Historical Roadtripping Through Carson Valley

Mormon Station State Park

  Carson Valley is one of Nevada’s most special places. Intersected by the Emigrant Trail—the route that many early pioneers used to travel to California—the lush, green valley was among the earliest places settled in the future Silver State.

  In the 1850s, a correspondent for a San Francisco newspaper was so taken by the valley’s fertile grasslands—which were ideal for grazing horses and cattle—that he described it as a “paradise for quadrupeds.” (catchy slogan!).

  The first permanent settlement in the valley was Genoa, which was founded by Mormon traders in 1851. Additionally, a handful of other, mostly forgotten, hamlets sprouted along the valley’s western edge, in the shadow of the Sierra Nevada range. These communities, with names like Mottsville, Sheridan, Fairview and Centerville, catered to travelers.

  But while these town names are largely gone, it’s still possible to retrace the route along the valley’s west side and, despite recent development, catch glimpses of the region that carried such appeal for the pioneers.

  The best place to start the journey is at the intersection of U.S. 395 and State Route 206 (Jack’s Valley Road), located about 5 miles south of Carson City. The road initially runs west toward the mountains, through a largely residential area.

  A few miles along, the road gradually turns south, passing by beautiful pasturelands that bump up against the mountains. The road passes 20th century developments on the outskirts of Genoa, such as Genoa Lakes, and others.

  In a few places, however, the old Carson Valley peeks through. For instance, a few miles before Genoa, hidden in tall trees below the road, is the historic Rufus Adams House.

  Built in the early 1850s, the two-story, white-pillared brick structure, which boasts 22 rooms, was once a hotel for travelers on the Immigrant Trail. Today, it remains a private residence.

  The road continues through picturesque Genoa, a community filled with historic homes and buildings as well as the Mormon Station State Historic Park, a replica of the state’s first permanent structure. The park boasts a beautiful picnic area in a quaint setting.

  From Genoa, the route passes Walley’s Hot Springs Resort and the area begins to lose a bit of its built-up character, offering views of open grasslands and beautiful mountain peaks.

  Farther south, the road, now called Foothill Road, passes Van Sickle Station, site of what was once the largest hotel on the trail. Built by Henry Van Sickle in 1857, over the years it served as a trading post, freight station, Pony Express station and stagecoach stop.

  Today, it’s a state park facility. Several of the original buildings remain standing.

  A little farther up the road is the site of old Kingsbury Grade road (an historic marker notes the spot). While earlier called the Georgetown Trail and Dagget Pass Trail, it became known as Kingsbury Grade in honor of one of the builders of an 1860 wagon road that crossed the Sierra range here. A mile farther is modern-day Kingsbury Grade.

  Six miles south of Genoa is a sign noting the former location of Mottsville. The settlement was named for Hiram Mott, an early Carson Valley rancher.

  The Mott family was prominent in early Nevada history. Hiram Mott’s daughter-in-law, Eliza, was one of the first non-Indian women to settle in the state. The Mottsville Cemetery, which is still there, was among the state’s first cemeteries, having been established in 1857.

  A few miles farther south is the former site of Sheridan (another historic marker notes the site). Founded as a general store for travelers in 1855 by Moses Job (namesake for nearby Job’s Peak, the tall mountain to the west), within a few years a town grew up on the site.

  For a brief time, Sheridan was the largest community in Carson Valley, but by the late 1890s, it had begun to decline. Today, only a handful of original structures can still be found hidden amongst newer houses.

  From here, the road passes a handful of small farms and plenty of open land. It’s pretty country that speaks of the kind of place most of the Carson Valley was once.

  About 30 miles from where the journey began, the road turns east and ends at State Route 88. From here, you can return north to U.S. 395 at Minden or head south to Markleeville, California.

Austin's Historic Courthouse was the Site of Lander County's First Legal Hanging

Lander County Courthouse today

   A few years before the historic, brick Lander County Courthouse in Austin was erected in 1872, an earlier wooden structure with a courtyard stood on the site. That courtyard, in fact, was the location of the county’s first legal hanging on October 30, 1868.

   The man who was hanged was Rufus Britton Anderson, a 21-year-old relative newcomer to Austin (one newspaper account said he had only been in town for a few months). He apparently came to Austin because his mother had remarried [she was now known as Mrs. Zottman] and moved there earlier.

   According to an account in the San Francisco Chronicle on the day of his hanging, Anderson had previously lived in San Francisco and went by the name Johnny Callahan. The newspaper noted that while living there Anderson and another youth had been implicated in the killing of a Chinese man.

   He remained in jail for several months before being discharged without any charges. More than a few media outlets suggested that Anderson had been released after agreeing to testify against is co-conspirator.

   The Chronicle said Anderson, described as hot-tempered, had been attending school in Austin. He also had, for several days, “been uttering terrible threats against his step-father [who by then had separated from his mother], brother-in-law, and even his sister, appearing more like a fiend than a human being.”

   On the evening of May 5, 1868, Anderson joined his mother to collect money from a man named N.T. Slocum, who had been boarding with the Zottmans but had moved out when the couple separated.

   The two went to a cabin where Slocum was now living and found him with four other people, a man and his wife who were named McIntyre, and two brothers with the last name of Eggleston. Once there, Mrs. Zottman demanded Slocum pay his past-due board bill.

   Slocum said he didn’t have any money at that time, but would be able to get some the next day. Mrs. Zottman then asked Slocum if he planned to deduct work he had done for her husband from his bill, to which Slocum said he would.

   At this, Anderson apparently grew angry and said that Slocum “was no man, and had not the principles of a man about him, repeating the words several times in an insulting manner,” according to the Chronicle.

   Slocum rose from his bed, where had been sitting, and asked Anderson not to talk to him in such a way and attempted to head out the cabin door. One of the Eggleston brothers stepped between the two and said there would be no such “difficulties” in the house.

   At this, Mrs. Zottman is said to have screamed out several times, “Oh, my God! You will kill me!”

   Anderson then stepped around Eggleston, pulled out his pistol, and fired twice at Slocum. The other Eggleston brother grabbed at Anderson and knocked his arm enough so that a third shot missed Slocum and the bullet went into the cabin floor.

   “Slocum then fell toward the bed and died almost without a quiver,” the Chronicle reported. “The pistol was then wrenched from Anderson’s hand. The Eggleston brothers subdued the young man and turned him over to the authorities.

   Following a sensational trial and an appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court, which failed, Anderson was sentenced to be hung from a gallows erected in the courthouse courtyard.

   At ten minutes before 1 p.m. on October 30, he was accompanied to the top of the gallows by a Catholic priest and a deputy sheriff. After making a few remarks and asking for forgiveness, the deputy tied his hands and feet together, and then placed a noose around Anderson’s neck. When the signal was given, the drop fell and, if all had gone according to plan, he would have been executed.

   “To the horror of the crowd, the knot broke and Anderson lay stretched senseless upon the ground,” the Chronicle said. “The crowd uttered a wild cry and attempted to rush for the spot, but were kept back by the militia.”

   Anderson was revived and taken back to the top of the gallows to be hung again. Everything was repeated—and again the knot broke, with the young man slamming into the ground.

   Senseless, he was carried to a chair on the gallows and again the authorities tried to fix the knot.

   “His face was livid with the terrible suffering he had endured,” the newspaper said. “And a feeling of sympathy for the unfortunate young man was freely expressed by the crowd in attendance.”

   But authorities were determined to hang him, which they managed to successfully achieve on the third try.

   “And thus ended the career of a young man who, but for evil associations, might have been a useful member of the community,” the Chronicle concluded.

   Today, visitors to the Austin courthouse will find a small display reprinting a newspaper article about the twice-botched execution of Rufus B. Anderson.

Once Forgotten Paintings Offer Glimpses of Pioche's Past

Historic Lincoln County Courthouse, where the Schofield paintings can be found

   It’s not often that a discovery in an old shed in a remote rural Nevada town opens a window into the past of that community.

   But that’s exactly what happened in 1950, when local residents Vern and Mary Smith decided to clean out an old shed that appeared to be filled with old papers and documents.

   The Smiths were excited when they first uncovered a box of tarnished silver, but even more so when they found more than two dozen sheets of art paper, all about the size of typing paper, containing various scenes painted in water color.

   Believing they had discovered something potentially valuable, Mary Smith stored them carefully, occasionally showing them to friends and acquaintances over the next several decades.

   In the 1980s, the Nevada Historical Society learned of their existence and helped to identify the artist, Robert G. Schofield, and figure out who he was and how the paintings came to be in the shed.

   It had turned out the Smiths had purchased Schofield’s former home, located on Hoffman Street in Pioche. Schofield was an Englishman who traveled to the mining town of Pioche in about 1870.

   A sort of jack-of-all-trades type, Schofield was skilled as a watchmaker, jeweler engraver, sign maker, French teacher and house painter. He also is said to have liked writing poetry in his spare time—and he dabbled in drawing and painting watercolors.

   It’s the latter talent that has given Schofield a certain fame far beyond his lifetime. Between about 1878 and 1913, Schofield painted a number of watercolors capturing the landscape and life of several of Eastern Nevada’s mining camps.

   The late Jim McCormick, a longtime University of Nevada, Reno art professor, who has studied Schofield’s works, has written that the artist is somewhat unique because he used art paper that was rarely larger than the size of a piece of typing paper and painted with “short, almost fussy” brushstrokes that seemed to echo the work of the French impressionists.

   Schofield’s colors were subtle and muted rather than bold and bright, which McCormick said may have been because of the limited range of paint pigments available at the time.

   What makes the story of the Schofield paintings perhaps more remarkable, however, is he apparently painted them for his own pleasure so their existence wasn’t known until they were re-discovered by the Smiths, who had been savvy enough to recognize their historical value.

   In addition to identifying Schofield’s identity, the historical society also had the paintings professionally photographed and preserved. The Smiths eventually donated the paintings to the Lincoln County Historical Museum, which loaned them in 2000 to the historical society in Reno for an exhibition.

   The 28 Schofield paintings provide a rare look at Eastern Nevada more than a century ago. Scenes include views of some of the buildings, some street scenes and landscapes around Pioche as well as depictions of the mining towns of Eureka, Cherry Creek and Taylor (the last two are now ghost towns).

   McCormick, who served as curator of the Schofield exhibition, noted that in some paintings the artist “provided the viewer with panoramic views of these towns; in others he created more intimate street scenes with people, animals and wagons.”

   Schofield, who was born in 1838, worked in Pioche for several years and bounced around other Nevada mining camps before returning to Lincoln County. According to Nevada historian Phillip I. Earl, Schofield was involved in Lincoln County politics for a time, but lost a race for county surveyor in 1874 and one for county clerk in 1892.

   In 1900, he was finally elected justice of the peace for the Pioche Township in an uncontested race but was defeated two years later. 

   Sadly, there was no happy ending for Schofield. Earl has written that “the last three years of Schofield’s life were bleak and tragic.” He had grown senile and was unable to work. He became a ward of the county and died in 1915. He is buried in the Pioche cemetery.

   As for his paintings, these days they can be seen displayed on the walls of the “Million Dollar Courthouse” in Pioche, which is open to the public. For more information about the courthouse, go to: https://piochenevada.com/things-to-do/million-dollar-courthouse/.