This article originally appeared on May 9, 2018, the 150th anniversary of Reno’s founding.
On May 9, 1868, more than 1,000 individuals from Virginia City to San Francisco were present in the sagebrush plains of the Truckee Meadows to speculate in the purchase of town site lots.
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The new town was surveyed on the north side of the Truckee River in what is now downtown Reno. In the spring of 1868 the surrounding area contained only a few structures, including Myron C. Lake’s diminutive inn and toll bridge adjacent to the present site of the Riverside Hotel. Elsewhere in the Truckee Meadows a few farms and ranches had been established earlier in the 1860s, but no town existed.
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Central Pacific officials looked ahead of the eastward progress of railroad construction to select a site for a station in western Nevada. Myron Lake’s vast acreage on both sides of his bridge looked suitable. Early in March 1868 Charles Crocker of the Central Pacific got together with Lake; ultimately the latter offered to deed 80 acres of land to the railroad if it would build its depot within the town site limits.
J. M. Graham, the head surveyor of the Central Pacific, platted the town site on Lake’s former acreage on April 1. Many years later recalling that memorable day, Graham laughed over the suggestion of laying out a town site on “All Fools’ Day.”
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The as-yet-unnamed town site was bounded by West Street on the west, East Street on the east, irregularly on the north by Fourth and Fifth Streets, and on the south by the Truckee River.
Argenta or Reno?
The name Argenta was selected for the new town, offered by Crocker’s brother because of the importance of the Comstock Lode’s mines. Sanguine Nevadans predicted that Argenta would soon become the largest city between San Francisco and the Missouri River. Washoe City’s Eastern Slope newspaper wished the new town well, and that “no autumn frosts would pinch out its beauties or check its prosperity.”
By the end of April the laying of the rails has been completed to Verdi, then on May 5 railroad construction penetrated the western edge of the Truckee Meadows. Instantly that place soon became the interchange where stages and freight wagons to and from Virginia City and other towns met incoming trains from California.
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Less than two weeks before the auction, the name for the new town was changed to Reno. Why Crocker renamed the town is unknown. Some thought that the new name was more easily written than Argenta. Another story has it that Reno was a name drawn when railroad officials shook a box containing names of cities. In any case, Reno was named for a Virginia Civil War loyalist, General Jesse Lee Reno, who fell in the battle of South Mountain in 1862.
Auction awaited
On May 8, hundreds of individuals lured by newspaper advertisements had hastened to the area, all desirous of securing choice lots when the sale would begin. From Virginia City, Carson City and as far away as San Francisco, would-be bidders came in rickety old wagons, fancy buggies, buckboards and stage coaches, and on horseback and on foot — in any way possible.
But space to accommodate the hopeful crowd was a problem. Other than Lake’s inn, no lodging facilities were available. Though some brought their own shelters, others had to rent dirty blankets at a high price and be content with sagebrush lodgings. Food was hard to come by, though a few impromptu eating stands had opened up. Happily, there was enough whiskey to insure against thirst and to ward off the chill of the spring night air.
Auction Day, May 9
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Reno would come of age when the railroad began to auction off lots at 3 p.m., Saturday, May 9. Small fields of grain and clumps of sagebrush covered the town site, which had a uniform slope to the Truckee River to the south.
Railroad agent D. H. Haskill addressed the eager assemblage of 1,000 or more buyers who had come for the land sale. He congratulated Nevada on the completion of the railroad to Reno, concluding by reviewing the scoffing of opponents who believed that the laying of the rails would never be completed over the Sierra.
Haskill then introduced Mayor Currie of Virginia City, the auctioneer, who proceeded to bang the gavel and sell lots. The east corner of Commercial Row and Virginia Streets, 25 by 100 feet and fronting near the soon-to-be-built depot building, was the first lot to sell. The lot fetched $550 — about $10,000 in today’s dollars. Other lots that day sold for as much as $1,000. As the auction ended, about 70 lots had been disposed of, less than a quarter of the town plat. Additional land sales were made in the days following.
Following the auction
A few individuals who bought lots at the auction unpacked their wagonloads of lumber on their purchase that very evening. Reno had made the map! Only a week after the auction Reno acquired a post office, and on Independence Day the Reno Crescent began weekly publication. It was soon supplanted by the Nevada State Journal and the Reno Evening Gazette, the forerunners of the modern Reno Gazette Journal.
After lengthy court fights Reno acquired the county seat from Washoe City in 1871. Interestingly, when the courthouse was built in Reno, it was located not in the original town site on the north side of the Truckee River, but south of it and adjacent to Myron Lake’s well-patronized saloon and road house. (Renoites living across the river objected to this proximity of “bench and bar.”) Why this occurred is another story for another day.
Stanley Paher (UNR ’69) researched the story of the founding of Reno while completing his master’s degree in political science. He thereafter founded a publishing company which has issued almost 100 Nevada books by 53 authors.
Source: https://t-tees.com
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