Nevada Historical Marker #117
Kingsbury Grade. Originally named Georgetown Trail, the Dagget Pass Trail and Pass was named after Charles Dagget who acquired the land at the base of the road in 1854. In 1859— 1860, David Kingsbury and John McDonald received a franchise from the Utah Territory to operate the toll road. At the time, the area was part of the Utah Territory.The men spent about $70,000 to construct a wagon road to meet the demand for a more direct route from California to the Washoe mines and to shorten the distance between Sacramento and Virginia City by ten miles. The new 16 foot wide road, supported in some places by granite retaining walls on both sides, made the passage easier for travelers on this main route from California. Merchants and teamsters frequently traveled this road moving goods and people in and out of Nevada.In 1863, some of the tolls were 50 cents for a man and horse and $2.00 for a horse and buggy. That year the estimated tolls collected were $75,000.
, Gardnerville, 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 #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 #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 #120
Walley’s Hot Springs. Like many Nevada hot springs, the ones located as Walley’s Hot Springs dot a fault break along which the mountains rise.In 1862, along this Carson branch of the emigrant trail, David and Harriet Walley developed a $100,000 spa eleven beds, a ballroom, and gardens. The thermal water (l36 to 160 degrees F) became well known as a cure for “rheumatism and scrofulous afflictions.”Walley’s Hot Springs sold for a mere $5,000 in 1896, but operated until 1935 when it burned down. Its formal cool cellar was integrated into the complex during a 1970s renovation.In 1962, trial hydrothermal power holes were drilled here as deep as 1,250 feet and found thermal water with a maximum temperature of 181 degrees.
Foothill Road, Genoa, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #121
Mottsville. This is the site of the settlement on the emigrant trail known as Mottsville, where Hiram Mott and his son Israel settled in 1851. Their homestead was the scene of an impressive number of firsts in Carson County, Utah Territory: 1851: Israel Mott’s wife, Eliza Ann Middaugh, was the first woman settler of European descent. 1854: Mrs. Israel Mott opened the first school in her kitchen. The Mott’s second child, Louise Beatrice, was the first female child of European descent to be born. 1856: Judge W. W. Drummond held the first session of the United States District Court of the third district of Utah Territory in the Mott barn built in 1855. 1857: The third child of the Motts died and was buried in the yard. This tiny grave was the first in what became the first cemetery. The cemetery is all that marks the site of Mottsville today.
, Mottsville, 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 #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 #124
Boyd Toll Road. William H. Boyd was granted a Utah Territory franchise December 19, 1861 to provide a road to join Genoa to the Cradlebaugh toll road, the trunkline to the mining district of Esmeralda. Boyd’s toll road is still visible to the northwest and southeast from this marker. When the telegraph line from Placerville through Genoa was strung along it in 1863, the Boyd Road was also called “Telegraph Road.” It was purchased by Douglas County from Henry Van Sickle and Lawrence Gilman in 1876 for $2,650.
, Minden, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #125
Twelve Mile House. Proposed Text, Marker Text Plate in Prodution:Twelve Mile House was an important stop on the road to the Esmeralda mining camp of Aurora. Mile houses like this one were critical places for rest and supplies along early western road systems before railroads made most mile houses and stations obsolete. Twelve Mile House was part of a network of similar stations that ran from Genoa to Aurora, including another station on the eastern side of the Pine Nut Mountains called Double Springs.Thomas Wheeler built this important hostelry in 1859 where the East Fork of the Carson River emerges from Long Valley to the south. The Twelve Mile House was so named because it was located twelve miles from Genoa and twelve miles from the Cradlebaugh Bridge across the Carson River. It lay at an important crossroads in the southeast part of Carson Valley, with roads from Twelve Mile House leading southeast to Goldfield, south to Woodfords, west to Fairview, northwest to Minden, Gardnerville, and Genoa, and north to Cradlebaugh Bridge and Carson City.
, Gardnerville, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #126
Double Springs. Double Springs, also known as Round Tent Ranch or Spragues, was a station on the road through the south end of the Pine Nut Mountains located at a pair of nearby springs. The road provided access between Carson and Walker valleys, both ranching and dairy regions in western Nevada, Double Springs also saw many travelers on their way to Esmeralda County. At one time, a toll road ran from this area west to the Kingsbury Road that still connects to Lake Tahoe.About four miles north along the highway is the former location of Mammoth Ledge, also known as Carter’s Station. That site served as the post office for the Eagle Mining District, and the polling place in 1861 of the Mammoth Precinct of Douglas County. Stations like these provided water, supplies, and rest for travelers prior to the popularization of the automobile.
, Gardnerville, 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 #128
The Great Train Robbery. The West’s first train robbery occurred near this site on the night of November 4, 1870. A gang of men concocted an elaborate scheme to rob the Central Pacific Railroad as the train passed through Verdi. John Chapman traveled to Oakland, California to learn when the train left for Verdi. He telegraphed a coded message to “Sal” Jones in Reno, who alerted five men waiting near Verdi. Two men rode to an area just south of Mogul today, and they placed rocks across the train tracks.When the train stopped in Verdi for the night, the soon-to-be-robbers boarded the train, decoupled the passenger coaches and commandeered the engine, mail and express cars. The gang forced Engineer Henry Small to drive to the blockage, there they tricked the guard to opening the locked express car door. The robbers broke open the strong boxes and divided the $41,600. The men rode off in different directions. All were eventually caught and all but about $3,000 was recovered.
South Verdi Rd, Verdi, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #129
Gardnerville. Early Gardnerville served the farming community and teamsters who hauled local produce to booming Bodie. The first buildings were a blacksmith shop, a saloon, and the Gardnerville hotel. The latter was moved by Lawrence Gilman in 1879 from the emigrant trail between Genoa and Walley’s Hot Springs, where it was known as Kent house, to this site, the homestead of John M. Gardner.Just as Genoa was the center for British (largely Mormon) settlers after 1851, so Gardnerville, after 1879, became the center for 1,870 Danish immigrants, who founded the Valhalla Society in 1885 and met in Valhalla Hall, one block south.Starting in 1898, Spanish and French Basque shepherds tended some 13,000 sheep in Carson Valley, which increased to 25,000 by 1925, when the Basques began acquiring their own sheep and land. After 1918, several Basques in Gardnerville opened inns which flourished during Prohibition in the 1920s.
Highway 395, Gardnerville, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #13
The Comstock Lode. Near this spot was the heart of the Comstock Lode, the fabulous 2 ½ mile deposit of high-grade ore that produced nearly $400,000.00 in silver and gold. After the discovery in 1859, Virginia City boomed for 20 years, helped bring Nevada into the union in 1864 and to build San Francisco.Several major mines operated during the boom. Their sites are today marked by large yellow dumps, several of which are visible from here – the Sierra Nevada a mile to your left, the Union, Ophir, Con Virginia and, on the high hill to the southeast, the combination. The Lode was worked from both ends, north up Gold Canyon and south from the Sierra Nevada Utah mines.
D Street, Virginia City, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #130
Minden. Minden, the seat of Douglas County since 1916, was named for a town in Westphalia, Germany, where the founder of H.F. Dangberg Land and Livestock Company, was born in 1829. The company established Minden in 1905 to provide terminal facilities for the Virginia and Truckee Railway, which was then extending a branch line southward from Carson City. The passenger and freight depot was situated at this point.Principal promoter of the town, and its related development, was H.F. Dangberg Jr., secretary of the company and son of the founder.
Highway 395, Minden, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #131
Dresslerville. In 1917 State Senator William F. Dressler gave this 40-acre tract to Washo Indians, then living on ranches in Carson Valley. After a school was opened in 1924, it became a nucleus of settlement. Before the intrusion of Caucasians in 1848, Washo lived in winter in the Pinenut Hills where they stored autumn harvested pinenuts. In summer, they lived in the Lake Tahoe Basin fishing the tributary streams and gathering roots and berries. In fall, they hunted jackrabbits and gathered seeds in Carson Valley. Their only form of organization was that of kinship. These stone age people lived in daily communion with giants, monsters, animals whose characteristics were interchangeable with those of people, and with water babies, "having the bodies of old men and the long hair of girls," who lived in the lakes of the High Sierra.
, Gardnerville, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #132
Mackay Mansion. Once the residence of John Mackay, this elegant mansion also served as the office for the Gould & Curry Mining Company. Mackay, an Irish-born immigrant, was the richest man the Comstock ever produced. Built in the 1860s, this building survived the "Great Fire of 1875" and was the headquarters for Mackay, Fair, Flood, and O'Brien - "Silver Kings" of the Comstock.
D Street, Virginia City, 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 #134
Tran Sierran Pioneer Flight. The first authenticated air flight over the Sierra Nevada was successfully completed when four U.S. Army planes touched down here on an improvised field.Originating at Mather Field, Sacramento, and led by Lt. Col. Henry L. Watson, the squadron was made up of three Liberty-powered Dehavillands and one 90 hp Curtiss Trainer.The fliers, personally welcomed by Governor Emmet D. Boyle, were Watson, Lts. Ruggles, Curtis, Krull, Schwartz, and Haggett, and Sgt. Conway. Haggett introduced an added surprise by landing his small trainer, unannounced, some minutes after the main flight.The flight concluded in Reno that afternoon.Governor Boyle flew as a passenger in one of the planes on its return flight to Sacramento, thus making him the first civilian ever to cross the Sierra in flight.
, Carson City, NV, United States