Old Genoa celebrates Nevada’s beginnings

Best visited from May through October, the Carson Valley invites visitors to stay and experience the “cradle of Nevada.” The towns of this agricultural area, such as Genoa, Minden, Gardnerville and Carson City, offer accommodations in hotels, motels, bed and breakfast inns, resorts and guest ranches. Dining options include several traditional Basque restaurants. Attractions include historical buildings, museums, scenic side roads, state parks and a vintage railway. Lake Tahoe lies in the Sierras west of the valley, while Virginia City, the state’s most famous ghost town, perches in the mountains on the opposite side of the valley.

Southern Nevadans exploring their own state choose either to fly from Las Vegas to Reno and rent a car for the short trip to the Carson Valley or to drive their own vehicle. Those who drive the 531 miles from Las Vegas following U.S. Highway 95 north toward Carson City experience Nevada’s characteristic dramatic basin and range topography, hundred-mile views, limitless skies and widely spaced towns. Several possible highway approaches take you from U.S. 95 to Carson Valley, but one way or another, you’ll end up on U.S. Highway 395, which bisects the area.

The busy highway roughly approximates the route taken by early travelers trying to reach California. Several difficult trails ascended the mountain heights, often following rivers such as the Carson, Walker or Truckee, which had cut canyons through the bedrock and forests. The emigrant trains paused in the Carson Valley to regroup, resupply and rest their livestock before starting the dangerous trek through the mountains. Those who attempted a crossing too late in the year risked getting caught by winter snows like the ill-fated Donner party.

In 1851, an enterprising trader arrived in Carson Valley bent on prospering by supplying much-needed goods to the emigrant trains, many headed for California’s gold fields. Threadbare, needy and hungry, they had been on the transcontinental trails for months before reaching their final hurdle, the Sierras.

John Reese brought supplies from Salt Lake City, headquarters of the Mormons in the West. He built a trading post that did so well that he decided to stay longer. His post became known as Mormon Station, now memorialized in a state park. Others began to settle nearby, establishing a community soon named Genoa, pronounced jen-oh-ah, the first permanent non-Indian settlement in what would become Nevada Territory. By 1864, this sparsely populated frontier would become the state of Nevada. Genoa was named seat of the new state’s Douglas County, a position it held until 1916 when Minden won the title.

By 1865, Genoa had a handsome two-story, red brick courthouse nattily trimmed with white. It served for decades until gutted by a fire that swept the town in 1909. It was retrofitted to become an elementary school for Genoa’s youngsters until it was closed in 1956. Acquired by the Carson Valley Historical Society, it was restored and opened as the Courthouse Museum in 1969. Organized in 1961, the historical society celebrates 50 years on June 25 and 26, when there will be free museum admission, a special exhibit and cake for all visitors.

Most of Genoa’s special activities and events take place outdoors at Mormon Station Historical State Park across the street from the Courthouse Museum, at the Genoa Town Park a block or two away, or at both. Living history presentations at Mormon Station include a Chautauqua on Wednesday and June 19, Aug. 21 and Sept. 11. Celebrate July 4 at the state park with a chicken barbecue at 1 p.m. and Pops in the Park. Enjoy the third annual Old Time Music Festival on July 23. To raise funds for streetlights, the women of Genoa started the Candy Dance 91 years ago — slated for Sept. 24 and 25 this year — after weeks of candy-making.

Margo Bartlett Pesek’s column appears on Sundays.