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Churchill County
Other than Fallon's wonderful "Hearts O Gold" cantaloupes, Churchill County shares an equally talked about side with history seekers. It's no wonder that nearly all of its historical markers either focus or make mention of the Pony Express. In an arid, desolate county like this one, it's hard to fathom yourself as one of the riders, traversing a remote, open landscape with almost no end in sight. What the riders wouldn't have given for a piece of blacktop like US 50, a solid line of direction in a robust sea of sagebrush. This is a county where history can hide without many worries from a modern world. Churchill is home to more ghost towns than perhaps any other county in the state! Look on any old map and try to count the many 'shot in the dark' camps that sprang up overnight and died just a few years later. A person could literally spend his entire life just discovering Churchill. It's a county most people just fly through without much notice. Most of the county's markers are accessed via US 50, so Fallon provides a nice base to work from. Fallon's a fast growing community, some say a soon-to-be bedroom community of Reno like Fernley and Sparks. Fallon has numerous motels, casinos and restaurants, a full-fledged "oasis" in the middle of an arid desert. From the Forty Mile Desert to the county courthouse to New Pass Station and Wagon Jack Shelter, prepare for lots of fun in this wild county!
~ Pony Express Route... Just follow US 50!
~ Home to several ruins of Pony Express Stations
~ Agriculture King of Nevada... dubbed "Nevada's Salad Bowl"
Tucked away at the furthest west of Nevada's rural outback, Churchill County is a place of much history and celebration. It's name is derived from Fort Churchill, a post office actually in Lyon County that was established on October 9, 1860. The Fort was named in honor of General Sylvester Churchill of Vermont. Although the fort itself cannot be claimed as Churchill's, the county nonetheless revolves around what is used to be, a travel corridor to get from end to the other. We're talking about the famed route of the great Pony Express Trail, which is today roughly paralleled by US 50 for almost its entire length across the county. Few other places beat Churchill County in it's collection of perhaps the best standing remains of Pony Express Stations, including one... Cold Springs Station which is only accessible via a 2 mile hike from the highway. After the 'death' of the Trail, the turn of the century brought hope for Churchill County's arid desert land when the Newlands Project of 1902 was erected, a system of canals and dams responsible for diverting water to create what is now known as "Nevada's Salad Bowl". That's right, Fallon and Churchill County is home to thousands of acres of farmland, the state's largest source of agriculture. Soon afterward, Fallon was born and quickly became the county seat and one of the few communities in Nevada strictly founded on farming.
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