Walking tours of Carson City

Aberrations await and spirits linger during a two-hour walking tour Aug. 20 and Sept. 24 through the historic district of Carson City.

History and storytelling are the orders of the day on this tour through Victorian-style homes and neighborhoods, where reality and legend come together, leaving ghost walkers to wonder what is truth and what is fiction.

Tickets are available at the Visitors Center, 1900 South Carson St. or call (775) 687.7410. Tours depart from 3rd and Carson streets next to the St. Charles Hotel (Firkin & Fox Pub) at 6:30pm. Cost is $20 per a person.

Tour guides will tell colorful stories about the buildings and its owners inside the humble and not-so-humble abodes, of yesteryear while walking along the historic Kit Carson Trail featuring 1800s Victorian-style homes. Some of the stops along the tour include:

— Ferris Mansion, home of George Ferris Jr., inventor of the Ferris Wheel for the Chicago World Columbian Exposition in 1893.

— Orion Clemens House, home of Mark Twain’s older brother who served as secretary to Territorial Gov. William Nye, was built in 1863 and was called “the Governor’s Mansion,” though the real Governor’s Mansion wouldn’t be built until 1909.

— Rinckel Mansion, built by the fortune of Mathias Rinckel, a forward-looking meat magnate who struck it rich supplying Gold Rushers and Lake Tahoe lumbermen.

— Lee House, also known as Judge Clark J. Guild home, Lee, a prominent doctor and surgeon for the Virginia & Truckee Railroad, built the home from the lumber of the razed school on the same sites.

— St. Teresas Catholic Church, the first in Carson City, which was built in 1871.