De Ek Wadapush (Cave Rock). A sacred place to the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, cave rock is the subject of many legends.  Named for a cave, a remnant of which can be seen some 200 feet above the waterline.  This formation was a landmark on the Lake Bigler Toll Road in the early days.  Quarried granite blocks, which support the toll road, can still be seen on the west face of cave rock.  The rock was first tunneled for the construction of a highway in 1931 and the second tunnel was put through in 1957. The Washoe name for Cave Rock is De-ek Wadapush which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Traditional Cultural Property. It is important now as it has been for thousands of years for the Washoe." Medicine men meditated and prayed here" and many distinct features help make up our culture, gifted basket makers, the wisdom of long-preserved legends, and our traditional way of life. Cave Rock was one of our prominent sacred sites reflecting our traditional values of respect for the land and "da ow" (Lake Tahoe) the life-sustaining water, the center of the Washoe world (Washoe elder)

, Glenbrook, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #40

Las Vegas (The Meadows). In the Las Vegas Springs The famous Las Vegas Springs rose from the desert floor here, sending two streams of water across the valley to nurture the native grasses, and create lush meadows in the valley near Sunrise Mountain.  The natural oasis of meadow and mesquite forest was the winter homeland of Southern Paiutes, who often spent the summers in the Charleston Mountains. An unknown Spanish-speaking sojourner, named this place “Las Vegas” meaning “The Meadows”.  Antonio Armijo led a trading party from Santa Fe to California in 1829-30, traversing part of the Las Vegas Valley.  One branch off the main Old Spanish Trail included the Springs as a resting spot.  On one of his western exploration trips, John C. Fremont camped here on May 3, 1844 and was the first to officially put Las Vegas on the map.Because of artesian water here, Mormons established the Las Vegas Mission and Fort in 1855 a few miles east of the Springs. The San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake Railroad Company acquired water rights and land, with which it created the City of Las Vegas in 1905.

Vegas Spring, Las Vegas, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #271

Pony Express Route 1860 Sesquicentennial 2010. One hundred and fifty years ago, the Pony Express was founded by W.H. Russell, Alexander Majors and William B. Waddell, operators of the Overland Stage Line of Leavenworth, Kansas.  During a visit to Washington, Mr. Russell was urged by California Senator William Gwin to expand the Overland Stage operation to facilitate faster mail service.  Mr. Russell’s partners hesitated due to projected high costs; he persevered and the first ride began on April 3, 1860.Overland stagecoach stations were located every 10-12 miles as far as Salt Lake City.  Eighty skilled and experienced riders, 400 horses and approximately one hundred-eighty-four stations were built in two months.  There were thirty stations across Nevada, from Deep Creek, Utah to Genoa at the eastern base of the Sierra.  The swift riders carried the mail 2000 miles in 10 days from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California.  The “Pony” improved nationwide communication, western expansion and was credited with California’s continued participation in the Union at the beginning of the Civil War.A high price was paid for the improved communication including the cost to post a letter and the trials of the employees during the ride.  The cost of mailing a letter as advertised was not economical, “letters less than ¼ oz cost $5.00 and so on.”  The riders, station masters and division agents faced hostile environments including poor housing, extreme heat and cold, poor access to potable water, food and dangers due to the conflicts between Native Americans and the newcomers to the West.On October 24, 1861, the telegraph was born and the last ride was completed.  What had taken ten days could be achieved in ten seconds thus ending the Pony Express, but the memory of the riders and the route live on.STATE OF NEVADA HISTORICAL

, Fallon, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #267

Galena Creek Fish Hatchery. The Galena Fish Hatchery represents an attempt to make amends after Nevada’s Comstock Lode ravaged the region’s ecosystem in the 1860s and 1870s. Fishing decimated local streams and lakes to feed a growing population. Eventually, restocking became an important goal.Washoe County operated this hatchery from 1931 to 1949 as an auxiliary to their main facility on the Truckee River in Reno. Galena Creek was ideal because of the continuous supply of uncontaminated water. The hatchery reflects a trend, beginning in the 1920s, to combine habitat conservation and recreational developmentThe county ceased hatchery operations in 1949. After that, the Boy Scouts, the Sierra Sage Council of Camp Fire, Inc., and the Washoe Bowmen and Sierra Archers used the site. In 1994, Washoe County reacquired the property as part of Galena Creek Regional Park with plans to restore the building for community use.NEVADA

Galena Creek, Reno, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #262

Dayton School House 1865. In 1865 Lyon County built this imposing stone school building for the residents of Dayton, then the county seat.  It is the second oldest schoolhouse in Nevada and is the oldest such structure to remain in its original location.  The building served the community as a school until 1959 when it was closed.  It later housed the Dayton Senior Citizens Center and became the home of the Dayton Historical Society Museum in 1991.FRIENDS OF THE COMSTOCKCOMSTOCK HISTORIC DISTRICT COMMISSIONSTATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICE

Logan Alley, Dayton, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #257

Nevada’s First Gold Discovery. In July 1849, Abner Blackburn, a former member of the Mormon Battalion, made the first gold discovery in what is now Nevada near this site (see the canyon to the right).  William Prouse, a member of a passing emigrant party, made a second discovery further up Gold Canyon in May 1850.  The discoverers of these placer gold deposits believed the promised riches of California to be greater.  Most emigrants consequently continued their westward journeys, but a few returned after finding most of California’s Motherlode creeks and rivers already claimed.By the spring of 1851, some 200 placer miners, including James “Old Virginny” Finney, were working in the area.  The continuous occupation of Gold Canyon’s mouth makes this site Nevada’s first non-Native American settlement.  Dayton, also known as Chinatown, became a mineral milling, commercial, and agricultural center after prospectors and placer miners worked their way up Gold Creek.  This monument commemorates the 150th anniversary of the discovery of gold and the thousands of pioneers who passed near this site.

Cemetery Road, Dayton, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #255

Wilson Canyon. Wilson Canyon and the Wilson Mining District were named for brothers David and “Uncle Billy” Wilson.  David Wilson (born 1829) came west in 1850 during the California Gold Rush.  He returned to the Midwest in 1853, married, and joined the Union Army at the outbreak of the Civil War.  Wilson participated in at least one battle and was discharged with sunstroke.  He then returned to the West.The Wilson family settled in the Wilson Canyon area in 1863 mining gold discovered in Pine Grove by "Uncle Billy" and ranching in Mason Valley.  The Wilsons’ mining efforts eventually yielded several million dollars.David Wilson died in 1915, a prominent local rancher and community leader.  He is buried nearby in the Wilson Ranch Cemetery.A Northern Paiute named Wovoka was raised with the Wilson boys and took the name Jack Wilson.  Wovoka started the Ghost Dance movement in 1890, which swept into the Great Plains with potent political force.

, Yerington, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #254

Nevada’s Mining Heritage. In 1864, a group of prospectors from Austin, Nevada discovered rock containing a silver-lead mixture on Prospect Peak. Since then, miners have struggled to reach minerals deep within these hillsides of the Eureka Mining District--a vital part of Nevada's mining heritage and future. By 1878, the population of Eureka and nearby Ruby Hill was over 9,000.  The Eureka Mining District ranked as Nevada's second richest mineral producer (the Comstock ranked first).  Ore veins of silver, lead, and other base materials were rich enough to justify enormous underground mine development and financial risk. Eureka's greatest production was from 1870 to 1890.  By 1900, changing market conditions reduced demand for the District's materials.  Many of the mines closed.  A few smaller mines remained in operation until the 1920s, but it was nothing like the early days. Revival of the Eureka Mining District has recently occurred with the introduction of a mining technology called heap leaching.  This method allows for profitable and more efficient processing of rock containing trace amounts of gold. Examples of old and new mining operations can be seen from here.   At the base of the hill is the heap-leach pad and rock piles of a modern mining operation.  Near the top of the hill is the Fad Shaft, a remnant of earlier mining days.THE FAD SHAFT - This Area's Last Underground Mining OperationProspectors discovered the Fad claim in 1906 but did not start mining until the 1940s.  Geological theory suggested that ore existed 2,500 feet below the surface.  From the 1940s to the 1960s, sporadic mining occurred at the shaft.  Then at 2,465 feet, only 35 feet from their target, they encountered water.  Flooding was so great that mining halted.  The Fad closed a short time later.  Ironically, the Fad Shaft, the last attempt at underground mining in the Eureka District, never produced any ore.Many hills around Eureka still contain rock piles, open shafts, and abandoned mining equipment.  During Eureka's heyday, many headframes similar to the Fad dotted these hillsides.  Most have since disappeared, leaving only a handful as reminders of the past.MODERN GOLD MININGHeap leaching removes trace amounts of gold from rock that would have been considered worthless in mining days of old.  The gold is so small that it can only be seen with a microscope.  Gold bearing rock is crushed into pebbles and pled (heaped) onto a thick plastic liner.  A weak cyanide mixture dissolves the gold while gravity slowly draws (leaches) the gold-laden solution into collection tanks.Throughout history mining has changed the landscape.  Mining's effects have changed as technology has advanced.  Reclamation is now standard practice upon mine closure.  Whether underground or surface, mining remains an important symbol of Nevada's heritage.

Lincoln Highway, Eureka, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #253

Emigrant Donner Camp. Upon entering the Truckee Meadows along the Truckee River thousands of California-bound emigrants turned their wagons southwest to avoid extensive marshes and uncrossable sloughs. Here at the base of Rattlesnake Mountain the emigrants established a campground which extended nearly two miles to the east and west, one half mile north and south.  Numerous local springs furnished quality water and the protected location of the camp provided an ideal locale for a rest stop after hundreds of grueling miles spent traversing the Humboldt River Valley. Once rested the emigrants turned west to lace their major obstacle, the Sierra Nevadas. In October of 1846, the ill-fated Donner Party spent five days in this area resting and grazing their weary animals. Plagued by a series of unfortunate incidents one member of the party, William Pike, was accidentally shot, died and was buried in the vicinity.

Donner Party Park, Reno, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #251

Diamondfield Jack Davis. This historical marker commemorates the lasting notoriety of flamboyant western gunman Jackson Lee Davis (1870-1949), who was better know by the colorful name, “Diamondfield Jack,” a nickname that he carried the rest of his life.In the late 1890s, Davis gained a measure of fame as a gunman for the cattle interests, including rancher John Sparks, who would later become a Nevada governor, that were attempting to restrict sheep ranchers from southern Idaho and northeastern Nevada rangelands.  Following a sensational trial in 1896, Davis was convicted of murdering two sheepherders.  He was sentenced to be hanged, even after others confessed to the murders.In 1902, Davis was finally pardoned for the crimes.  He moved to the central Nevada mining towns of Tonopah and Goldfield, where he became a successful mine operator. He also helped found several mining camps, including one called Diamondfield.  In later years, he drifted into obscurity and died in Las Vegas in 1949 after being struck by a car.

Great Basin Highway, Jackpot, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #244

Dinner Station. Dinner Station stands as a reminder of Nevada’s stagecoach era.  Established in the early 1870s by William C. (Hill) Beachey as a meal stop for the Tuscarora and Mountain City Stage Lines, it was originally known as Weilands.  The name later changed to Oldham’s Station when a change of ownership took place.  A frame structure accommodated the traffic, but a fine two-story stone house, outbuildings, and a corral were built following a fire in the 1880s.  Early in the twentieth century, both automobiles and horse-drawn stages stopped at Dinner Station and it became one of the most popular county inns of the time.  After 1910, when automobiles became more common, the station ceased to be used.

Mountain City Highway, Elko, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #237

Carson And Colorado R.R. Freight Depot. This is the first railroad building to be constructed in Hawthorne. It is the remnant of the narrow-gauge Carson and Colorado Railroad built south from Mound House, near Virginia City in 1881.  Railroad officials laid out the town in the desert and the first lots were auctioned off on April 14, 1881.  The line was subsequently extended into Owens Valley, California, with rail service to Hawthorne coming to an end when the town was bypassed in 1905.  In later years, this building served as the general store of J. E. Adams and Senator John H. Miller, a bar and restaurant with a bingo parlor, and a banquet hall, until acquired by the Hawthorne Elks Lodge in 1946.

5th Street, Hawthorne, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #233

Dayton Cemetery. Founded in 1851, this is one of the oldest constantly maintained cemeteries in Nevada.  The trail to the California Mother Lode passed directly in front and the wagon tracks can still be seen with careful observation.In 1849, the emigrants discovered gold in Gold Canyon and a trading post was opened here.  In the 1850s, a permanent settlement was established.  In 1861, the town was officially named Dayton in honor or John Day, a surveyor who agreed to plot the town on the condition the place would be named after him.  That year, Lyman Crockett, later state treasurer, and Judge Calvin Hall located this cemetery.  On December 9, 1861 Crockett dug the first grave.  Two of his children are buried here.    James Finney (“Old Virginny”) after whom Virginia City is named, is buried here.  Many people buried here are Italian Americans, as this ethnic group dominated much of Dayton’s early history.  Recognizing the potential of the land and the irrigating value of the Carson River, Italian Americans made this area the breadbasket for the Comstock.

Cemetery Road, Dayton, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #232

Reunion In Unionville. Across the road and down about 300 feet was the original Unionville School.  Built in 1862, this adobe building was the first public structure in Humboldt County.  Used by such organizations as the Union League, Knights of the Golden Circle, the Free Masons, and the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus, it served the community until its demolition in 1871.Exactly 109 years later, members of the E.C.V. gathered here to hold a reunion in commemoration of this propitious event.  To the rear of this marker is the site where Samuel Clemens allegedly lived briefly before going to Virginia City in 1862 and taking the name Mark Twain.

Unionville Road, Imlay, NV, United States

Subjects

Mark Twain
(1835-1910) writer

Nevada Historical Marker #229

Oil From Shale. Directly south of this point and across the valley floor are the remains of a short-lived extraction plant, which reached the peak of its productive capacity in the early twenties.  Driving of the main shaft began in 1916.  Of several tries at extracting oil from shale, this was the only successful operation in Nevada.Robert M. Catlin, Sr. spent many years experimenting on the extraction of crude oil from these beds before beginning the commercial production of oil.  After a production period of less than two years, the plant was closed in the fall of 1924.  Hi-Power Catlin Oil was too expensive to complete with the fossil oils of that day.Easily 50 years ahead of his time, Catlin gave Elkoans and Nevadans a dream and the community an oil boom in the Roaring Twenties.

West Idaho Street, Elko, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #222

Tannehill Cabin One Of Eureka’s First Houses. The Tannehill brothers built this cabin for a residence in 1864 and lived here about a year before selling their mining interests to a New York company in 1866.  The cabin subsequently went through a number of owners, including the firm of Nathan & Harrison, one of the area’s first mercantile establishments in the late 1860s.Fires, floods, and the ravages of time have spared the structure, and local residents take justifiable pride in the fact that they have been able to save it.

Lincoln Highway, Eureka, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #217

Tate’s Stage Station 1886 1901. Long after the railroads came to Nevada and branch lines were extended towards the heartland of the state, horse-drawn stages continued to transport people and mail from railhead to the hinterlands.The principal routes were covered by such well-known lines as Overland Mail and Stage Co., William Hill Beachey Railroad Stage Lines, Butterfield’s, Wells, Fargo and Co., Pioneer Stageline, Carson and Columbus Stage Line, and other lesser-known lines.Thomas Tate sub-contracted mail routes in central Nevada for over thirty years.  In 1886, he and his wife established a station due east as an overnight stop between the county seats of Austin and Belmont.  Stages met here and exchanged passengers and mail and obtained fresh horses.  Tommy’s wife fed and lodged the passengers, in what became a local social center.  Ester Tate organized the first school in the area.The Tates maintained this station until 1901.  Belmont lost the Nye County seat in 1905.

, Carvers, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #216

Stillwater. Stillwater’s beginning predates Nevada’s advent to statehood by two years.  Named for large pools of tranquil water nearby, the town originated as an overland stage station in 1862, was granted a post office in 1865, and became Churchill’s third county seat in 1868.  The community population peaked in 1880, and when the county seat was removed to Fallon in 1904, barely 30 residents remained.Although their community center has disappeared, the valley’s lush fields and abundant crops attest to the untiring efforts of Stillwater’s pioneer ranchers and their descendants who met the desert’s challenge with dedication and determination.The Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge of 163,000 acres of wetland habitat and natural breeding and feeding groups for waterfowl was created in 1949.  The Stillwater Indian Reservation adjoins the Refuge.

, Stillwater, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #215

Lahontan Dam. Lahontan Dam, completed in 1915, is the key feature of the Newlands irrigation project that turned Lahontan Valley into one of Nevada’s most productive farming and ranching areas.  With the completion of the dam’s powerhouse, the electrical energy needs of Churchill County and the surrounding area were met.The Project was one of the first authorized under the Federal Reclamation Act of 1902 and the 1903 construction contract for Derby Dam and the Truckee Canal was the first entered into by the U.S. Reclamation Service, later the Bureau of Reclamation.This undertaking, originally named the Truckee-Carson Project, was renamed the Newlands Project in 1919, in honor of U.S. Senator Francis G. Newlands of Nevada, an ardent supporter of federal reclamation projects and legislation that made them possible.  Operations were transferred to the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District in 1926.

, Fallon, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #208

International Hotel. FIRST COMMERCIAL BUILDINGCONSTRUCTED IN AUSTIN1863This structure was built of lumber from the first International Hotel, constructed in Virginia City.David E. Buel constructed the hotel after being refused a free lot in Clifton at the mouth of the canyon below.  Buel, Frederick Baker, W.C. Harrington, and John Veatch located and recorded the original townsite of Austin.STATE HISTORIC

Main St, Austin, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #201

Wonder. Located 13 miles to the north is the camp of Wonder, a major mining center in the early years of the 20th Century.  Thomas J. Stroud and several others made the first locations in April 1906, and later that year, the Wonder Mining District was organized.Wonder’s boom from 1906 to 1915 was brief, but spectacular.  Stores and saloons were in operation by mid-summer 1906, and a school was begun in 1907.  Bench Creek provided water for the camp and an ice plant and a swimming pool made lire somewhat more bearable.  During a brief span of years, the Nevada Wonder Mining Company produced some $6 million in silver, gold, copper, and zinc.Wonder’s most prominent native daughter is Eva Adams (1908-1991), Administrative Assistant to Senator Patrick A. McCarran for many and the second woman appointed as the Director of the U.S. Mint during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.

, Fairview, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #200

Hall’s Station. Spafford Hall built this station and trading post in the early 1850s to accommodate emigrants bound for California.  Hall, who was the first permanent settler here, was severely injured in a hunting accident in 1854 and sold the station to one of his employees, James McMarlin. It became known as McMarlin’s Station.  Major Ormsby bought the station sometime between 1854 and 1860.  The title was still in his name in 1860 when he died in the first battle of the Pyramid Lake War.A special niche in Nevada’s history is accorded this site as the place where the first recorded dance was held on New Year’s Eve, 1853.The exact site destroyed by borrow pit.

Shady Lane, Dayton, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #199

Camels In Dayton. Camels were imported into the United States for military purposes in the mid-1850’s.  Lt. Edward Beale of the U.S. Army tested the animals for possible caravan operations in the deserts of the southwest.  The experiment was not successful and the camels were auctioned off.  Some were brought here to haul wood and salt to the mines and mills of the Comstock.  They were corraled behind this stone hay barn, known as the Leslie Hay Barn. Used extensively between Sacramento and Nevada points for some ten years, they were later abandoned to fend for themselves.  Few were seen after the 1880s.

Pike Street, Dayton, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #195

The Last Spike. On January 30, 1905, near this site, workers drove the last spike that completed the railroad between Salt Lake City, Utah and Los Angeles, California.  This was the last “transcontinental” line to southern California and one of the last lines built to the Pacific Coast.  Although there was no formal celebration at the time of the last spike, those present gave some recognition to the event.Las Vegas owes its existence to the railroad, then known as the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad. Because the valley had a good supply of water, the railroad company platted the Las Vegas town site and established a division point there.

S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #187

The Cattle Industry. The numerous valleys of Nevada have supported a vigorous cattle industry since the 1850s.  Cattlemen ranged their herds throughout northern Nevada by the 1870s.  The completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 was the catalyst that created a prosperous industry.  Longhorns from Texas were driven to fertile valleys for feeding, and then shipped as far as Omaha and San Francisco to market.As the mining booms subsided, Nevada’s ranches kept the state alive in the nineteenth century.  Improvements in breeding stock and winter feeding helped build vast ranching empires for hardworking stockmen.STATE HISTORIC

, Beowawe, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #186

Union Hotel & Post Office. The original Union Hotel was located across the street.  It was rebuilt here in 1870 after a fire destroyed the old hotel.  The former post office site originally housed the dining room and a barber shop.  The free standing rock wall is the original wall of the overland stage station and Pony Express stop.

Main St, Dayton, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #185

Mc Cone’s Foundries. In 1862, Ivy Mead, John McCone and Mr. Tascar established a foundry at Johntown, two miles southeast of here in Gold Canyon.  After two years they moved their operation to this point and erected a large granite building.  John McCone became the sole proprietor of the foundry in 1866.A fire on May 15, 1872 left nothing standing but the walls of the foundry.McCone then bought the Fulton Foundry built in Virginia City in 1863.  McCone made it possibly the largest foundry in the state.  The foundry manufactured all the early castings of the Virginia and Truckee Railway.  He employed 110 men at its peak.The largest casting poured on the Pacific Coast was made at Fulton’s on December 11, 1880.

Ophir Grade, Virginia City, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #174

Blair. The Pittsburgh-Silver Peak Gold Mining Company bought the major mines in the area in 1906.  Land speculators at nearby Silver Peak bought up the land.  As a result, the mining company surveyed a new townsite north of Silver Peak and named it Blair.  The company built a 100-stamp mill in 1907.  The company also constructed the 17 ½ mile Silver Peak railroad from Blair Junction to the Tonopah & Goldfield main line.By 1920, Blair was all but deserted.  The remnants of stone buildings and mill foundations are the only survivors of the once thriving, but short-lived, mining town.

, Silver Peak, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #172

Tybo (Silver — Lead — Zinc Camp). Eight miles northwest of this point lies what was formerly one of the leading lead-producing districts in the nation.  Producing erratically from ore discovery in 1866 to the present (the last mill closed in 1937), Tybo managed to achieve an overall creditable record.Tybo, in its infancy, was known as a peaceful camp, but later strife between the Irish, Cornish, and central Europeans changed its reputation.  Later, these groups banded together to drive away a company of Chinese woodcutters. The town was not unique in having three residential sections each with its ethnic group.  However, all children went to the same brick school.

US-6, Tonopah, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #170

Eureka Sentinel Building. Constructed in 1879 at a cost of $10,000, the Sentinel Building was designed by architect C.M. Bennett.  The Eureka Sentinel was published here from 1879 to 1960.  Three generations of the Skillman family, Archibald, Edward, and Willis, edited the newspaper.  The last editor, Edward J. Moyle, had been with the Sentinel for over fifty years before he took over the editorial chair in 1944.

North Monroe St, Eureka, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #167

Valmy. Overlooking the old California Emigrant Trail, Valmy was named after the Battle of Valmy, fought during the French Revolution in 1792.  Established in 1910 by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, Valmy served during the steam era as a water and fuel stop for the railroad.Treaty Hill to the northwest marks a division point between the Northern Paiute lands to the west and Shoshone lands to the east.  For generations the scene of battles over two springs.  Treaty Hill marks the site where peace was wrought by compromise, when Native Americans peacefully divided springs and territory between the warring tribes.The first post office here was established as Stonehouse on November 26, 1890.  The name was changed to Valmy March 24, 1915.

Marigold Mine Road, Valmy, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #158

Palmetto. Thinking that local Joshua trees were related to palm trees, the 1866 prospectors named the mining camp Palmetto.  Although a local 12-stamp mill worked the silver ore, the town died for lack of profitable material.  New discoveries in the late 1860s brought Palmetto back to life, but once again meager deposits caused its demise.New prospecting in 1903 caused Palmetto to grow to a town of 200 tents on a platted town site.  At its peak in 1906, the commercial street contained all the necessary mining camp businesses.Local miners drifted away in autumn, 1906.  Mining, on a lease basis, has been minimal since that time.  An important talc deposit lies nearby.STATE HISTORIC

, Sylvania, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #157

Lida. Known as a gathering point for Shoshone and Northern Paiute Indians, Lida Valley was the site of early prospecting in the 1860s.Later prospectors organized a mining district in 1867 and laid out the town in 1872.  Soon stores, shops, stables and a post office were established.  Some ore was milled locally, yet high grade ore ($500-$1,000 per ton) was treated at Austin or Belmont.  After 1880 mining declined.Lida revived and thrived for three years during the turn-of-the-century Goldfield boom, but declined again in 1907. Mining efforts resumed a few years later and a small community existed here until World War I.

, Lida, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #156

Gold Point. Gold Point was initially called Lime Point for the nearby lime deposits found in 1868.  Processing difficulties in the 1880s discouraged silver mining locally.Goldfield ore discoveries in 1902 stimulated area mining interest.  In 1908 miners discovered high grade chlorargyrite, a form of silver chloride known as hornsilver.  The town’s name was changed to Hornsilver, and a typical mining camp developed. A newspaper, post office, stores, and saloons began operations, and a town of over 225 wood-frame buildings, tents, and shacks appeared.The camp assumed the name Gold Point after 1930 when more gold was being mined than silver. Miners were drawn away to essential World War II industries in October 1942, and major mining ceased at Gold Point.

NV-266, Goldfield, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #154

Belleville. Founded in 1874 by Alsop J. Holmes, Belleville flourished by milling ore from Holmes’ Northern Belle Mine at Candelaria. The mill, located just east of here, made its first bullion-bar shipment (worth $9,200) in April 1875.Belleville was also the terminus and work camp of the Carson and Colorado Railroad that reached the town in December 1881.  At that time Belleville’s population peaked at about five hundred and included an assay office, an express office, a telegraph station, a livery stable, a schoolhouse, two hotels, several restaurants and blacksmith shops, and seven saloons.By the late 1880s pipes delivered water to Candelaria and allowed local mills to begin operation, reducing the need for shipping costs.  Belleville could not survive the competition and was deserted by 1892.STATE HISTORIC

Mina-Basalt Cutoff Rd, Columbus, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #153

Jarbidge Community Hall. Gold discoveries by Dave Bourne in 1909 created the town of Jarbidge.With 1,500 population in Jarbidge Canyon by 1910, citizens built this pioneer-type community hail with a “floating” maple floor.  Support from the Nevada Commission for Cultural Affairs and the community funded the restoration of the building.STATE HISTORIC

Charleston Jarbridge Rd, Jarbidge, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #149

High Rock Canyon. This Marker has been removedThe presence of man from 3,000 B.C. to the gold-rush days is recorded on high canyon walls.  Prehistoric man left his rockshelters, campsites, and petroglyphs in this historically rich, remote, volcanic area.Northern Paiute Indians roamed these lands when John C. Fremont first journeyed through high rock canyon in 1843.  The Applegate brothers blazed their trail from Oregon through the canyon to the Humboldt River in 1846.  Peter Lassen partially followed this route in 1848, and gold seekers crowded the trail in 1849.STATE HISTORIC

, Gerlach, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #147

People Of The Humboldt. Nevada lies within the Great Basin where rivers drain into lakebeds and sinks, never reaching an ocean.  The broad valley around this location contains two of these terminal lake basins or “sinks” one for the Humboldt River arising in northeastern Nevada and the other for the Carson River flowing from the Sierra Nevada to the southwest.  Near the end of the Ice Age, much of this region was beneath the waters of Lake Lahontan.  As Lahontan’s water receded, two lake basins formed, separated by a massive gravel bar to the north.  Archaeologists have concluded that over the last 12,000 years, Native Americans occupied the region, prospering when the valley supported extensive wetlands.From about 9800 years ago, Native Americans utilized Leonard Rock shelter, a National Historic Landmark, and other caves carved from the bedrock by Lake Lahontan’s waves.  Remnants of stored tools and food recovered from the caves include nets, fishhooks, dried fish, water bird remains, duck decoys, and basketry made from willows or tule.  Lovelock Cave, above Humboldt Lake to the northeast, is a legendary battle site where tradition maintains two bands of Numa (Northern Paiutes), the Koop Ticutta (Ground Squirrel Eaters) and the Sai Ticutta (Tule Eaters) warred against one another.  When European American explorers entered the area in the 1830s, the area was dominated by vast wetlands that still supported Numa (Northern Paiute) villages.STATE HISTORIC

, Fallon, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #146

Mc Dermitt Indian Reservation. In the mid-1860s many Paiutes returning from Oregon’s Indian reservation, joined some from the pyramid lake Indian reservation (home of the “cui-ui eaters”) because of poor treatment and the dishonest dealings of U.S. Indian agents.  These Native Americans settled about fort McDermitt, where they aided the local military against bannocks and others resisting settlers who were taking over.Nearby mercury mines furnished employment for Native Americans adjusting to the life style of the settlers.  Likewise, today a local precision assembly industry utilizes the dexterity skills of the Indians today.  Red and green clays from the canyon are now made into pottery.

Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation, Fort McDermitt, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #144

Fort Mc Dermitt. Established in 1865, Fort McDermitt was first called Quinn River Camp #33 on the East Fork, then renamed in honor of military district commander Lt. Col. Charles McDermitt, who died while fighting Native Americans.  The fort consisted of several adobe, stone, and frame buildings surrounding a square.  Its purpose was to protect the Virginia City-Quinn River Valley-Oregon road.  Twenty-four years of operation made it the longest-serving active army fort in Nevada.  Its troops participated in the Modoc War and in conflicts with the Bannock and Shoshone Tribes.  It was the last of the Nevada army posts in service when converted into an American Indian reservation school in 1889.

Veterans Memorial Highway, Fort McDermitt, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #143

Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins (1844 1891). Proposed Text, Marker Plate in Production:Sarah Winnemucca, whose Paiute name was Thocmentony (Shell-flower), was the daughter of Chief Winnemucca, and granddaughter of Captain Truckee, a friend and supporter of Captain John C. Frémont.  Sarah Winnemucca sought understanding between her people and European Americans when the latter settled on Paiute homelands.  Sarah lectured, wrote a foundational book in American Indian literature, and founded the non-government Peabody School for Native children outside of Lovelock, Nevada.  She worked tirelessly to remedy injustice for her people and to advocate peace.  Here at Fort McDermitt she served as an interpreter and teacher.  Because of her importance to the nation’s history, Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins was honored in 2005 with a statue in the National Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol.STATE HISTORIC

North Road, Fort McDermitt, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #139

Old Spanish Trail (The Journey Of The Dead Man). Early Spanish traders named the fifty-five dry miles separating Las Vegas and the Muddy River the Journada Del Muerto (Journey of The Dead Man).  This longest stretch without water along the Old Spanish Trail was littered with the skeletons of animals and parts of wagons abandoned along the sandy desert.  Most experienced travelers made the trip at night.John C. Frémont crossed the Journada in 1844 and commented: “We ate the barrel cactus and moistened our mouths with the acid of the sour dock. Hourly expecting to find water, we continued to press on to midnight, when after a hard and uninterrupted march of 16 hours, our wild mules began running ahead; and in a mile or two we came to a bold running stream (the Muddy River).” 

, Moapa Valley, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #135

New Pass Station. The rocks composing the walls of this stage station and freighter stop were in neat array and roofed with bundles of willow twigs in July 1861, when John Butterfield’s Overland Mail & Stage Company began traversing this Central or Simpson Route between Salt Lake City and Genoa, Nevada.The spring on the hill was inadequate for both humans and horses.  However, Division Superintendent Thomas Plain’s support ranch, one mile to the west, kept this important team-watering and replacement-stop operating.Completion of the first transcontinental railroad spelled the eventual demise of the Overland Stage line.  Butterfield sold out to Wells, Fargo & Company in 1866, which suspended all operations on the Central Route in February 1869.  The company continued to operate their diverted equipment on other lines until the early 1870s.STATE HISTORIC

Austin Highway, Austin, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #133

Fish Lake Valley. This valley was settled when the palmetto mining district was discovered in 1866.  In the 1870’s the Griffing & Wyman’s, as well as the Pacific Borax Works, were extracting borax at Fish Lake.The Carson and Columbus stage line ran northward to aurora and Carson City, making connections with log springs in the Sylvania district and Lida.  Several local ranches supplied food to the freight industry and mining communitiesA post office was opened at Fish Lake Valley in 1881.This marker commemorates the life and times of W.O. Harrell, known as “Harrell, the irrepressible,” citizen extraordinaire of fish lake valley in the 1870’sSTATE HISTORIC

Blue Bird Road, Dyer, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #127

Courthouse Site 1865 1909. Dayton was the first seat of Lyon County and had one of the first courthouses built in Nevada.  Finished in 1864, local residents celebrated the new two-story brick building and its Italianate styling as an important architectural benchmark for a new state.On the afternoon of May 15, 1909, the two-story brick building burned and the county seat was moved to Yerington two years later.  Utilizing the ruins, the Nevada legislature funded the construction of a high school that opened in 1918.  The school closed in 1959 and the building became an elementary school, then a junior high school and is now the Dayton Valley Community Center.

Pike Street, Dayton, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #123

Cradlebaugh Bridge. This marker is currently awaiting reinstallation.The remains of Cradlebaugh Bridge, built in 1861, by William Cradlebaugh, stand ¼ mile west of here.  This bridge shortened the distance from Carson City to Aurora in the then- booming Esmeralda Mining District.There were two routes from Carson City south to the bridge where they joined, crossed the river, and headed into the desert.  One followed the westside of the Carson River.  The foothill alternate went via Jacks Valley and the old John James Ranch, then around the hill to the bridge.  Five miles south of Cradlebaugh Bridge the road passed Desert Station, a lively hostelry, and beyond, the Twelve Mile House enroute to Esmeralda.The road and bridge were purchased by Douglas County in 1895 for $5,000.

, Minden, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #122

Sheridan. In 1861, a blacksmith shop, a store, a boarding house, and two saloons comprised the village of Sheridan.  The village had grown up around Moses Job’s general store, established prior to 1855. The Surveyor General, in his 1889-90 biennial report, stated that Sheridan was the metropolis of the Carson River West Fork farmers. The Sheridan House, erstwhile boarding abode, has been converted to a dwelling.  It may be seen across the road.  It is all that remains of the “metropolis.”Moses Job, an irrepressible man, climbed the peak above this location, planted the American flag and with a shout named the peak after himself.  Job’s Canyon is above, and to its left is Job’s Peak.  To its right is Job’s Sister.

, Gardnerville, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #119

Reuel Colt Gridley “Citizen Extraordinaire”. This simple stone structure, opened to the public in late 1863, was originally operated as a general merchandise store by the firm of Gridley, Hobart, and Jacobs.  Gridley is best remembered for his 1864 wager that prompted the auctioning of a sack of flour for donations to the “Sanitary Fund,” the Civil War forerunner of the American Red Cross.  The flour was sold again and again throughout Nevada and California, then taken east and eventually auctioned at the St. Louis Sanitary Fair in 1864. In all, it raised about $275,000 for the fund.  Gridley died almost penniless six years later.

Water Street, Austin, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #118

Luther Canyon (Fay Canyon). Luther Canyon, west of this site, takes its name from Ira M. Luther, who from 1858-1865 had a sawmill there.  The house behind the marker was his home.  In 1861, he was a delegate to the second Nevada Territorial Legislature.  After 1865, the canyon came to be known as Horse Thief Canyon, because of the “business” of John and Lute Olds, owners of the next ranch south.  Besides operating a station along the Emigrant Trail for a number of years, they rustled horses from emigrants.  The animals were sent up the canyon to drift over the ridge into horse thief meadows.  After resting and feeding the horses, they were driven down to Woodfords Canyon to sell to other emigrants.  A prospector called Sawtooth was allegedly murdered and buried in the barn south of the Luther house.  Sam Brown, a notorious bad man, was shot and killed in front of the Olds barn in 1861 by a man he threatened. “Lucky Bill” Thorington, implicated in a murder in California for which he was hanged by vigilantes in 1858, had a ranch two and a half miles to the south.

, Gardnerville, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #116

Searchlight. Initial discoveries of predominately gold ore were first made at this location on May 6, 1897.  G.F. Colton filed the first claim, later to become the Duplex Mine.  The Quartette Mining Company, formed in 1900, became the mainstay of the Searchlight district, producing almost half of the area’s total output.  In May 1902, a 16 mile narrow-gauge railroad was built down the hill to the company’s mill on the Colorado River.On March 31, 1907, the 23.22 mile Barnwell and Searchlight Railroad connected the town with the then main Santa Fe line from Needles to Mojave.  By 1919 trains travelled over the B. and S. Railroad only twice a week.  A severe washout on September 23, 1923, halted traffic completely.  Train service was never restored.Searchlight is the birthplace of U.S. Senator Harry Reid (b.1939) who became the first Nevadan to serve as the Senate Majority Leader, a position he assumed in 2007.

Veterans Memorial Highway, Searchlight, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #112

Carlin. Carlin, the oldest town in Elko County, was established as a railroad division point in December 1868 by the Central Pacific Railroad.  When the railroad tracks reached the Carlin meadows, always a favorite stopping place for wagon trains along the California Emigrant Trail, construction crews laid out a townsite and built a large roundhouse and shops Central Pacific officials named the town after William Passmore Carlin, a Union general who served his country with distinction during and after the Civil War.During the 1870s and early 1880s, Carlin competed with Elko, Palisade, and Winnemucca for the staging and freighting business of the many mining camps north and south of the railroad.  In 1965, the town became the principle shipping point for the nearby Carlin Gold Mine, the second largest gold-producer in the U.S.Carlin is still a principle division point on the Union Pacific Railroad line.  During the period from 1906 until the early 1950s, Carlin was an important icing station in Nevada for refrigerator cars on both the Southern and Western Pacific Railroads (Western Pacific reached Carlin from the east in 1908, but freight and passenger service was not inaugurated over this transcontinental line until 1910).

West Hamilton St, Carlin, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #111

Edwards Creek Valley. Abundant grass and brush found near springs and intermittent streams in Edwards Creek Valley were important ecological areas for Native Americans.  Shoshone Indians wandered seasonally to gather wild seeds and small game and settled here in winter camps.  Later, Northern Paiutes also lived in the valley.In 1854, Col. John Reese discovered a route through Edwards Creek Valley that was shorter than the Humboldt trail.  Established by surveyor James Simpson in 1859, it was followed by the Pony Express, the Overland Telegraph, and the overland mail stages.  An 1862 Austin gold rush passageway too, the route remained as the region’s principal commercial artery until 1880.

, Eastgate, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #110

Wagon Jack Shelter. The base of this cliff is the site of Wagon Jack Shelter, excavated in 1958 by Robert F. Heizer and Martin A. Baumhoff through the University of California, Berkeley.  The archaeologists named the shelter in honor of Wagon Jack, a Western Shoshone Indian who may have camped here while working at the Eastgate Ranch around 1900.  Wagon Jack was purportedly a rabbit boss, leader of communal jackrabbit drives, in neighboring Smith Creek Valley.A curved wall formerly extended from the cliff face and probably represented the perimeter of a prehistoric brush-covered shelter.  A variety of chipped stone projectile point styles were recovered from this site reflecting a succession of prehistoric cultures.  Eastgate Series arrow points were first described from these Eastgate archaeological sites.  Bones of bighorn sheep dominated the animal remains accompanied by a few deer and pronghorn bones.  Four stone tools or fragments of tools were associated with grinding seeds, pinenuts, and other dried foods.  A radiocarbon date from the bottom of this site indicates occupation beginning around 3,150 years ago.

, Eastgate, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #109

Lamoille Valley. Because heavy grazing and traffic denuded the grass from the main Fort Hall route of the California Emigrant Trail along the Humboldt River, many emigrants left the river near Starr Valley.  They skirted the east Humboldt Range and the Ruby Mountains along a Shoshone Indian path, rested their livestock in Lamoille Valley, and returned to the Humboldt River.John Walker and Thomas Waterman first settled the area in 1865.  Waterman named the valley after a place in his native Vermont. In 1968, Walker erected the Cottonwood Hotel Store and Blacksmith Shop in the valley, and the settlement became known as the “The Crossroads.”  Here wagons were repaired and food and supplies could be obtained.  The original buildings, and the most recent 20-bedroom Lamoille Hotel, creamery, flour mill, and dance hall are gone.

Lamoille Highway, Lamoille, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #108

Ruby Valley Pony Express Station. This small building was originally located 60 miles to the south, where it served the Pony Express from April 1860 to 1861.  It was moved to this location in 1960.

Idaho Street, Elko, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #106

Elko. On December 29, 1868, representatives of the Central Pacific Railroad started laying out lots for the future town of Elko.  By 1870, the thriving town had 5,000 people.  There was an immense volume of freight and passenger traffic over the stage line roads north and south from the Railhead at Elko to mining areas.The University of Nevada was located in Elko in 1874, and remained here until 1885, when it moved to Reno.By the early 1870s, Elko became the marketing and economic center for northeastern Nevada’s range livestock empire.  In the 1870s and I 880s, great ranching principalities were built on Elko county’s vast rangelands.  These ranches were ruled over by such powerful and colorful cattle kings as L.R. “Broadhorns” Bradley, Nevada’s second governor and its first ‘cowboy” governor; the French Garat family; the Spanish Altubes; and John Sparks, governor of Nevada in the early years of the twentieth century.Elko remains the economic hub of Nevada’s greatest range area.  At the same time, it has also become a recreation tourism center in northeast Nevada and home to the internationally famous Cowboy Poetry Festival.

Idaho Street, Elko, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #100

Nevada Northern Railway. Mark Requa’s Nevada Consolidated Copper Company laid 150-mile of track from Cobre, on the Southern Pacific line, to Ely in 1905-06 to haul ore from the Copper Flat mines west of Ely.Ore was loaded into railroad gondolas at Copper Flat for the trip to the smelter at McGill, over a double-track trestle that was 1720 feet long.  The trestle burned in 1922 and was replaced with an earth-fill span.Passenger service and the “school train” carrying McGill youth to Ely High School ended in 1941.  With the closing of local copper mines in 1983, the railroad ceased operations.  Currently, part of the line serves the Nevada Northern Railway Museum for live steam rides.  The East Ely shop complex for the Railway was listed as a National Historic Landmark District in 2006. 

Aultman St, Ely, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #99

Taylor. Silver and gold were discovered by Taylor and John Platt in 1873 in what was to become Taylor, a typical mining community supported chiefly by the Argus and Monitor Mines.  In seven years, the town boasted a population of 15,000 people, seven saloons, three general stores, an opera house, a Wells Fargo office, and other businesses.  By 1886, Taylor was the center of county activity, a social highlight being the annual 4th of July celebration.Mining continued intermittently until 1919.  At that time, a 100 ton cyanide plant at the ArgusMine gave the area new life, but production declined when the price of silver plummeted.  World War II renewed mining activity temporarily.  Local mines yielded more than $3 million in silver, gold, copper, and lead.

Great Basin Highway, Ely, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #97

Manhattan “The Pine Tree Camp”. The Manhattan Mining District northeast of here was first organized in 1867.  The place name persisted in local use and was adopted in 1905, when John Humphrey found gold at the foot of April Fool Hill near the old stage route.  A typical boom followed.  A post office opened late in 1905 and the camp soon had a telegraph, and telephones, utilities, and businesses.  Transport was to Tonopah and the railroad at Sodaville.The 1906 earthquake halted mining investment.  As a result, most of the productive work here was done by lessees.  The gold strikes were in ore and placer deposits, and by 1909, there were thirteen mines and sixteen placers.  Some of the operations were the big four: Litigation Hill Merger, Stray Dog, September Fraction, and White Caps.  Hydraulic placering started in 1909.  In 1938, dredging began and continued for thirteen years.  Over $10,000,000 was produced.

NV-376, Manhattan, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #95

Battle Mountain. Battle Mountain’s name derives from the mountain range to the southwest where in the 1850s some California emigrants were allegedly ambushed by a band of Native Americans.As a town, Battle Mountain sprung into existence in January 1870.  In October 1868, the railroad established the Reese River siding here, and made Argenta, five miles eastward, its principle station and point of departure for the busy mining camps to the south.  However, early in 1870, the station at Argenta was moved to this location, and the Reese River siding was renamed Battle Mountain Switch.  Stage and freight roads north and south teemed with “mud wagon” stages and massive freight wagons.From 1880 to 1938, Battle Mountain was the operating headquarters for the Central Nevada Railway, as well as the Battle Mountain and Lewis Railroad from 1881 to 1890.  The town’s first copper boom developed in 1897, in the Galena (Battle Mountain) range.  Battle Mountain steadily outgrew the mining town of Austin to the south, until voters moved the county seat here in 1979.

Front Street, Battle Mountain, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #94

The Winters Ranch Rancho Del Sierra. This large Gothic-style structure, completed about 1864, was the ranch home of Theodore and Maggie Winters and their seven children.  Originally this area was settled by Mormons, and the ranch was purchased from Mormons by Winters and his brother, from the proceeds of the Comstock.  Theodore Winters immediately set out to enlarge his property, and built the present mansion.  The ranch, at one time, consisted of around 6,000 acres.Winters raised outstanding race horses.  He also had a large dairy operation and raised beef cattle, work horses, and sheep.Theodore Winters was active in politics and was elected as a territorial representative in 1862.

Carson-Reno Highway, Washoe Valley, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #90

Delamar, “The Widow Maker” 1893 1909. John and Olivia Ferguson discovered gold twelve miles south of here around 1891.  The original name of the camp they established was Ferguson.  However, it was eventually renamed "Delamar” after John DeLamar, an entrepreneur who bought the best mining claims in 1893 for $150,000.  Eventually, over 1500 residents settled in this isolated place.  The town contained a newspaper, hospital, school, churches, saloons, stores, a theater and professionals.  Entertainment included brass bands, dance orchestras, and stage attractions at the opera house.Water came from Meadows Valley Wash 12 miles away.  All other materials were hauled through the mountains by mule team 150 miles from a railroad head at Millard, Utah.  For 16 years, most of the bullion was hauled out in the same manner.The dry milling processes used prior to the introduction of wet methods created a fine silica dust, or “death” dust, causing the deaths of many residents and gave the town its nickname, “The Widow Maker".Delamar produced $25,000,000 in gold and was Nevada’s leading producer at the turn of the twentieth century.

, Caliente, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #85

Sutro. Sutro was a town, a tunnel, and a man.  The well-planned community was headquarters for the Sutro Drainage Tunnel.German-born Adolph Sutro came to the Comstock in 1860.  He advocated a drainage tunnel, visualizing development of Comstock ore with this access.  By 1865, his vision gained approval of state and federal legislation.  However, the mining interests, having at first supported the tunnel, became strongly opposed.When construction began in 1869, it was first financed by the mine workers since the tunnel would presumably improve mine safety.  Later, the funding came from international bankers.  Miners completed the main tunnel in 1878 and then extended lateral excavations, providing drainage, ventilation and access to many Comstock mines.  The work on the tunnel from its lower end created a town of 600-800 and boasted of a church, post office and its own weekly newspaper, plus Sutro’s Victorian mansion and other fine residences.  Adolph Sutro soon sold his interest in the tunnel company and returned to San Francisco, where he served as mayor.

California Emigrant Trail, Dayton, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #84

Jedediah Strong Smith. From May to June 1827, explorer and trapper Jedediah Smith found a route from California’s central valley to the Great Salt Lake Valley in Utah.  He became the first European American to completely cross what is now Nevada.Because Smith’s journal and map have never been found, his exact route is unknown.  Based on Smith’s own statements about his difficult trip, modern historians and geographers have pieced together the most plausible route.  Smith crossed the Sierra Nevada at Ebbetts Pass, swung southeast along or across the headwaters and middle reaches of the Walker River, and passed into central Nevada’s open spaces south of Walker Lake.Smith entered Smoky Valley on its southwest side in June 1827 and crossed the valley in a northeasterly direction.  He then paralleled the future Simpson survey, route of the Pony Express and Overland Stage, along modern U.S. Highway 50.He entered Utah at Ibapah.

Great Basin Highway, Ely, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #83

Rock Creek (Cold Springs Station). Rock Creek was an important stagecoach stop on the Overland Mail & Stage Company’s historic line along the Simpson route between Salt Lake City and Genoa, Nevada, which was operated by John Butterfield (1861-1 866) and later Wells, Fargo & Company (1866-1869).  Fresh horses, blacksmith services, and wagon-repair facilities were available here.The Pony Express constructed the Cold Springs station in 1860 on the sagebrush bench eastward across the highway. To the north are the ruins of a telegraph repeater and maintenance station which serviced this segment of the transcontinental line, which was completed between Sacramento and Omaha in 1861.  The line was abandoned in August 1869.  The coming of the transcontinental railroad and its parallel telegraph line along the Humboldt River to the north spelled the demise of both the telegraph line and the stage route here.

, Fallon, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #82

Diamond Valley. The first known explorer of Diamond Valley was Captain John C. Frémont who mapped the area to aid western migration in 1845.  Before Frémont, Shoshone and Paiute Indians had gathered nature’s bounty here.Colonel J.H. Simpson mapped a route through the valley in 1859.  The Simpson route, through the north end of the valley, immediately became the Pony Express route from 1860-1861.  The Overland Telegraph replaced the Pony Express and also crossed the valley.Early freight toll roads were operated across the valley as lead and silver mining camps boomed in the 1860s.  Needs of the mining camps gave rise to a limited livestock and dairy industry.  In 1957, a large underground lake was tapped to supply water for irrigation.

Eureka/Carlin Rd, Eureka, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #80

Eureka Courthouse. The Eureka County Courthouse, designed by George Costerisa, cost about $38,000 to construct.  Built in 1879-80 of locally-fired brick and of sandstone quarried nearby, the Italianate style courthouse remains a fine example of boomtown Victorian opulence.  This relic, a scene of many famous trials, reflects the glory days from 1864 to 1890 when Eureka was the first important lead-silver district in the United States.

Lincoln Highway, Eureka, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #74

Wellington. Following the mining boom in the Aurora District in 1860, Jack Wright and Leonard Hamilton built a bridge across the West Walker River and established a stage station at this location.  Wagons and stages were repaired and horses shod.  The station soon became a trading center for nearby ranches and farms.In 1863, Daniel Wellington bought Wright and Hamilton’s interests and the place became known as “Wellington’s Station”.  The Wellington Hotel, located about a half mile south of the station, was constructed by wagonmaster Zadok Pierce in 1875.  Over the years it has served as a livery stable, freight station, general store, and post office.

Wellington Cutoff, Wellington, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #69

Jarbidge. As early as 10000 years ago, Native American hunting parties camped near horn to hunt game.  About a thousand years ago, Shoshone-speaking people entered the region, where they continue to live today.  The name Jarbidge comes from a Shoshone word meaning “a bad or evil spirit”.Dave Bourne discovered gold in this isolated area in 1909 and production eventually totaled 59 million.  Population size varied, but in the early l920s, the Jarbidge district replaced fading Goldfield as the premier gold-producing area in Nevada.  The Jarbidge mines railed beginning in the tale 1920s.On a stormy December 5, 1916, the last stagecoach robbery and murder in the history of the West took place in Jarbidge Canyon, ¼ mile south of the town.

Charleston Jarbridge Rd, Jarbidge, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #68

Wadsworth. From 1868 until 1884, the Central Pacific’s Truckee Wadsworth Division was located on this site.  In 1882, work was started on a new site across the river, and by 1883, a new roundhouse, shop, and other buildings were completed there.  A fire on April 15, 1884, fanned by heavy wind, destroyed the remaining railroad buildings as well as the town.  Damage exceeded $100,000.  Lack of adequate water contributed to the extensive damage.  After another fire in 1902, the railroad planned to move to a new site.  In 1904, division facilities moved west to an entirely new location, which became Sparks, Nevada.

Main St, Wadsworth, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #66

Jacobsville. The site of Jacobsville is one-half mile north.  George Washington Jacobs, the first sheriff of Lander County, founded the town on the banks of the Reese River in 1859.  Jacobsville was the Overland Stage and mail station and became a Pony Express stop in 1860.  In the early 1860s, it had a population of about 400 people and boasted of having the first telegraph relay station, a post office, courthouse, three stores and two hotels.Jacobsville was the first county seat of Lander County which extended over most of northeastern Nevada.  The county seat was moved to the more populated town of Austin the same year it was established in Jacobsville.  The only remnants of the town are a few stones used in the foundations.  The Reese River, just west of here, was discovered by the exploring party of John Reese in 1854.

Lincoln Highway, Austin, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #64

Ophir. Well up into the canyon above, the massive stone foundations of a costly and splendid stamp mill as well as the stone walls of an elegant office and mansion are visible.  This is the site of Ophir, now a ghost town.In 1863, S. Boulerond discovered ore at Ophir.  In 1864, the Murphy Mine opened and became the leading local producer.  In 1865, a 20-stamp mill was completed costing over $200,000.  This included the first experimental Stetefeldt furnace ever built.  When the Murphy Mill was built, the town of Toiyabe City was established, growing to a population of 400.  Through poor management, the work in the mines declined in 1869.  Ophir was almost deserted.  In the 1880s, the mines were reactivated, and Ophir had another period of prosperity.  By the 1890s, the town was deserted but some mining activity at the Murphy Mine continued sporadically into the 20th century.More than $3,000,000 worth of gold and silver were mined from the Murphy vein and from surrounding properties.  Iron, copper and arsenic were also found in the area.Ophir managed to have all the accouterments of a large community, including a school, a church, various lodges, and, of course, several saloons.

Tonopah-Austin Rd, Round Mountain, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #59

Stokes Castle. Anson Phelps Stokes, mine developer, railroad magnate and member of a prominent eastern family, built Stokes Castle as a summer home for his sons.  After the castle (or the tower, as theStokes family always referred to it) was completed in June 1897, the Stokes family used it for two months.  Since then, with one possible exception, the structure has remained unoccupied.Stokes Castle is made of huge, granite stones, raised with a hand winch and held in position by rock wedging and clay mortar.  The architectural model for the castle was a medieval tower Anson Stokes had seen and admired near Rome.  This building originally had three floors, each with a fireplace, plate glass windows, balconies on the second and third floors, and a battlemented terrace on the roof.  It had plumbing and sumptuous furnishings.Stokes Castle has served for decades as an iconic Nevada building often photographed by enthusiasts of Western history.

Forest Rd 43242A, Austin, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #54

Ward Mining District. The ghost town of Ward, in the foothills of the Egan Range, lies some eight miles west of here.  Booming from 1876 until 1882, with a peak population of 1,500, Ward was somewhat of a lawless mining camp.  Early killings did occur, but justice was meted out by the vigilante committee and the hanging rope.A million dollars worth of silver was taken from a single chamber of the Ward mine, yet an abandoned house was used for the first school and no movement was ever started to build a church.The town was abandoned by the late 1880s, but new discoveries and better mining methods prompted a resurgence of activity in 1906 and again in the 1960s.

Taylor Cutoff Rd, Ely, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #53

Hamilton. The mines of the White Pine district were first established in 1865.  Between 1868 and 1875, they supported many thriving towns including Hamilton, Eberhardt, Treasure City, and Shermantown.  These communities, now all ghost towns, are clustered eleven miles south of this point.Hamilton and its neighbors thrived as a result of large-scale silver discoveries in 1868.  Experiencing one of the most intense, but shortest-lived silver stampedes ever recorded, the years 1868-1869 saw some 10,000 people living in huts and caves on Treasure Hill at Mount Hamilton, at an elevation of 8,000 to 10,500 feet above sea level.Hamilton was incorporated in 1869 and became the first county seat of White Pine County that same year.  It was disincorporated in 1875.  In this brief span of time, a full-sized town came into bloom with a main street and all the usual businesses.  Mine brick courthouse was constructed in 1870.On June 27, 1873, the main portion of the town was destroyed by fire.  The town never fully recovered.  In 1885, another fire burned the courthouse and caused the removal of the White Pine County seat to Ely.

Lincoln Highway, Ely, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #50

Carlin Canyon. In December 1828, Peter Skene Ogden and his trapping brigade (Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fifth Snake Country Expedition) were the first European Americans to enter here.  Joseph Paul, one of Ogden’s trappers, died nearby—the first emigrant to die and be buried in the Humboldt Country.Late in 1845, John Frémont dispatched a group down the Humboldt.  They traversed this canyon with difficulty on November 10.  In September 1846, the Reed-Donner Party, en route to disaster in the deep snows of the Sierra Nevada, viewed the canyon.The Central Pacific’s Chinese track gangs constructed the transcontinental railroad (now Southern Pacific) through here in December 1868.  Subsequently, the canyon became known as Carlin or Moleen Canyon.  The Western Pacific, the second transcontinental rail link across Nevada, was constructed in 1907.In 1913, Nevada Route 1, the first auto road, took over the abandoned Central Pacific grade through the canyon.  In 1920, Route 1 became the Victory Highway, and in 1926, U.S. Highway 40.  In its freeway phase, it is now designated Interstate 80.

Chestnut St, Carlin, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #49

Applegate Lassen Emigrant Trail Cutoff. Jesse and Lindsay Applegate headed south from Willamette Valley, Oregon, June 29, 1846, seeking a less hazardous route to that region from the east.  On July 21, they came to a large meadow on the Humboldt River, which is now the nearby Rye Patch Reservoir.  Thus, they established the Applegate Trail.During the remainder of 1846 and for the next two years, Oregon emigrants successfully traveled this trail.In 1848, Peter Lassen, hoping to bring emigrants to his ranch, acted as a guide to a party of ten to twelve wagons bound for California.  He followed a route from here to Goose Lake where he turned southward over terrain that was barely passable.  The emigrants suffered great hardships including the loss of many lives and livestock.  It became known as the “Death Route.”

Frontage Road, Imlay, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #47

Fort Halleck Site 1867 1886. On July 26, 1867, Captain Samuel Smith established what became Fort Halleck twelve miles to the south near Soldier Creek.  In concert with Fort Ruby fifty miles further south, the Army intended the Fort to protect the California Emigrant Trail, the Overland mail route and construction work on the Central Pacific Railroad during conflicts with Goshute and Western Shoshone in that decade.The camp was named for Major General Henry Wager Halleck, a prominent general who served as general-in-chief to the Army from 1862 to 1865.  In May 1868, Camp Halleck became a two-company post and the headquarters for the Nevada Military District when Fort Churchill, near Yerington, was abandoned.  By 1877, the Fort contained about 20 buildings of wood, adobe, and stone arranged around a rectangular parade ground.Troops from the Fort participated in action against the Modoc Indians in Northern California in 1873; against the Nez Perce uprising in Idaho in 1877; against the Bannocks in Oregon in 1878; and against the Apaches in Arizona in 1885.  However, by the 1880s, the need for military stations throughout the American West was much diminished and the Army closed the Fort in December 1886.

NV-229, Elko, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #46

Pilot Peak. The high, symmetrically shaped mountain seen rising to the north is Pilot Peak, named by John C. Fremont on his expedition of 1845.  Previously, the Bartleson-Bidwell party camped here in 1841.  These emigrants had traveled one day and night across the Great Salt Lake Desert to find their first water here.In the period 1845-1850, the peak was a famous landmark and symbol of hope and relief to the Reed-Donner Party and all other wagon train pioneers who traveled the 70-odd miles of deadly, thirst-and-heat-ridden steps across the Great Salt Lake Desert.  This desert represented the worst section of the infamous Hastings Cutoff of the California Emigrant Trail.STATE HISTORIC

Pilot Rd, West Wendover, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #43

Derby Diversion Dam. Derby Dam, constructed under Specification Number 1 and Drawing Number 1 of the U.S. Reclamation Service, now the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, diverts the flow of the Truckee River for irrigation use.  It was the forerunner of such mighty structures as Hoover, Grand Coulee, Shasta, and Glen Canyon Dams.Derby Dam was authorized by Secretary of the Interior E.A. Hitchcock on March 14, 1903.  It was part of the Newlands Project, named in honor of Nevada Senator Francis G. Newlands who worked for passage of the Reclamation Act in 1902.  Derby takes its name from a nearby Southern Pacific Railroad station of the day.Charles A. Warren & Co. of San Francisco, the contractor, started work on the dam on October 2, 1903, and finished May 20, 1905.  Operational water diversions began in 1906.

Dwight D Eisenhower Highway, Sparks, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #35

Las Vegas Old Mormon Fort (Nevada’s Oldest Building). Las Vegas had its beginning at this location on June 14, 1855, when thirty-two Mormon missionaries arrived from Utah under the leadership of William Bringhurst.  They set to work establishing farm fields that summer, and began to build a 150-foot square adobe fort that September, enclosing eight two-story houses.  They cultivated small gardens and fields, planted fruit and shade trees, and tried to convert the local Southern Paiutes.Most of the Mormons departed in 1857, and by 1865, Octavius Decatur Gass began developing the Las Vegas Rancho, using the adobe structures as headquarters.  He farmed and raised beef cattle, supplying travellers and miners in the Potosi region.Helen J. Stewart, owner of the property from 1882 to 1902, expanded the ranch to 1,800 acres, which she sold to the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad for the Las Vegas townsite. The Company auctioned the land on May 15, 1905, starting the process of building the Las Vegas around you today. 

E Washington Avenue, Las Vegas, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #32

Old Spanish Trail. Stretching for 130 miles across Clark County, this historic horse trail became Nevada’s first route of commerce in 1829 when trade was initiated between Santa Fe and Los Angeles.  The trail was later used by the wagons of the “49ers” and by Mormon pioneers.  Concrete posts marking the trail were erected in 1965.NEVADA

E Washington Avenue, Las Vegas, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #26

Forty Mile Desert. The Forty Mile Desert, beginning here, is a barren stretch of waterless alkali wasteland.  It was the most dreaded section of the California Emigrant Trail.  If possible, travelers crossed it by night because of the great heat.In 1843, the Walker-Chiles Party became the first wagon train to use the route.  Regardless of the desert’s horrors, this became the accepted trail, as it divided five miles southwest of here into the two main routes to California - the Carson River and Truckee River trails.Starvation and thirst preyed upon people and animals every mile.  A survey made in 1850 illustrated appalling statistics - 1,061 dead mules, almost 5,000 horses, 3,750 cattle, and 953 graves.  The value of personal property loss was set at the time at $1,000,000.The heaviest traffic occurred between 1849 and 1869.  The trail was still used after completion of the Central Pacific Railroad in 1869, although it saw declining traffic after that.

US-95, Fallon, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #24

Olinghouse. Named for a former teamster-turned-sheepman, Elias Olinghouse, who settled in a quiet canyon at the base of the Pah Rah mountain range to get away from it all. As prospecting activities increased about him, Olinghouse was caught up in the whirl of things, buying several claims and erecting a small stamp mill in 1903 to process ores.The district was first prospected in 1860; it was not organized, however, until 1899. Shortly thereafter, the region reached its peak of activity, producing $410,000 in gold and silver values between 1898 and 1903.Both electric and telephone service were installed in 1903, and in 1907 the standard-gauge Nevada Railroad arrived. This short-lived railroad was completed from a junction on the Southern Pacific near Wadsworth to Olinghouse in February of 1907; regular operations ceased on November 1, 1907. Aside from its short life, the Nevada Railroad Company was distinguished by having the first Shay-geared locomotives to be used in Nevada.Sporadic activity has continued at Olinghouse until the present time. Total production is estimated to have been $520,000.

unnamed road, Wadsworth, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #23

Humboldt House. Humboldt House, also known as Humboldt Station, was originally the point of departure for Humboldt City, Prince Royal, and the mines in that vicinity.  In September 1866, it became a stage stop for the historic William (Hill) Beachey Railroad Stage Lines.As the Central Pacific Railhead advanced from eastern California, it reached Humboldt House in September 1868.  From 1869 to 1900, Humboldt House was well known as one of the best eating-houses on the Central Pacific Railroad.  It was truly an oasis in the great Nevada desert, with good water, fruit, and vegetables.  The large grove of trees to the west marks the site of this famous hotel.Between 1841 and 1857, 165,000 Americans traveled the California emigrant trail past here.  In 1850, on the dreaded Forty Mile Desert southwest of present-day Lovelock, over 9,700 dead animals and 3,000 abandoned vehicles were counted.HISTORICAL

Dwight D Eisenhower Highway, Imlay, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #21

The Humboldt Canal. The Humboldt Canal, sometimes termed the Old French Canal, coursed southwestward from Preble, near Golconda, toward Mill City.  The present highway crossed it at this point, from whence it ran southerly toward the Humboldt County Courthouse on Bridge and West Fifth Streets.The canal was conceived in 1862 by Gintz and Joseph Ginaca.  The waterway, with a projected cost of $160,000, was to be sixty-six miles long, fifteen feet wide and three feet deep, and with a fall of thirty-five feet. Its primary purpose was to supply water for over forty stamp mills planned at and above Mill City, but it was also designed for barge traffic and some irrigation water supply.Construction of the canal began in 1863.  Louis Lay, a French emigrant from California, excavated the first segment.  Winnemucca City founder Frank Baud, another Frenchman, worked on the project as a teamster.About $100,000, largely French capital, was expended in building the Humboldt Canal to the Winnemucca area.  Because of engineering errors and severe seepage problems between Winnemucca and Mill City, that section was never completed or used.Several portions of the old canal are still visible in the Golconda area, in various sections of Winnemucca, and at Rose Creek, south of the city.

E 2nd St, Winnemucca, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #20

Columbus.  The remnants of Columbus are located on the edge of the Columbus salt marsh, five miles to the southwest.The town was initially settled in 1865, when a quartz mill was erected at the site.  This was a favorable location for a mill, because it was the only spot for several miles around where water was in sufficient quantity for operation.The full importance of Columbus was not recognized until 1871, when William Troop discovered borax in the locality.  Shortly thereafter, four borax companies were actively engaged in working the deposits on the marsh.Columbus probably enjoyed its most prosperous time in about 1875, when the population was reported to have reached 1,000.  That year, the town had many kinds of business establishments, including a post office and a newspaper, The Borax Miner.In 1881, about 100 people were left after the borax operations had practically ceased.  All mining and milling stopped entirely shortly after that time.

Columbus Rd, Columbus, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #17

Pershing County. Here was a key point on Nevada’s earliest road, the famed Humboldt Trail that brought 165,000 immigrants west in the 1840s and 1850s.  Travellers named this rich valley the Big Meadows.  They stopped here for water and grass before continuing south to cross the dreaded Forty Mile Desert, the most difficult segment on the trail to California.Mining began here in the 1850s.  George Lovelock, merchant, rancher and prospector, gave his name to the county seat. The coming of the railroad in 1869 brought new growth to the area.  Pershing County, established in 1919, was previously part of Humboldt County.

Western Avenue, Lovelock, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #12

Nevada’s Birthplace. Carson Valley is the Birthplace of Nevada.  By 1851, people settled at a place they called Mormon Station, renamed Genoa in 1856.  With the early establishment of a post office and local government, the community can lay claim to the title of “Nevada’s first town.”Thousands of emigrants moved over the old road skirting the west bank of the Carson River as they prepared to cross the Sierra, feeding their livestock on grass cut along the river.  At Genoa; at Mottsville, settled in 1852; and at Sheridan, settled by Moses Job about ’54; emigrants stopped to enjoy produce of the region’s first gardens.  Pony Express riders used this route in 1860, switching a year later to the shorter Daggett Trail, now Kingsbury Grade.

Genoa Lane, Genoa, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #11

Eureka. “Eureka!” a miner is said to have exclaimed in September 1864 when he discovered rich ore here – and thus the town was named.  Eureka soon developed the first important lead-silver deposits in the nation, and during the furious boom of the 1880s, it had 16 smelters, over 100 saloons, a population of 10,000 and a railroad – the colorful Eureka and Palisade – that connected with the transcontinental line 90 miles to the north.Production began to fall off in 1883, and by 1891, the smelters closed, their sites marked by the huge slag piles at both ends of Main Street.

Lincoln Highway, Eureka, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #10

Sand Mountain. Sand Mountain dominates the Salt Wells Basin and is visible from Mt. Rose peak in the Carson Range 82 miles to the west. The dune is important to off highway vehicle enthusiasts, biologists, Native Americans, and geologists.  Sand Mountain is a sinuous transverse dune derived from Ice Age Lake Lahontan beach sands piled here by southwesterly-trending winds. The dune is the Stillwater Northern Paiutes’ Panitogogwa, a giant rattlesnake traveling to the northeast with the wind to its back. The snake can be heard as it moves toward its hole, a phenomenon geologists associate with “singing” sand dunes. The Sand Mountain blue butterfly is only found here where it is depends on the Kearney buckwheat plant. The dunes clearly marked the location of nearby Sand Springs, improved and mapped in 1859 as a potential emigrant stop by Army Lieutenant James H. Simpson. Sand Springs later served as the location of the Sand Springs Pony Express Station in 1860 and the terminus of the 1866 Fort Churchill and Sand Springs Toll Road.

, Fallon, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #9

Copper Country. The famed open-pit copper mines of eastern Nevada, including the Liberty Pit, largest in the state, are located two miles south of this point.  Through the first half of the twentieth century, this area produced nearly a billion dollars in copper, gold, and silver.  The huge mounds visible from here are waste rock, which was removed to uncover the ore.Two miles east of here, near Lane City, was the Elijah, the first mine discovered in the Robinson Mining District.  Lane City, originally called Mineral City, was settled in 1869 and had a population of 400.  At Mineral City was the Ragsdale Station, one hotel, and a stage station.

Lincoln Highway, Ruth, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #2

Pioneer Memorial Park. This part of the Pioneer Cemetery includes the last resting place of Frank Baud and other of the pioneers who founded Winnemucca, earlier known as French Ford. Baud arrived in 1863 and is one of the men credited with naming the town Winnemucca after the famous Northern Paiute chieftain. Baud came with Louis Lay from California to work on the Humboldt canal, a project headed by Dr. A. Gintz and Joseph Ginaca who devised the plan to link Golconda and Mill City by means of a 90-mile canal and provide water for the mills in the area.  It was never completed. Baud later became a merchant, helped build the Winnemucca Hotel with Louis and Theophile Lay, was the first postmaster, and gave the town a schoolhouse before his death in 1868.

Pioneer Park, Winnemucca, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #3

West End Of Hastings Cutoff. Across the Humboldt Valley southward from this point a deeply incised canyon opens into a valley.  Through that canyon along the South Fork of the Humboldt River ran the disaster-laden route called the Hastings Cutoff.  It joined the regular Fort Hall route running on both sides of the Humboldt here. The canyon was first traversed in 1841 by the Bartleson-Bidwell Party, the earliest organized California emigrant group.  In 1846, Lansford Hastings guided a party through this defile of the South Fork and out along the Humboldt.  The ill-fated Reed Donner Party followed later the same year.By 1850, the dangers of the cutoff route were recognized and it was abandoned.

Dwight D Eisenhower Highway, Elko, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #256

Historic Transportation. The historic road corridors from the Truckee Meadows northwestward into the Honey Lake area contains a tangle of intertwined routes following the course of valleys, portions of an emigrant trail cutoff, toll roads, county roads and casual parallel routes developed to bypass blockages such as mud holes. Construction of the paved precursor to U.S. 395 and recent freeway construction along this same corridor have obliterated much of the earlier road system, cutting it into isolated segments. The road is associated with the continuing history of transportation in the state of Nevada, reflecting the process of road improvement and economic and demographic change. HONEY LAKE 1856-1863 In 1856, the early settlers of the region, the Honey Lakers, proposed the territory of Nataqua, encompassing the land along the eastern Sierra from Susanville to Carson Valley. The 1859 silver strikes in the Comstock Lake generated a prosperous market for the ranchers' livestock and produce. Freight wagons and stagecoaches ran regularly over the rutted road from the Honey Lake area to Virginia City and strengthened the settlers' attachment to eastern Sierra settlements rather than those in California. The Honey Lake ranchers felt so strongly about their independence and connection to the Great Basin environs, they fought the 1863 Sagebrush War attempting to block their annexation to Plumas County, California. EMIGRANT TRAIL 1851-1855 In 1851, James Pierson Beckwourth (1798-1866), the son of Sir Jennings Beckwith and a slave, located and constructed a wagon road connecting the California Emigrant Trail in the Truckee Meadows to Marysville, California via Sierra Valley (portions of Highway 70). Beckwourth, a trapper and trader, hoped to earn his fortune with the opening of the road; however, he was never reimbursed as promised by the mayor or Marysville for road construction. The trail served for a few years as an alternative pass through the Sierra; it became a byway for local traffic after 1855. ROADSIDE STATIONS AND RANCHES 1850s This marker is located at the Peavine Ranch, an overnight stop for the travelers along the road from the Truckee River to ranches near Honey Lake. The ranch advertised a well-stocked table and bar and first class beds. Purchased in 1862 by Fielding Lemmon, it was initially part of real estate and mining promotion as platted on this 1867 map, but Peavine grew instead into a prosperous livestock operation. Several other ranches were located along the road, yet, for nearly a hundred years regional growth centered around downtown Reno and Sparks. Over time, most of the ranches and stage stops were replaced by small isolated communities, then larder communities, and eventually suburbs. HIGHWAY SYSTEM 1930s-PRESENT The Three Flags Highway gave way to U.S. 395, which was an extension of Virginia Street in Reno. In the 1970s a four-lane system was proposed. The highway generally follows the same transportation corridor and still cuts through the Peavine Ranch property. THREE FLAGS HIGHWAY 1923-1930s One of the first federally funded highways in Nevada was a macadam road from Reno to the Nevada/California border. The Nevada Highway Commission was organized in 1917. Federal money was mandated for Nevada in 1921 and construction started in April 1922 for the Three Flags Highway, the road linking Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Portions of the road still remain. TOLL ROADS 1850s-1860s Prior to state and federally constructed highways, a stage and toll road between Honey Lake and Virginia City was more or less maintained under a succession of private owners such as Myron C. Lake. In 1861, Lake traded property in Honey Lake Valley for the log toll bridge across the Truckee River with Charles W. Fuller of Susanville. Lake applied for a franchise to improve, maintain and construct a toll road from three miles south of this bridge to the California/Nevada border excluding passage through town streets of Reno. The early road, approximately 20 miles long, was in a constant deplorable condition and impassable at times.

N Virginia St, Reno, NV, United States