Genoa, Nevada's oldest settlement

Soon gold coins begun to circulate in the area, which had been minted in the church mint of Salt Lake City. Three years later, the Mormon settlement was proclaimed the seat of Carson County, belonging to Utah under the control of Prophet Brigham Young, the Mormon church leader. He sent a group of 30 men to establish a Mormon mission for the church. These men build a 150 square foot adobe brick fort, which gave the village the name Mormon Fort. Later, in 1856, the settlement was officially named Genoa. In 1857, the Pioneer Stage Line became the first stage to navigate the Sierras, travelling once a month from Placerville to Genoa with passengers and mail. A telegraph line soon followed the same route. At the same time, the Mormons abandoned their mission after political fighting among the mission leadership.

Genoa, Nevadas oldest town and saloon Snow, Deer and Whiskey
There is more then the lake or the casinos to the Tahoe/Reno region. One example is the tiny town of Genoa, about half an hour from Reno or 45 minutes from Lake Tahoe. Mentioned as the oldest town in Nevada founded in 1851, it is also home to the oldest, still operating Saloon.	Genoa in snow, picturesque located on the slopes of Tahoe's Sierra Nevada mountain range, not far from Lake Tahoe
Genoa is one of the most attractive little villages in the American west, established as a trading post in 1851. It served as a resting place for settlers wagon trains after they crossed the great basin of the Salt Lake valley to reprovision before they take on the granite mountains of the Sierra Nevadas. Initially it was just called the Mormon station after the Mormons, who also build a blacksmith shop, a saw mill, a general store, a hotel and a corral. Also, gold had been found nearby in Gold Canyon near present day Dayton.
Soon gold coins begun to circulate in the area, which had been minted in the church mint of Salt Lake City. Three years later, the Mormon settlement was proclaimed the seat of Carson County, belonging to Utah under the control of Prophet Brigham Young, the Mormon church leader. He sent a group of 30 men to establish a Mormon mission for the church. These men build a 150 square foot adobe brick fort, which gave the village the name Mormon Fort. Later, in 1856, the settlement was officially named Genoa. In 1857, the Pioneer Stage Line became the first stage to navigate the Sierras, travelling once a month from Placerville to Genoa with passengers and mail. A telegraph line soon followed the same route. At the same time, the Mormons abandoned their mission after political fighting among the mission leadership.	In 1861, the region was separated from Utah by an Act of Congress and adapted the name Nevada, Spanish for "Snow Capped". When President Lincoln needed money for the civil war and more electoral votes for the November 1864 election, Nevada was made the 36th state, although it did not have enough people to constitutionally authorize statehood. By that time Genoa's importance was greatly reduced by towns such as Virginia City, Carson City and through the Comstock mines. According to the story, half of Genoa's business district burnt down in 1910, when a poor farmer tried to get rid of bedbugs by fumigating his mattress with a burning pan of sulfur. About 50 original buildings are left today. <page 2>