Wellington
Lyon County, Lyon County, Nevada
Marker Inscription
Wellington. Following the mining boom in the Aurora District in 1860, Jack Wright and Leonard Hamilton built a bridge across the West Walker River and established a stage station at this location. Wagons and stages were repaired and horses shod. The station soon became a trading center for nearby ranches and farms.In 1863, Daniel Wellington bought Wright and Hamilton’s interests and the place became known as “Wellington’s Station”. The Wellington Hotel, located about a half mile south of the station, was constructed by wagonmaster Zadok Pierce in 1875. Over the years it has served as a livery stable, freight station, general store, and post office.
Erected by The Groso & Silva Families
The Story
After the 1860 mining boom in the Aurora District, Jack Wright and Leonard Hamilton bridged the West Walker River and opened a stage station here, where wagons were repaired and horses shod. The stop soon grew into a trading center for surrounding ranches and farms. In 1863 Daniel Wellington bought out the founders and gave the place his name, and in 1875 wagonmaster Zadok Pierce built the Wellington Hotel, which over the years served as livery stable, freight station, general store, and post office.
Why it matters
Wellington shows how a simple river crossing and stage stop could seed a lasting agricultural community on Nevada's mining frontier.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Jack Wright
- · Leonard Hamilton
- · Daniel Wellington
- · Zadok Pierce
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Double Springs
Douglas County, NV
Known also as Round Tent Ranch, Double Springs was a station at a pair of springs on the road threading the south end of the Pine Nut Mountains. It served travelers moving between the ranching and dairy country of Carson and Walker valleys and those bound for the Esmeralda mines, and a toll road once connected the area west to the Kingsbury Road toward Lake Tahoe. Nearby stood Carter's Station, which held the post office and 1861 polling place for the local mining precinct.
Twelve Mile House
Douglas County, NV
Thomas Wheeler built the Twelve Mile House in 1859 where the East Fork of the Carson River emerges from Long Valley, naming it for its equal distance from Genoa and from the Cradlebaugh Bridge. A vital stop on the road to the Aurora mining camp, it sat at a busy crossroads with routes radiating toward Goldfield, Woodfords, Genoa, and Carson City. Mile houses like this supplied rest and provisions for travelers until the railroads made most of them obsolete.
Sonoma/Conway Stage Station
Lyon County, NV
Before railroads and highways reached this rugged country between the eastern Sierra and western Nevada, stage stations like this one along the Sonoma–Conway route gave travelers and mail carriers a place to rest, water and change horse teams, and press on. Such waypoints kept people, freight, and news moving across the 19th-century frontier.
Nevada's Birthplace
Douglas County, NV
In the shadow of the Sierra, Carson Valley became the cradle of Nevada. Settlers founded Mormon Station in 1851 — renamed Genoa in 1856 — and with an early post office and local government it earned the title of Nevada's first town. Thousands of California-bound emigrants funneled through here, resting their livestock on river grass before the brutal mountain crossing, and Pony Express riders thundered along this route in 1860.