7/10/10 Cason City & Lake Tahoe

Doug put in a good 6 hours of work today. We got on the road about 2P after a quick bite to eat. We headed south out of Carson City on 395 to a small town called Genoa, the first community established in NV in 1851.

Douglas County and Carson Valley history is very young, an important chapter in the romantic "Old West". Explorers and trappers made their way through this area but it wasn't until June of 1851 when John Reese and his party built a trading post that the area began to attract settlers and became a permanent settlement. Reese and his men took up land claims extending from the Walley's Hot Springs marsh area south of Genoa into Jack's Valley on the north. Since most of the men in Reese's party were Mormon, the location became known as Mormon Station. After building a trading post, Reese built a house and sent for his family in New York. Later, Reese added a blacksmith shop and a large corral for livestock.


The Overland Emigrant Trail passed down what is now Genoa's Main Street. Reese's operation did very well and when the Mormons were called back to Salt Lake City in 1857, Reese decided to stay to protect his business and extensive land claims. A great deal of buying, trading and selling of land went on during these early years. Reese did return to Salt Lake City in 1859 after business reversals.

Orson Hyde, an elder in the Mormon Church, was sent to "Mormon Station", Utah Territory, to set up a government, survey the town into lots, and define the state line between California and Utah Territory. He renamed Mormon Station "Genoa" in 1855. As the story goes, Hyde admired Christopher Columbus and so named the town site" Genoa" after Columbus's birth place, Genoa, Italy. Orson Hyde was the first probate Judge. Court matters were settled by Judge Hyde in the loft of Reese's trading post. Entrance to the loft was gained by climbing a ladder on the outside of the building then climbing through a large window into the loft. This loft was also used as a type of hotel for those pioneers traveling by foot and wishing to stay the night.


Genoa became a commercial center during Territorial days and settled down to a quiet existence as the county seat and a trading center for Douglas County.

As the population of Douglas County and Genoa grew, people of many nationalities settled in the area. Industrious Danish and German people recognized the Valley as a wonderful crop growing area. They drained the swamp/marsh areas where ranches/farms began to produce hay, grains, and pastures for livestock. Barns were built with small blacksmith shops nearby to make the needed farm equipment, plows, seeders, mowers, etc. Orchards and vegetable gardens were planted. This all took time but year after year improvements were made. Other nationalities were the Italians, English, Welsh and Irish. All these early pioneers contributed to the beautiful Valley as it is seen today.


The most significant event in the history of Genoa was probably the June 28th, 1910 fire. Two blocks of the business district and several homes burned that day. The fire was started by an inmate in the County Alms house (poor house) located in what was originally built as a hotel at the corner of Main and Nixon St. The poor man decided to burn a pan of sulfur under his bed to get rid of bed bugs. There was still some flame in the pan that set his straw mattress on fire and so most of the town. The courthouse was a brick shell after the fire. The County Commissioners authorized repairs but a few years later, in 1916, the County Seat was moved eight miles south-east to Minden, Nevada. Unfortunately for Genoa, many of the businesses that burned in the 1910 fire also set up shop in the growing communities of Gardnerville and Minden.

Today, Genoa is a thriving historic community

We noted that Lake Tahoe was only 11 miles away so we headed west over Daggett Pass at an elevation of 7334' (Genoa is at 4788') and had great vistas of the Carson Valley to the east. The pass is named for Charles Daggett (who saved Orson Hyde from frost bite thereby becoming NVs first recognized physician) and was part of the pony express route to the west coast. It's role became even more important during the gold and silver rushes.

While Lake Tahoe itself is a beautiful alpine lake with 72 miles of shore line Doug and I would have preferred to have skipped Tahoe Village and South Lake Tahoe as it is the peak of tourist season and there was a ton of traffic. We were in search of Echo Lake upon the recommendation of my sister but were travelling without a map and had failed to refresh our memories of its location before disembarking so we missed it by nary a few miles!

South of Lake Tahoe we went through Echo Pass (although we didn't know it at the time) and proceeded through Luther Pass (7735') into Hope Valley where we became ensnared in a bicycle race. There were over 2000 riders tackling the mountains and valleys. It was a sight to behold but challenging to drive through. Up until this time we had been very successful at navigating by the seat of our pants but in a last ditch effort to find Echo Lake we stopped at a camp ground in Hope Valley and bought a map. It was then that we realized the error of our ways and decided to forgo Echo Lake because we would have had to once again navigate through the bevy of cyclists.

Se we proceeded first east and then north to explore the towns of Minden and Gardnerville located in Carson Valley. Both towns were quaint yet fairly substantial...there was a Starbucks in each! On our return to Carson City we explored Johnson Lane which is really nothing more than a bedroom community but it had tremendous views of the Carson Range to the west and Pine Nut Mountains to the east.

We had dinner at The Basil, an excellent Thai restaurant in Carson City before retiring for the night. Tomorrow we head south to June Lake.