginning of what would happen to him in the gold and silver madness of Virginia City.« less