Luther Canyon (Fay Canyon)
Douglas County, Douglas County, Nevada
Marker Inscription
Luther Canyon (Fay Canyon). Luther Canyon, west of this site, takes its name from Ira M. Luther, who from 1858-1865 had a sawmill there. The house behind the marker was his home. In 1861, he was a delegate to the second Nevada Territorial Legislature. After 1865, the canyon came to be known as Horse Thief Canyon, because of the “business” of John and Lute Olds, owners of the next ranch south. Besides operating a station along the Emigrant Trail for a number of years, they rustled horses from emigrants. The animals were sent up the canyon to drift over the ridge into horse thief meadows. After resting and feeding the horses, they were driven down to Woodfords Canyon to sell to other emigrants. A prospector called Sawtooth was allegedly murdered and buried in the barn south of the Luther house. Sam Brown, a notorious bad man, was shot and killed in front of the Olds barn in 1861 by a man he threatened. “Lucky Bill” Thorington, implicated in a murder in California for which he was hanged by vigilantes in 1858, had a ranch two and a half miles to the south.
Erected by Nevada State Historic Preservation Office
The Story
West of this marker, Ira M. Luther ran a sawmill from 1858 to 1865 and served as a delegate to Nevada's second Territorial Legislature. After he left, the canyon earned the name Horse Thief Canyon for the Olds brothers, who ran a station on the Emigrant Trail while quietly rustling stock from passing emigrants and reselling it down the road. The neighborhood drew a rough cast of frontier characters, from the notorious gunman Sam Brown to "Lucky Bill" Thorington, hanged by California vigilantes in 1858.
Why it matters
The canyon's tangled history captures the raw, half-lawed character of the far-western frontier, where legitimate enterprise and outright banditry shared the same trailside ranches.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Ira M. Luther
- · John Olds
- · Lute Olds
- · Sam Brown
- · "Lucky Bill" Thorington
Related events
- · Emigrant Trail settlement
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Walley’s Hot Springs
Douglas County, NV
In 1862, along the Carson branch of the emigrant trail, David and Harriet Walley developed the hot springs bubbling up along this fault line into a $100,000 spa complete with beds, a ballroom, and gardens. The mineral waters—ranging from 136 to 160 degrees—were promoted as a cure for rheumatism and other ailments, drawing visitors until the resort burned in 1935. A century later the same thermal source drew engineers testing for geothermal power.
Carson Valley
Douglas County, NV
The broad, cultivated Carson Valley below began as a ribbon of natural meadow where California-bound 49'ers rested their stock and bought vegetables from the Mormon Station settlers. After the 1858 discovery of the Comstock Lode, farmers extended the meadows by irrigation to feed the miners of Virginia City, and from 1870 German, Danish, and Swiss immigrants enlarged the fields further to supply booming camps like Bodie, Tonopah, and Goldfield. Sound range and farming practices have kept it among Nevada's finest agricultural regions.
Nevada's Capitol
Carson City, NV
Completed in 1871, Nevada's Victorian-era Capitol was raised from sandstone quarried by Carson City's founder, Abe Curry. An octagonal annex followed in 1907 and the north and south wings in 1915. Its elegant interior boasts Alaskan marble walls and French crystal windows, a statehouse built to befit a young silver state.
The Warm Springs Hotel And Nevada State Prison
Carson City, NV
Built around 1860 by Abraham Curry, co-founder of Carson City, the Warm Springs Hotel was a grand structure of hand-hewn sandstone from a nearby quarry. Nevada's first Territorial Legislature met here in 1861, and in 1862 Curry leased part of the building to hold prisoners—the seed of the Nevada State Prison, which the state purchased in 1864. For nearly a century, inmates cut the distinctive sandstone that built the State Capitol, the U.S. Mint, and the prison itself.