Today was our last morning at the ranch.  Brian brought us the best fluffy flapjacks I'd ever tasted for breakfast.  Then Brian, Mom, and I drove out to see the haunted ruin of the original ranch cabin with its mysterious bedstead which moves all by itself!  The cabin was all alone in a large field of tall, yellowing grass, surrounded by tall mountains, and it was only a few hundred feet from an Indian burial ground, which I also visited.  Then we went down to the haunted house where the apparition of the manager was seen, and I also took a quick tour of the barn, and even got to meet a one-eyed white horse named (appropriately) Spook! 

We reluctantly said goodbye to the lovely Dome Mountain Ranch and set off for Virginia City, the original capital of Montana and a boomtown mining camp that still has about 100 residents and an incredible history.  It was like walking into a movie set of the Wild West!  Board sidewalks, many of the original false-front buildings, horses tied to posts, and a stage coach giving rides out to the original gulch where gold was found!  What a place!  All this, and haunted to boot!  I rode "shotgun" on the stage coach, up next to the driver, and got to ask him all kinds of questions about the local haunted house -- a white building with a false front that made it look like it had two stories.  Apparently, it was once the court house, and then became a hospital staffed by nuns.  The ghost of a nun sometimes appears inside, or walking around the exterior.  Sometimes men's voices can be heard echoing through the rooms when the house is empty.   And something -- or someone -- will sometimes run through the hallway in the middle of the night, calling:  "The Gulch is on fire!" but no one sleeping in the house at the time can get out of bed or respond to the urgent call, because they are kept pinned to their beds by a mysterious force until the ghost has disappeared into the night. 

Just down the road was another old ghost town -- Nevada City.  I took a quick tour of this fantastic site, which is mostly old log buildings, from the blacksmith to the school yard to the two-story privy!  I met a nice fellow who was also touring the grounds.  He was very familiar with the lore of Nevada City, and he spun me tales of the reenactments that took place there and rumors of ghostly spirits felt in certain old buildings.  It added depth to my tour of the old ghost town! 

We ended the day in Butte, eating steak at a local restaurant and relaxing at a lovely hotel.  My head was spinning with ghost stories and I thought I'd never calm down.  I had to read a sci-fi novel to relax me enough to get to sleep!