39th annual camels races this weekend

But as a back-up, promoters of this year's 39th annual International Camel Races have included ostriches and water buffalo in the events that run through Sunday.

Besides the races, there will be parades and the annual Camel Hump Ball at the event that began as - and remains - a way to drum up business in the fading summer tourist season.

The camel races are supposed to duplicate events engineered by miners for entertainment during Virginia City's heyday more than a century ago.

No one has ever proved such races occurred. But since just about everything else was raced, locals figured camels might have been too.

In the 1880s, camels were purchased from the Army to haul salt to silver processing operations around Virginia City.

Earlier this summer, the southern Nevada town of Mesquite held its first bull run, which emulates the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. And Mesquite officials are planning on doing the same thing next year.

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