| Nevada (Lander County), Austin — 8 — Austin — 1864 — 1964 | | | Austin, mother town of mining camps, sprang into being after William Talcott discovered silver at this spot on May 2, 1862. Talcott came from Jacobsville, a stage stop six miles to the west on the Reese River, the first Lander County seat. He was hauling wood out of Pony Canyon, directly below, when he made the strike that set off the famous "rush to Reese."
A town called Clifton flourished briefly in Pony Canyon, but fast-growing Austin soon took over and became the county seat in 1863. . . . — Map (db m14435) HM | | Nevada (Lander County), Austin — 67 — Austin Churches | | | St. George's Episcopal Church to the east was consecrated in 1878. The Reverend Blackiston swept the congregation with his enthusiasm and eloquence at Easter Service in 1877 to bring forth pledges including the building, retaining wall, pipe organ, bell and a 20-dollar gold piece from every employee of a local mine. The organ was shipped around the Horn and by wagon from San Francisco.
St. Augustine's Catholic Church to the west was built in 1866 of native brick and stone. Father . . . — Map (db m14609) HM | | Nevada (Lander County), Austin — 137 — Hickison Summit | | | About one mile northwest lies a natural pass between two low buttes which, prehistorically, the aborigines may have used as a site of ambushing migratory deer herds. Three petroglyph panels are located in this pass. Concerted, cooperative efforts of several families were necessary for successful trapping, killing and processing the deer.
Petroglyphs suggest magical or ritual connection with hunting activities. They were added seasonally by the group's religious leader, or shaman, as omens . . . — Map (db m14615) HM | | Nevada (Lander County), Austin — 119 — Reuel Colt Gridley — “Citizen Extraordinaire” | | | This simple stone structure, opened to the public in late 1863, was originally operated as a general merchandise store by the firm of Gridley, Hobart and Jacobs. Gridley is best remembered for his 1864 wager which prompted the auctioning of a sack of flour for donations to the "Sanitary Fund," the Civil War forerunner of the American Red Cross. The flour was sold again and again throughout Nevada and California, then taken east and eventually auctioned at the St. Louis Sanitary Fair in 1864, in . . . — Map (db m14612) HM | | Nevada (Lander County), Austin — St. Augustine | | | Standing on this prominent hill is St. Augustine, the oldest Catholic Church in Nevada built in 1866 and is known as the mother church that spawned other catholic churches in Nevada. The church was built from the local quarry and brickyard for $50,000. The interior has many of the original features, including the decorative nine rank Henry C. Kilgen pipe organ. In 1939 Rafeal Jolly was hired to paint vibrantly colored murals for the interior. The plaque sits upon a dry stack granite wall built . . . — Map (db m14611) HM | | Nevada (Lander County), Austin — 59 — Stokes Castle | | | Started in the fall of 1896 and completed in June, 1897, by Ansom Phelps Stokes, mine developer, railroad magnate and member of a prominent eastern family, as a summer home for his sons, principally J.G. Phelps. After the castle (or the tower, as the Stokes family always referred to it) was completed, it was used by the family for one brief period in June and July, 1897. Since then, with one possible exception, the structure has remained unoccupied.
Stokes Castle is made of native . . . — Map (db m14436) HM | | Nevada (Lander County), Austin — The Pony Express | | | The Pony Express Trail passed four miles north of Austin through Jacobsville, Simpson's Park and Dry Creek Station. During the Paiute Indian War the stations were burned and two station tenders at Dry Creek were killed and buried there.
Erected by the Nevada Pony Express Centennial Committee.
National Pony Express Centennial Association
Dwight D. Eisenhower--Chairman
Waddell F. Smith--President — Map (db m14607) HM | | Nevada (Lander County), Austin — 176 — The Surveyors | | | The Federal Government historically has supported numerous surveys for the purpose of measuring the domain which extended, after 1848, to the Pacific. These surveys sought railway routes, military relationships, water transport and wagon roads. The survey activity was extended to all territories, but not to states.
Nevada, in part, was the site of two notable surveys: Honey Lake to Fort Kearny wagon road, completed in 1860 by Captain Lander; and the route surveyed by Lieutenant Simpson, . . . — Map (db m14614) HM | | Nevada (Lander County), Austin — 136 — Toquima Cave | | | East of the summit, north of the highway, and under a basalt flow lies Toquima Cave. Red, white, and yellow aboriginal drawings (pictographs) decorate its walls.
Usually located near springs, as here, and on migratory big game trails, painted or pecked petroglyphs are associated with the food gathering localities of Nevada's prehistoric inhabitants.
There are no known specific meanings attached to the particular design elements. Presumably, these people created the designs as ritual . . . — Map (db m62126) HM |
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