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This cast iron sentinel stands perpetual guard
in the Carson City cemetery.

Special Attractions

Calendar of Events

Overnight Accommodations

Restaurants

This calm and pleasant city has been the Nevada capital since the Nevada Territory was established in 1861, and government has provided the dominant influence on the municipal character for more than a century. While it doesn't have the size or reputation of Reno or Las Vegas, Carson City provides interest and enjoyment to visitors by virtue of its frontier architecture, historical attractions and its wide range of restaurants. Children are easy to entertain here.

By 1851, Eagle Valley had been settled by ranchers. A few years later a cadre of well-connected attorneys whose names still decorate street signs here (Proctor, Musser) bought the richest part of the valley for $500 and a remuda of horses. They platted a townsite on the land and named it in honor of John C. Fremont's most celebrated scout. In the spring of the next year, to their astonishment and delight, the discovery of the Comstock Lode brought their townsite to life as a freight and transportation center. One of the junior partners, Abe Curry, then built the crude Warm Springs Hotel a mile to the east, and when Carson City was selected as the territorial capital in 1861, leased it to the Legislature as a meeting hall. The legislature established Carson City as the seat of Ormsby County (named for one of the dead "heroes" at the Battle of Pyramid Lake).

The legislators also leased the Warm Springs Hotel to serve as the Territorial Prison, and named their genial host and landlord, as its first warden. The property was eventually purchased by the state and is still a part of the state prison system - drive east on Fifth Street to see the gloomy sandstone walls across from the sewage treatment plant, or see it from the inside as the setting for the Tom Selleck movie "An Innocent Man."

Carson City was confirmed as Nevada's permanent capital with statehood in 1864, and development thereafter was no longer completely dependent on the health of the Comstock mines. Until they began to decline in the 1880s, these mines provided Carson City with most of its economic importance as a freight and staging center, and as a marshalling point for much of the timber harvest in the Lake Tahoe basin.

Long shallow flumes, capable of carrying enormous pine logs in a shallow spill of fast water, swooped down the steep eastern slope of the Sierra from Spooner Summit to Carson City. Scorched and smoldering where they had rubbed against the flume's sides in their dashing descent, the logs were fed into sawmills where they became timbers for the underground mines, and planed boards for the surface cities. The finished lumber was then loaded onto flatcars and rolled off to Silver City, Gold Hill and Virginia City via the Virginia & Truckee Railroad.

The V&T was completed between Carson City and Virginia City in 1869, with the railroad's shops and main offices in Carson City. The V&T rails were extended north to connect with the transcontinental railroad at Reno in 1872. By 1874, when the Comstock mines were reaching their peak production, 36 trains a day passed through Carson City. The huge sandstone V&T engine house and roundtable dominated the northeast corner of the city for well over a century. Neglected and falling into ruin since the track was torn up in 1950, they have now been torn down and the stones sent to create facades for wineries in the Napa Valley.

Like many another Nevada town in its youth Carson City was made lively, and occasionally dangerous, by the presence of dozens of rootless, restless men. Shootings, stabbings and street brawls were commonplace around Nevada, but Carson City was unique in contending with outbreaks from the State Prison.

The strangest episode at the prison involved the warden. In the 1870s a change of administration resulted in the request for Warden Frank Denver's resignation so that a political supporter of the new governor could be rewarded. Dickerson refused to resign; the new warden was appointed anyhow, and in due course presented himself at the prison to take up his duties. But Warden Denver refused to open the gate. The Governor, the Attorney General and the Secretary of State each drove east out Fifth Street to clear up the trouble, and each one in turn clattered back to town in frustration. A force of 60 riflemen and a howitzer had been drawn up before the prison gate before Denver permitted himself to be replaced.

After the turn of the century Carson City participated vicariously in the Tonopah and Goldfield booms far to the south. Much of the freight and passenger traffic bound for those two celebrated cities was routed to Reno and then through Carson City to Mound House on the V&T railroad. From there the narrow gauge Carson & Colorado carried it to Sodaville where freight wagons and stage coaches - after 1903 they were automobiles - were waiting for the last leg of the journey.

This traffic through Carson City came to a sudden halt when the Southern Pacific built a branch line connecting with the C & C from the east that bypassed the V&T altogether. The capital then resumed the quiet lifestyle that evolved after the decline of the Comstock, and which still continues (with variations) today. At the turn of the century the railroad extended its line south into the Carson Valley, but the Minden-Gardnerville traffic never came close to replacing the Tonopah-Goldfield traffic, and the railroad, and Carson City, slipped back into quiescense. In 1930 the population had dwindled to 1,800, about a quarter of what it had been at the peak of the mining boom 50 years earlier. "Life was peaceful and leisurely with time to enjoy friends and extended hospitality," a long-time resident recalls. "Money was no status symbol. No one was very rich, nor was anyone very poor. While life was quiet, it was never dull."

In 1933 the highway was paved through town, but for a long time afterward the kids could roller skate on it without worrying too much about traffic. In those innocent days Carson City advertised itself as America's smallest state capital.

The magnificent 1890 Federal Building is a Carson City landmark.
In 1960 Carson City regained its 1880 population level, and in 1969 Ormsby County was merged into Carson City to consolidate government services. There are now nine state capitals with smaller populations than Carson City, and in fact, with its area of 143.5 square miles, Carson City could now advertise itself as one of the largest state capitals in America.

Carson City is its own best attraction, and a stroll through its historic neighborhoods is the best way to get acquainted with this pleasant little city at the base of the Sierra Nevada. An illustrated map with details about many of the historic homes is available at the Chamber of Commerce. The route suggested on our map here takes about 20 minutes at a carefree dawdle. You can also take a horse-drawn Hoof Beats surrey tour of the old neighborhoods originating at the Railroad Museum.

Some of what you will see in Carson City's historic district:

Wells, Fargo & Co. maintained its Carson City offices and depot in the brick building at West King and Curry streets; its Mother Lode architecture is a relative rarity in Nevada.

Mathias Rinckel was a retail and wholesale butcher whose residence across the street to the north is now the elegant Carlson House Restaurant. Construction was completed in 1876 and the house is outfitted with the latest in labor-saving devices exhibited at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in that year.

The Brewery Arts Center was once the Carson Brewery, which produced the fondly-remembered Tahoe Beer ("Famous as the Lake") from 1864 to 1948. Despite the name, Tahoe Beer was made with water drawn from King's creek in the mountains to the west of town. The Arts Center maintains a schedule of performances, exhibits and other activities of considerable interest and variety (call 883-1976 for the current schedule), but they don't make beer.

The small sandstone house at 108 N. Minnesota has been the residence of two of Nevada's most interesting historic characters. Built in 1860 by William Stewart, it was sold it to James Nye, Nevada's Territorial governor, appointed by president Abraham Lincoln. Stewart and Nye went to Washington as the two first U.S. Senators from Nevada. It was Nye's home until he left for Washington in 1864.

In the next block the unusual Springmeyer house at 302 N. Minnesota was the home of Governor Charles Russell for many years. The octagonal building in the back yard is a smokehouse that once served Carson City's first school, which occupied the lot next door. The 11-room house at number 340 was built of materials salvaged from the school when it was torn down in 1906. It housed Dr. Simeon Lem Lee, a Civil War hero of the Union army, and his family. Dr. Lee had left his Illinois home in the early '70s for the rough Lincoln County camp of Pioche, and then came to Carson City in 1879. He is remembered as a fiery, crochety old crank, but a good surgeon and a founding member of the state medical society.

The small, double-bayed home at 212 N. Division Street is notable for its architectural design and decoration, including the unusual Victorian bird bath in the front yard. Six chimneys rise up from the roof, one for each room in the house..

The St. Peter's Rectory at 300 N. Division Street was built of locally produced brick in 1868, one of the oldest residences still in its original location. Two blocks farther north, number 502 at the corner of Spear street was built in 1863 by Territorial Secretary of State Orion Clemens whose younger brother Sam was a reporter for the Territorial Enterprise..

The Governors Mansion at the corner of Mountain and Robinson streets dates from the early years of the century. It has been extensively renovated and is occupied by the present governor and his family. It is not open to the public, but it is among the most elegant homes in Carson City's historic district.

You'll also enjoy:

Nevada State Museum
Northeast corner of Carson and Robinson Street. Open daily 8:30-4:30 daily. Admission $1.50; under 18 free.
The immense production of gold and silver from the Comstock mines prompted the establishment of a branch U.S. Mint in Carson City in 1866. The handsome structure on the northeast corner of Carson Street and Robinson was built of prison-quarried sandstone and produced nearly $50 million in coin of the realm until it closed down in 1933. The old coin stamps are still inside (and still put to use to make commemorative coins for special occasions) along with fascinating exhibits of natural and social history. Exhibits range from stuffed animals in glass cases through a life-sized wax-figured diorama of Paiute Indian home life to the unique facsimile of a silver mine down in the basement. Dat-So-La-Lee's woven baskets are a national treasure. The mineral exhibits are exceptional, and guns abound.

The Nevada State Capitol
Carson Street, at the center of town. Open during office hours; no admission charge. This solemn old sandstone monument to the 19th century has been earthquake-proofed and renovated throughout, but its Alaskan marbled halls are still decorated with elaborate friezes, and hung with the portraits of former governors, back to "Broadhorns" Bradley and James Nye, the New Yorker whose loyalty to the Union Abraham Lincoln rewarded with the governorship of the Nevada Territory in 1861. The present governor and other top state officials continue to do the state's business here, but the original Senate, Assembly and Supreme Court Chambers upstairs are most often used for exhibit space and usually open to visitors. The octagonal afterthought out the back door of the capitol building was added in 1908 when the burst of economic and political activity at Tonopah prompted an expansion of state government.

That oddity was the last benign addition in the neighborhood of the capitol; now a gallery of architectural eyesores presses in closer and closer around the old silver-domed building of the pioneers.

The promenade between the Capitol building and the moderne excrescence of the Legislative Building (presently being retrofitted with a new and presumably more agreeable facade) to the south has lately become populated with sculpture. Kit Carson, lifesized and personal, is studying the trail from horseback, his rifle ready in his hand. Adolph Sutro, larger than life-size, is poised to drive his pick into the famous four-mile tunnel he dug to drain the Comstock mines. And Abe Curry, pioneer real estate developer and city builder, stands earnestly in a badly cut coat, clutching a bronze wad of blueprints like a club.

Warren Engine Company Museum

111 N. Curry. Open 1-5 pm weekdays; admission free. A block west of the Capitol this colorful and intriguing museum is devoted to this pioneer volunteer fire company. The Warrens are the oldest established volunteer fire brigade in the U.S. and understandably proud of it. It's only open in the afternoon, but unless everybody is busy with a fire, you'll get a personal tour from one of the paid firemen or a from an available volunteer. The treasures displayed here range from a 1912 Seagrave Fire Truck (how did they get that thing up to the second floor?) to memorabilia such as antique uniforms, alarm systems and redwood water mains.

Carson Hot Springs
1500 Hot Springs Road. Open daily 8 am-9 pm (11 in summer). Admission: kids Ű, Adults บ. This natural hot water pool complex has been a favored relaxation spot since long before the white man came. The large mineral pool and the hot baths are the main attraction, but food, drink and entertainment are also available depending on the time of day. The water is also bottled for drinking (75¢ a gallon).

Lone Mountain Cemetery
Corner N. Roop Street and Beverley Drive. Open daily. No admission charge for brief visits. Stagecoach driver Hank Monk is probably better remembered than the pillars of local society who are buried around him here. It was Hank Monk who bounced Horace Greeley up the mountainside to California, lashing the horses over the rocky road and yelling down into the coach, "Keep your seat, Horace, I'll get you there on time!"As one of his contemporaries remarked, "He drank so much hard spirits that he often forgot what he was doing when it came to the incidental tasks connected with staging, and fed whiskey to his horses and watered himself on numerous occasions, thus becoming accidentally sober enough to handle the inebriated team."

Many pioneer families are represented here, some beneath or within elaborate burial monuments, others quite modest. The cast-iron civil war soldier pictured above keeps endless vigil.

Virginia & Truckee Railroad Museum
South Carson Street at Fairview. Open 8:30-4:30 Wednesday through Sunday. Admission, $1; under 18 free. This small but satisfying museum is a showplace for what remains of railroading in Carson City. The locomotives, coaches and cars inside the museum building are like jewelry, and the steamers that carry passengers back and forth across thegrounds are the real thing.

Inside the big windowed barn are two locomotives, a flatcar, a passenger car, and a caboose and one of the best take a presnt home for the kids (or grand-kids) gift shops in Nevada. It's railroad oriented,which means there's something here for everyone (does anyone have too many striped engineer's caps?), but with a strong emphasis on delighting the kids.

The Childrens Museum
813 N. Carson Street. Open Tuesday through Thrusday, 11-4. Admission: Adults, $4; under 12, $2; under 2 free. This venerable building was once Carson City's library, but there's no shushing inside these days, as toddlers through pre-teens find their way through this agreeable environment. A friendly hands-on entertainment for kids.

The Prison Store
East on Snyder Road past the Indian Museum, at the minimum security state penitentiary. Open daily. In the prison parking lot is a small store for inmate-made goods which may be purchased by the general public. Traditionally, inmates in the Nevada State Prison have knitted sweaters and tooled belts, wallets - even saddles - to order, and the inmate clerk can make arrangements for you. The store is small and the stock is relatively limited, but the souvenir value is as high as ever.

Great Basin Art Gallery
Nevada artists are showcased in this former stagecoach station behind the old Supreme Court Building at Second and Curry Streets. Besides the brilliant Nevada landscapes of co-proprietor Jeff Nicholson, the gallery exhibits the work of many fine contemporary Nevada painters, sculptors and photographers.

For all its 19th century appeal, the bright lights along Carson Street and the overwhelming presence of state government, Carson City really shines as a manufacturing center. Dozens of medium and small sized manufacturing firms have located in Carson City over the past 15 years. About 20% of Carson City's employment is now in manufacturing (compared to 5% for the state as a whole), a surprisingly high figure for a community 35 miles from the Interstate, with no railroad or regular air service. Some of the attraction may lie in the ski resorts in and around Lake Tahoe, but the large labor pool and relatively low wage scales and property prices are big attractions too. To see Carson City's industrial side, take Airport Road, turn north on Goni and east on Arrowhead; or take Roop Street south to Fairview and turn east.

All but a few of Carson City's hotels and motels lie along Carson Street (U.S. 395), and most of the rest are within a block or two. As elsewhere, the gambling houses shine the brightest: the Ormsby House has been restored to prominence, the nearby Carson Station and the Nugget a few blocks north have now been joined by the Piñon Plaza on the east side of town as the city's biggest gambling houses.

Carson City's revitalized historic district is a major attraction of the modern city.
The Ormsby House was missed during its long sleep, but while the capital's most metropolitan landmark was dark a nearby neighborhood was being transformed by a modern-day Abe Curry.

A shabby downtown block centered on the landmark St. Charles Hotel at Third and Carson Streets is now an inviting street of restaurants and shops. In a pleasantly modern way (asphalt, electric lights) the historic district is restored to life in something like its original style. Pop's Rib Houseand the chic Joe Garlic's (see the murals in the deepest of the dining rooms) face one another across Third Street, where a Farmer's Market is conducted one afternoon-into-the-evening each week in the summer.

The Carlson House, on Curry Street behind the old Supreme Court building, is an upbeat modern restaurant in the gloriously restored Rinckel Mansion. Food is served in the high-ceilinged dining rooms year around and in the outside gardens during warm weather.

A few steps north of the state Capitol are Garibaldi's and Nick's Pizza, both popular dining places. Keep going north past the Nugget to the elegantly, classically French Adele's in its doll house Victorian near the center of town. Sylvana's, a few blocks north on Carson Street, is just as decidedly Italian.

Some other favorites:

Breakfast at the Cracker Box at William Street (U.S. 50) and Stewart, hearty omelets and breakfasts designed for duck hunters and truck drivers. Scott's, Carson Street at Long, is a local family favorite, heavy on the hot cakes served by waitresses who call you hon.

For lunch a surprising number of ethnic traditions are represented. For a casual lunch I like the China Kitchen on north Carson Street. Ghenghis Khan, in the Crossroads Shopping Center just east of Winnie Lane, serves a varied buffet with Mongolian barbecue, and Amimoto in the Silver City shopping mall on the south side of town serves Japanese food.

For Mexican food try Mi Casa Too on far north Carson Street, Tito's at the center of town and Taqueria Las Salsa, authentic and informal, in the Warehouse Market shopping center on US 50 east.

Carson City has a busy schedule of events througout the year, but perhaps the most interesting ones for visitors are the Indian Pow-Wows at Stewart, and the annual Kit Carson Rendezvous, a wildly imaginative evocation of the frontier lifestyle that existed until the coming of the iron horse. A weekend event in early June, it offers an abundance of sights, sounds and flavors that can combine to produce sensory overload.

Carson City
Calendar of Annual Events

MARCH
Mother Earth Pow Wow775-882-1808

JUNE
Downtown A-Fair775-885-0411
Kit Carson Rendezvous/Wagon Train775-885-7491
Stewart Indian Museum Pow Wow775-882-1808
Comstock Bike Tour775-882-1565

JULY
Independence Day & Fireworks775-882-1565
Carson City Fair775-882-4460

OCTOBER
Chili Cook-Off775-293-2034
Nevada Day Parade & Contests775-882-1565
La Ka Le'l Ba Nevada Day Pow Wow775-882-1808

DECEMBER
Silver & Snowflake Tree Lighting775-885-0411

Welcome to Carson City

These businesses are pleased to welcome you

Art Galleries

GREAT BASIN GALLERY & FRAME
2nd & Curry Streets. 775-882-8505. A must-see, one of a kind Art Gallery located in Carson City's formidable historic district. Devoted to bringing the finest of Nevada art and artists, past and present, to the Reno-Carson-Tahoe area. Custom framing. Challenge us! Mon-Fri 10-6, Sat 10-4.

Casinos

PIÑON PLAZA CASINO & BOWLING CENTER.
2171 Highway 50 East. 775-885-9000. We're your place for 24-hour Southwestern fun! Slots. Video poker. Blackjack. Craps. Roulette. There's even a sportsbook, sports bar, and a fabulous buffet. You'll always find all the action here, our 32-lane bowling center is open 24 hours. Step into the Southwest and strike it rich at the Piñon Plaza!

Local Area Information

CARSON CITY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
1900 S. Carson Street. 775-885-1565 Nevada's Historic Capital. Stop by our Visitor Center for information on local and regional attractions and things to see and do. Also business and residential relocation material. Our Gift Shop has unique quality items on local and state history. Credit cards accepted.

Overnight Accommodations

Restaurants

CARLSON HOUSE RESTAURANT.
102 N. Curry Street. 775-888-2030. Casual dining in Carson City's second oldest residence, The Rinckel Mansion, built in 1876. Located one block west of the Nevada State Capitol in the heart of Carson City's historic district. Serving lunch and dinner daily from 11 a.m. Patio dining available in summer months. Full bar.

HEIDI's DUTCH MILL RESTAURANT.
1020 N. Carson Street. 775-882-0486. Heidi's Dutch Mill Restaurant has been a family spot in the heart of Carson City since 1935. Omelettes, fresh waffles, sandwiches and burgers abound. You'll see the windmill and V&T mural at Hwy 50 East and 395. Try CITY CAFE BAKERY for pastries, coffees, breads and sandwiches.

Shopping

THE TRADE BEAD.
1627 N. Carson Street. 775-883-8111. "A PLETHORA OF BEADS". Come in and explore our world wide inventory of old, new, antique and pre-historic beads. We have books and supplies for all you beading needs. We offer appraisal services. Open Tuesday-Saturday 10-6, Sunday 12-6, closed on Mondays.

Special Attractions

STEWART INDIAN CULTURAL CENTER.
5366 Snyder Ave. 775-882-1808. Home to the Cassinelli arrowhead collection, E.S. Curtis photogravures, traditional basketry, Indian School memorabilia, grinding rocks and unique Great Basin artifacts. Open 9-5:30 Mon-Sat; 9-4 Sun, admission free. Gift shop with a wide variety of Native American art and goods. Pow-wows in March and June.



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