Nevada Historical Marker #19
Ragtown. Ragtown was never a town, but the name of a most welcome oasis and hamlet. This mecca on the banks of nearby Carson River received its name from the appearance of pioneer laundry spread on every hand bush around. The Forty-Mile Desert, immediately to the north, was the most dreaded portion of the California Emigrant Trail. Ragtown was the first water stop after the desert. To the thirst-craved emigrants and their animals, no site was more welcome than the trees lining the Carson River. Imagine, if you will, the moment when the animals first picked up the scent of water--the lifted head, the quickened pace, and finally the mad, frenzied dash to the water's edge. Then, rest and repair for the arduous crossing of the Sierra Nevada that lay ahead. In 1854, Asa Kenyon located a trading post near Ragtown. Here he offered goods and supplies to the trappers. During the 1850's and 1860's, Ragtown was one of the most important sites on the Carson branch of the California Trail.
Reno Highway, Fallon, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #190
Original Homesite Of A Las Vegas Pioneer “Pop” Squires 1865 1958. Charles “Pop” Squires, often referred to as “the Father of Las Vegas,” lived at this location, with his wife Delphine, from 1931 until his death in 1958.Squires first arrived in the Las Vegas Valley in February 1905. He and his partners established a lumberyard, a tent hotel, a real estate firm, and the First State Bank. In March 1906, “Pop” assisted in the formation of the Consolidated Power & Telephone Company, bringing electricity and phone service to the new town.In 1908, Squires and his wife purchased the community’s only newspaper, the Las Vegas Age. Squires campaigned for the creation of Clark County in 1909. He subsequently worked on incorporating Las Vegas into a city. With his wife and the voice of their newspaper, the couple became advocates for women’s suffrage. As a member of the League of the Southwest and the Colorado River Commission, Squires helped advance plans that eventually led to the construction of Hoover Dam.Upon “Pop’s” passing, Las Vegas Sun reporter Bob Faiss wrote, “It seems strange that Las Vegas, a modern boomtown … should owe so much to the foresight of one man. But there is little we have today that wasn’t given an initial shove by ‘Pop’ Squires.”
South 7th St, Las Vegas, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #191
Verdi. Modern Verdi came into being with the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad through Nevada between 1867 and 1869. Verdi became a major mill town and terminal for the shipment of ties and construction timbers, with a network of logging railways reaching into the forests north and west of here.In 1860, a log bridge was built across the Truckee River near where Verdi is now located. Known as O’Nell’s Crossing, the site served as a stage stop during the 1860s on the heavily traveled Henness Pass Turnpike and Toll Road and the Dutch Flat and Donner Lake Road.In 1864, the Crystal Peak Company laid out a town on the site some two miles from Verdi’s present location. The company owned mining and lumbering interests near the settlement then called Crystal Peak.Verdi remained an active lumbering center into the twentieth century due to the exertion of men like Oliver Lonkey of the Verdi Lumber Company. A fire in 1926, plus depletion of timber reserves, resulted in Verdi’s decline.
3rd St, Verdi, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #192
Buckland’s Station. Samuel S. Buckland was a true pioneer. He settled here in 1859, began a ranching operation, established a station for the Overland Stage Company, and operated a tent hotel. He also constructed the first bridge across the Carson River downstream from Genoa.During 1860, Buckland built a large log cabin and married Miss Eliza Prentice. In that same year, Buckland’s Station served as the assembly point for the volunteer units that took part in the Pyramid Lake War. It was during this period that Buckland’s served as a remount station on the famous Pony Express route.In 1864, Buckland opened a store and dispersed goods to travelers, neighbors, and the soldiers at nearby Fort Churchill. He later constructed the large two-story house, presently located here, from materials obtained at the dismantling of the fort.Buckland and his family are buried at Fort Churchill.
10050 US-95 ALT, Silver Springs, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #193
Historic Flume And Lumberyard. Approximately one-half mile south of this point and west of the present highway lay the immense yard of the Carson-Tahoe Lumber and Fluming Company, the greatest of the Comstock timber companies operating in the Lake Tahoe Basin during 1870-1898.Situated at the terminus of the 12 mile V flume from Spooners Summit in the Sierra Nevada, the lumberyard was approximately one mile long and one-half mile wide. A spur line of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad served the yard. The spur ran adjacent to this site and carried rough lumber to the company’s planing mill and box factory, one-half mile north on Stewart Street. It also transported timbers and cordwood to the Carson yards to be hauled to the Comstock mines and mills.
Office Depot, Carson City, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #194
Gardner’s Ranch. On this site in the period from 1870 until 1918 stood the ornate two-story home of Matthew Culbertson Gardner, rancher and lumberman. The residence was headquarters for Gardner’s 300-acre ranch in the meadows to the southward.Here was located, 1870 to 1898, the Carson-Tahoe Lumber and Fluming Company large lumberyard here. During the 1870s and 1880s, Gardner logged south of Lake Tahoe for the company and built the only standard gauge logging railroad in the Tahoe Basin. He maintained his home here.Gardner died in 1908. The residence was destroyed by a fire August 20, 1918. Many of the old trees on the ground once shaded the Gardner family.
S Carson St (Lincoln Hwy), Carson City, 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 #196
The United States Mint Carson City, Nevada. The original Carson City building is a formal balanced, sandstone block edifice. Two stories high with a centrally located cupola. The sandstone blocks were quarried at the Nevada State Prison.On March 3, 1862, Congress passed a bill establishing a branch mint in the Territory of Nevada.The output of the Comstock Lode coupled with the high bullion transportation costs to San Francisco proved the necessity of a branch in Nevada.From its opening in 1870 to the closing of the coin operations in 1893, coinage amounted to $49,274,434.30.
, Carson City, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #197
Arrowhead Trail Henderson. The name, “Arrowhead Trail” likely originated from the former San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake Railroad, which had an arrowhead for a logo. Prior to 1850, New Mexican trading caravans from Santa Fe en route to Los Angeles used this segment of the Old Spanish Trail.Heading south along this trail toward Bishop Mountain, travelers turned through El Dorado pass, and continued to Nelson, Searchlight, Nipton, Wheaton Springs, and on to San Bernardino.This section of the trail was popular as an early automobile road (1916-1924) connecting Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. Local communities along the route promoted its construction and the tourism possibilities of Southern Nevada, including the nearby Valley of Fire, Nevada’s first state park.
Mission Hills Park, Henderson, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #198
Steamboat Springs. These natural hot-springs are notable for their curative reputation. They were acclaimed by President Ulysses S. Grant when he visited in 1879.Early emigrants thought they looked like a distant Steamboat because of their puffing and blowing. Felix Monet located the springs in 1860, and Doctor Joseph Ellis subsequently added a hospital and bathhouses in 1861-1862.Comstock mining and the coming of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad in 1871 caused Steamboat to become a terminal. Materials for the silver mines were transferred to freight wagons for the steep haul to Virginia City at this point. The completion of the tracks abolished the need for a junction, but the resort’s popularity reached its peak with the bonanza days during the 1870s.With the failure of the Comstock mines in the 1880s, attendance at the springs waned. Fires destroyed the luxurious buildings, but the therapeutic waters remained. Health seekers, and conditioning athletes continued to visit here, and the springs even produce mineral muds sought by cosmeticians and race horse owners.
Carson-Reno Highway, Reno, 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 #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 #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 #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 #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 #202
Fairview 1905 – 1917. Fairview was part of the renewed interest in mining, triggered by the strikes in Tonopah and Goldfield. Discoveries in 1905 of a rich silver float led to a boom that lasted through 1906 1907. A substantial town that boasted 27 saloons, hotels, banks, assay offices, a newspaper, a post office, and a miner’s union hall soon came into being. By 1908, the boom had passed and production leveled out. During 1911, the Nevada Hills Mining Company began an era of profitable milling that lasted until 1917. Production amounted to 3.8 million dollars in silver values.George Wingfield and George Nixon, prominent Nevada mining promoters of the time, bought some of the first claims in Fairview to give impetus to a boom.
, Fairview, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #203
Bullionville. Bullionville began early in 1870 when John H. Ely and W. H. Raymond, removed their five-stamp at Hiko and placed it at to this point. The enterprise prospered and during the next two years most of nearby Pioche’s mills were located here because of the proximity to water. The town grew rapidly and by 1875 it had five mills, a population of 500, and the first iron foundry in eastern Nevada. During the same year a water works was constructed at Pioche, which eventually led to the relocation of the mills. Although a plant was erected here in 1880 to work the tailings deposited by the former mills, this failed to prevent the decline of Bullionville.
, Panaca, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #204
Jackrabbit. Local legend attributes the discovery to the locator picking up a rock to throw at a jackrabbit and finding himself holding high-grade silver. The JackRabbit District, named for the mine, was located in 1876 by Isaac Newton Garrison. Early mine production of the camp, at one time named Royal City, was about ten tons per day, carrying native silver in flakes, yielding about $40 per ton - sometimes as high as $2,000 per ton. Mineral production declined during the 1880s, but when a fifteen-mile narrow gauge railroad was opened in 1891 between the Jackrabbit Mine and Pioche, mining soon increased. After 1893 the mines fell silent except for several short periods of activity in 1906-1907 and 1912-1914.
, Pioche, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #205
Crystal Springs. Crystal Spring was used as a watering place and campsite on an alternate route of the Mormon Trail in the mid-nineteenth century. The town site was designated as the provisional County Seat for Lincoln County in 1866. With the intention of organizing the new county, Governor Henry G. Blasdel left Carson City in April 1866, accompanied by over 20 people. After a perilous journey through Death Valley, California, they ran out of supplies and food. One man died; the others survived on lizards and other desert animals. The Governor and another man raced to Logan City to obtain supplies and returned lathe party so they reached Crystal Spring. The Governor found that the region lacked the number of voters necessary to meet the requirements to become a county. A year later the county government was organized at Hiko.
, Hiko, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #206
Hiko. As early as 1865, a camp was established here, and during the spring of 1866, W. H. Raymond and others laid out the townsite. The name Hiko is apparently based on a Shoshone term for “white man” or ‘white man’s town. Raymond purchased a five-stamp mill and had it shipped via the Colorado River to Callville and then hauled by oxen the 140 miles to this site. In November 1866, milling began on Pahranagat ores and soon after, Hiko became the first county seat of Lincoln County. In March 1867, Raymond spent nearly $900,000 developing the region before the enterprise failed. The mill was moved to Bullionville in 1870. Hiko consequently declined in population and importance, which accelerated following the removal of the county government to Pioche in February 1871.
, Hiko, NV, United States