Virginia City is a historic town in Storey County, Nevada, United States. It was established in 1859 after the discovery of the Comstock Lode, one of the first major silver deposits in the United States, and rapidly developed into one of the most important mining centers of the American West. At its peak in the mid-1870s, Virginia City had an estimated population of 25,000 residents and served as a center of mining finance, engineering, and innovation.