Nevada Historical Markers 

When the Comstock Lode was discovered in 1859, the problem of reducing the ore from the fabulously rich Virginia City mines had to be solved.  Mills were built in Gold Canyon and Six Mile Canyon, in Washoe Valley, at Dayton, and on the Carson River which offered the most abundant source of water to operate the mills.

On the east shore of the river near the town of Empire the first small mill, built in 1860, was later enlarged to become the Mexican.  The site of this mill lies to the southwest.  Other large mills were then constructed farther downstream, spurring the growth of the town of Empire.  Ore was hauled to the mills at first by wagon and later by the famous Virginia and Truckee Railroad built in 1869.  Fortunes in gold and silver were produced in over 40 years of operation by the Carson River mills including the Mexican, Yellow Jacket, Brunswick, Merrimac, Vivian, and Santiago.  Traces of Empire and its mills can still be seen today.

Here was located one of the busiest crossroads of pioneer Nevada, converging point for many major toll roads of the area. The earliest emigrants from the east crossed through Truckee Meadows at this point and by 1853 the intersection was known as Junction House. First permanent settlement in this valley and a stopping place for thousands.

Junction House, later called Andersons, was a station for such toll roads of the 1860's as the turnpike to Washoe City, the Myron Lake road to Oregon, the Geiger roads to Virginia City and the important Henness Pass route to California.

Governor Sparks bought the property in the late 1890's and more recently it belonged to cattleman William Moffat.

This large Carpenter-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 Brother with proceeds from the Comstock.  Theodore Winters immediately set out to enlarge his property, and built the mansion you see. The Ranch at one point consisted of 6,000 acres. 

Winters raised outstanding race horses; raced them here. He also had  a large Dairy operation; raised beef cattle, work horses, and sheep. 

Theodore winters was active in politics, being elected territorial representative in 1862.

Orson Hyde, probate judge of Carson County, Utah Territory, founded Franktown in the Wassau (Washoe) Valley in 1855.

A sawmill became an important enterprise in furnishing timber to the Comstock mines after 1859. The Dall Mill, a quartz mill of sixty stamps, employed hundreds of workers. Fertile farms surrounded the town.

With the completion of the railroad from Carson City to Virginia City in 1869, the milling business rapidly lost its importance and the once prosperous town declined. 

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.

Like many Nevada hot springs, the ones located at 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 with eleven baths, a ballroom, and gardens. The thermal waters (136 to 160 degrees F) became well known as a cure of "Rheumatism and Scrofulous affections."

It sold for a mere $5,000 in 1896, but operated until 1935 when it burned down. Its former cool cellar was integrated into the complex during a 1970's renovation .

In 1962, trial hydro-thermal power holes were drilled here as deep as 1,250 feet and found water with a maximum temperature of181 degrees Fahrenheit.

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.

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 Truckee Railway.  He employed 110 men at its peak. 

The largest casting (in its time) poured on the Pacific Coast was made at Fulton's on December 11, 1880.

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.

These natural hot-springs are notable for their curative qualities. They were nationally acclaimed by President Ulysses S. Grant when he visited them in 1879.

Early emigrants so named them, because of their puffing and blowing. Located in 1860 (by Felix Monet); a hospital, with adjacent bathhouses, was subsequently added by a Doctor Ellis (1861-1862).

The Comstock mining activities and the coming of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad in 1871, caused Steamboat to became a terminal. Here materials for the silver mines were transferred to freight wagons for the steep haul to Virginia City. The completion of the tracks abolished the need for a junction, but its resort popularity was to reach its peak with the Bonanza Days.

To its "fine hotel, commodious dance-hall and elegant bar, came the legendary silver kings, politicos, gamblers and news chroniclers, escorting the lovely ladies of stage and opera house."

With borasca, attendance waned; fires destroyed the luxurious buildings, but the therapeutic waters remained, not only for health seekers, but for conditioning athletes - even producing mineral muds sought by cosmeticians and race horse owners.

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.

LUMBER-MINING Galena began as an important lumbering center and mining camp. In 186, R.S. and Andrew Hatch laid out the town and organized a mining district.  The Hatch brothers’ quartz mill and smelter were among the earliest erected on this side of the Sierra.  the gold deposits from local mines contained lead sulphide named "Galena" which caused the mining operations to be unprofitable, but the mills continued to operate, processing ores from the Comstock  mines. 

Eleven sawmills were operating by 1863, and Galena boasted stores, lodging houses, a justice court, a school which doubled as a community hall, saloons, and dozens of homes.  The severe winter of 1864-1865 interrupted freighting to Virginia City, and the ensuing mining depression forced Galena Mills to close.   After two disastrous fires in 1865 and 1867, Galena was abandoned.

As early as 1863, two hotels with appurtenant stables were located here. In 1872, one hotel became a station on the newly-completed Virginia & Truckee Railroad between Carson City and Reno.

Crossing under the highway are three inverted siphon pipelines furnishing water from the Sierra Nevada watershed to Virginia and Carson Cities.  Work was first undertaken in 1873 on the 76 mile box flume and pipeline system with the construction of a maintenance station here.  The Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company’s historic water-gathering and transportation complex immediately became world famous.

As early as 1881, Lakeview became a lumber storage area for timber cut in the Lake Tahoe Basin.  In 1887, shipping activity was accelerated as lumber was fed to the yard by a V-flume originating above present Incline Village.  From here timber products were shipped to the Comstock mines and other points via the V. & T.R.R cars.  Activity ceased in 1896.

Seven-tenths of a mile east of this marker was Geiger’s Station, the largest station on the Geiger Grade Toll Road, the main thoroughfare between the Comstock Lode and the ranches of the Truckee Meadows.  Located at the site were a toll house, three blacksmith shops, three barns, several corrals, and an inn named Magnolia House.

During the boom years of the Comstock Lode, the 1860s and 1870s, the station was crowded with freight outfits, stagecoaches, and weary teamsters.  Passing travelers could stop at the inn for a drink or a quick meal.

Following the extension of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad to Reno in August 1872, the toll road fell into disuse, and a few years later it became a public highway.  Magnolia House continued operating until 1915.  Social activity at the inn included dances, attracting residents from Virginia City, nearby valleys, and the Truckee Meadows.

Before the arrival, 1858, of Granville W. Huffaker driving 500 head of cattle into the Truckee Meadows.  The principal settlers were Mormons. The Comstock Lode and its mining needs focused attention on the valley.  Huffaker established his ranch n 1859.  Langton's stage line and the first post office were functioning by 1862.  For ten years Huffaker's was a most active stage-stop and a center for a community.  The school house was constructed in 1868. Bachelors of a jolly nature gathered here for dining, horse-racing and "land squabbles."  The Athenian Literary Society flourished for the more cultured. In 1875 the "bonanza Kings" completed their Pacific Lumber and Flue operation from the lake Tahoe Basin.  For fifteen miles trestled logs were propelled "by waters rushing faster than any train."  At the terminus of the flume, the Virginia and Truckee Railroad opened a depot and telegraph office constructed a spur where workers transferred timber. 

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 emigrants turned west to face their major obstacle, the Sierra Nevada. 

In October of 1846, th 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.