Gardnerville Nevada
Gardnerville Nevada Overview
Early Gardnerville served the farming community and teamsters who hauled local produce to booming Bodie.
After 1879, Gardnerville became the center for 1,870 Danish immigrants, who met in Valhalla Hall, one block south.
Starting in 1898, Spanish and French Basque shepherds tended thousands of sheep in Carson Valley.
Category
- Basque
- Dutch
- Ranching/Farming
Marker Type
Nevada Historical Marker Number
Gardnerville Nevada is Nevada Historical Marker #129.
Click here to view the full list of Nevada State Historical Markers.
County
GPS Coordinates
38.940808, -119.748830
Nevada Historical Marker Transcription
Early Gardnerville served the farming community and teamsters who hauled local produce to booming Bodie. The first buildings were a blacksmith shop, a saloon, and the Gardnerville hotel. The latter was moved by Lawrence Gilman in 1879 from the emigrant trail between Genoa and Walley’s Hot Springs, where it was known as Kent house, to this site, the homestead of John M. Gardner.
Just as Genoa was the center for British (largely Mormon) settlers after 1851, so Gardnerville, after 1879, became the center for 1,870 Danish immigrants, who founded the Valhalla Society in 1885 and met in Valhalla Hall, one block south.
Starting in 1898, Spanish and French Basque shepherds tended some 13,000 sheep in Carson Valley, which increased to 25,000 by 1925, when the Basques began acquiring their own sheep and land. After 1918, several Basques in Gardnerville opened inns which flourished during Prohibition in the 1920s.
STATE HISTORICAL MARKER No. 129
STATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICE
CARSON CITY HISTORICAL SOCIETY