Nevada County General Information

Many counties have had several county seats. The reason for this was population changes. When the population of the first town declined and a later one increased, the State Legislature was requested to move the county seat to the larger town. This change was generally made. The boundary lines and sizes of many of the counties have been changed also since they were created.

Nine counties voted on the question of statehood for Nevada in 1864: Churchill, Douglas, Esmeralda, Humboldt, Lyon, Nye, Ormsby, Storey and Washoe. (The Lander County votes failed to arrive in time to be counted).  The date following the county indicates when it was organized; the date after the name of the county seat is the time that town became a county seat. 

CHURCHILL (1861), named after the Fort, which in turn bore the name of an army officer, Captain Charles C. Churchill.  Records of the county were first kept at .Buckland’s Station, a nearby ranch community in Lyon County. The first county seat was situated at La Plata (1864) in the Mountain Wells country, east of Stillwater. Since silver was the ore found there the town had the Spanish word for silver. It declined quickly. Stillwater (1868) was an agricultural community which took its name from the quiet sloughs and marshlands nearby Fallon (1904), the trading center for the Newlands Project and for mining camps over a wide area, became the county seat. The new town was named after Mike Fallon who lived on a ranch near the town site and had a post office on his ranch.

CLARK COUNTY (1909), created from the southern part of Lincoln County was named after United States Senator William A. Clark, a wealthy copper king from Montana. Clark saw the possibilities of a railroad from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City. He purchased a short line in California and a right of way for the road across Southern Nevada. It was called the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad. The railroad company built the railroad shops at Las Vegas, and trains began to move over this line on June 2, 1905. A community grew around the so-called “Old Fort” where Las Vegas is now situated.  Because the people there desired a separate county, the State Legislature made this town, meaning “The Meadows,” the county seat (1909) when Clark County was created.

DOUGLAS COUNTY (1861), was named after Stephen A. Douglas, the well known debater against Lincoln. Douglas died about the time the county was set up. Admirers of Douglas persuaded the legislators to name the county for him. Genoa (1855), the first settlement and county seat in Nevada was named by Orson Hyde in honor of the birthplace of Columbus. Minden (1915), built on the ranch of the Danberg family, honors the German town from which this family came.

ELKO COUNTY (1869), both county and town bear the same name. It is said that railroad officials naming stations along the Central Pacific Railroad added an “o” to the word elk and so named the county and its seat of government.

ESMERALDA COUNTY (1861), meaning green in Spanish, was the name given to the mining district where ore was first discovered. When the county was to be named a group of men belonging to a social club “The Esmeralda Union,” gave the county the name of the club. Aurora (1861) was named by one of the discoverers, J. M. Corey, who named the first mining district. He called the town Aurora or Goddess of the Dawn. For a time it was the county seat of both Esmeralda County, Nevada, and Mono County, California. The settlement of the boundary dispute between the two states gave Esmeralda County to Nevada. The camp began its decline about 1870. Hawthorne (1883) was named after a prominent mining and land owner of the area, William A. Hawthorne. As Goldfleld (1907) grew in population its citizens insisted that it be made the county seat, which the Legislature did in 1907. Since the county was so rich in gold it was called Goldfield.

EUREKA COUNTY (1873), became a county following the mining booms in the area; Eureka (1873) was made the county seat. When a miner found the solution to reduce the ore, he shouted “Eureka,” meaning I have found it. And so the name was given to both the county and the county seat.

HUMBOLDT COUNTY (1861), honors a famous geographer. Captain John C. Fremont named the river in his honor, so when the county was organized, it was given the name of the river. Unionville (1861), the center of mining and ranching activity, was first named Dixieville by its southern citizens but the major part of the population sympathized with the North. They changed the name to Unionville. Winnemucca (1873), named for the famous Paiute Indian Chief, had grown to a good-sized shipping, mining and ranching town on the Central Pacific Railroad, so the county was moved there. 

LANDER COUNTY (1862), called the mother of counties because several counties were created from it, honored Col. F. W. Lander who was in the area when the Paiute Indian War broke out. He joined the whites against the Indians. Jacobsville, or Jacob’s Station (1862), was the first county seat. First known as Jacob’s Wells, the name was changed, when rich ore was discovered nearby, to Jacobs Station after George Washington Jacobs, Division Agent of the Overland Mail. When the townsite and mills were built east of the station by Colonel David Bud, he named the community Austin (1863) after his birthplace in Austin, Texas. 

LINCOLN COUNTY (1866), was named for President Lincoln. The first mining excitement in the region was in the Pahranagat District. The camp was at Crystal Springs (1865) and so it became the first county seat. Governor Blasdel and a party of men made the trip from Carson City for the county organization, but after great suffering and the death of one member of the party, they reached the community only to find there were not enough people in the area to organize a county. When the county was finally recognized, Hiko (1867) in the same district was named the county seat. While Crystal Springs took its name from springs which furnished the camp with water, Hiko took an Indian name. meaning “white man's city.” As mining declined in the locality there was a great boom at Pioche (1871) and the county seat was moved to that town where it has remained. Pioche was named after the mining promoter F. L. A. Pioche of San Francisco.

LYON COUNTY (1861), was named after Robert Lyon, a scout who was killed in the Battle of Pyramid Lake. The first county seat was in the boom camp at Dayton (1861). It honored John Day who surveyed the townsite. After the decline of the mines in Virginia City, Dayton went down rapidly. Yerington (1911), first called Pizen Switch, in the meantime, had become the center of a copper mining boom and a rich farming community. After a disastrous fire which destroyed the courthouse at Dayton the State Legislature moved the county seat to Yerington against the protests of the people of Dayton. Edward B. Yerington, for whom the county seat was named, was an official of the Carson and Colorado Railroad, and the station was named for him.

MINERAL COUNTY (1911), is one of the most highly mineralized areas in the State of Nevada, hence the name of the county. Hawthorne (1911) which had formerly been the county seat of Esmeralda County before the creation of Mineral County, was made the center of government for the new county. The United States Naval Ammunition Depot was situated at Babbitt, two miles north of Hawthorne.

NYE COUNTY (1864). was named after the Territorial Governor, James W. Nye. The first county seat was at Ione (1864), which was named by P. A. Haven, founder of the camp. He honored lone, California, from which he came. When the Reese River rush was over, Belmont (1867), named after the Belmont Mining Company, owned by Philadelphians, became the county seat. The head of the county government remained there until Tonopah 1905, named for the springs near the town, (an Indian word meaning “brushwater”) became the county seat. 

ORMSBY COUNTY (1861), was named after Major William M. Ormsby, who was killed in the first Paiute Indian War. Kit Carson, the famous scout, who accompanied Captain John Charles Fremont through Nevada, was honored in naming Carson City (1861) the county seat and the capital of Nevada. 

PERSHING COUNTY (1919), honored a famous general, John Joseph Pershing of World War I. It was created from the southern portion of Humboldt County. Lovelock (1919) was the name of a prominent family that lived there.

STOREY COUNTY (1861), honored another military man, Captain Edward Fails Storey, who fell in the second Paiute Indian War. Virginia City (1861) was called Virginia after one of the discoverers who came from the state of Virginia. It was said that one day he fell down when drunk and broke a bottle of whiskey. On getting up he muttered “I baptize thee, Virginia.” The name appealed to the miners, so it was adopted. 

WASHOE COUNTY (1861), first spelled Wassau, was named for the Washoe Indians who claimed most of the area. Washoe City (1861) in Washoe Valley was the first county seat. After the Central Pacific Railroad was built, Reno (1871), a station on this railroad, grew rapidly in business and population. It was made the county seat. The name honors General Jesse Reno, a Virginia loyalist, who fell in the Battle of South Mountain. 

WHITE PINE COUNTY (1869), named for the stands of timber found in the surrounding mountains in the early days. Hamilton (1869), the center of a rich mining area, was named after W. H. Hamilton, who with Ed Cohen and Henry Kelly, located the townsite in May, 1868. After the decline of Hamilton, the county seat was moved to Ely (1885) which was named by Joseph Long, a copper expert who honored his employer, Smith Ely of Ely, Vermont. Ely became the center of a great copper area.