Winnemucca, NV for the Night...

For our first real night on our road trip, we found ourselves in the interesting town of Winnemucca.

The site of modern-day Winnemucca has been important to Nevada since the first explorers traversed the region in the late 1820s. It later became a critical place for early settlers, and marked the point at which the immigrant trail headed south toward the Sierra Nevada passes.

The town began to flourish in 1868, when Charles Crocker, of the Central Pacific Railroad, deemed it a good place for the railway to intersect with stage lines that ran both north and south. It was about this time that the town was named after Chief Winnemucca, a respected Paiute leader. By 1870, a modern town of 290 citizens had emerged, and in 1872 it was designated as the seat of Humboldt County.

A must for me is always a town's Pioneer Cemetery. This one was once very large but many grave sites were moved to the new cemetery when it became available and when highway construction actually crossed the cemetery. What remains is just a few resting souls, but it is still a place worth visiting.

But wait, the town's big claim to fame (which has recently been debunked) is the Winnemucca Bank Robbery which occurred on September 19, 1900. Three men, from the Hole in the Wall Gang, entered the First National Bank and robbed it. The thieves then escaped on horseback, and were never apprehended. For many years, Butch Cassidy was said to have been one of the robbers. Based on Cassidy's known whereabouts at the time, it is unlikely that he was in Winnemucca (though the town still hosts Butch Cassidy Days, drawing thousands of visitors). Fun thought!

This is a town of contradictions.

Just look at the amazing courthouse, built in 1921. Designed by the very famous Nevada architect, Frederick J. DeLongchamps, who also did George Whittell's Thunderbird Lodge, on Lake Tahoe's east shore.