Unionville
Pershing County, Pershing County, Nevada
Marker Inscription
Unionville (Pershing County). Southern sympathizers settled in Buena Vista Canyon in 1861 after the discovery of silver ore. Appropriately called Dixie, their camp’s name changed to Unionville in 1862, when the will of the neutral and northern factions of the population prevailed. The town was designated as the seat of Humboldt County, which was itself the product of Buena Vista mining activity. Unionville lost this distinction to Winnemucca in 1873.By the late 1870s most of the local ores were depleted, but it remained a pleasant place, enjoying more amenities and less violence than most mining towns in spite of strong political feelings.Today, Unionville retains its picturesqueness.
Erected by Nevada State Historic Preservation Office
The Story
Silver drew settlers into Buena Vista Canyon in 1861, and Southern sympathizers first named their camp Dixie. The following year, as the Civil War divided the nation, the town's neutral and Northern factions won out and rechristened it Unionville. It became the seat of Humboldt County until losing that honor to Winnemucca in 1873, and though the ores thinned by the late 1870s, Unionville kept a reputation as a calmer, more comfortable place than most raucous mining camps.
Why it matters
The town's very name records how the Civil War's loyalties reached into the remote mining West, where distant political battles were fought out in the naming of a canyon camp.
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Nearby & related markers
Star City
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