Genoa
Nevada'S First Permanent Non Native Settlement (Mormon Station, 1851); Mormon Station State Historic Park And The Genoa Bar · Genoa, Nevada
Genoa is a tiny town at the foot of the Carson Range in the Carson Valley, and it is known across the state as the place where Nevada began: in 1851 a party of Mormon traders built a log trading post here to supply emigrants on the California Trail, and Mormon Station, renamed Genoa a few years later, became the first permanent non-native settlement in what is now Nevada. It was the seat of government for the western Utah Territory, the first home of the Territorial Enterprise newspaper in 1858, and a stop on the Pony Express. Today Genoa is a quiet village of a few hundred people with a single main street: Mormon Station State Historic Park with its rebuilt stockade and museum, the old courthouse museum, a cemetery with the grave of the ski-mail carrier Snowshoe Thompson, and the Genoa Bar, which claims to be Nevada's oldest saloon. The town fills once a year for the Candy Dance craft fair. It is a small place worth an hour or two, best combined with the Carson Valley, Minden's and Gardnerville's Basque restaurants, and the drive up Kingsbury Grade to Lake Tahoe.
Main Street, Genoa, Nevada, 89411, United States
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: Mormon Station State Historic Park's grounds are open during the day through most of the year, but its museum is usually open only in the warmer months, roughly mid-May to mid-October, on limited days; the Genoa Courthouse Museum is also seasonal and volunteer-run. The Genoa Bar keeps bar hours, typically from late morning or midday into the night. Shops close early and some close on weekdays. The traps that ruin a day are driving out in winter or midweek to find both museums closed, stumbling into Candy Dance weekend traffic, expecting dinner in Genoa late in the evening, assuming day use at Walley's without checking, and crossing Kingsbury Grade on ice at night. Confirm current times before relying on them.