The Legend of Snowshoe Thompson - Exploring Genoa Cemetery, Nevada

located along the old emigrant trail that brought pilgrims to the gold fields of California the town of Genoa was the first permanent settlement in what is now the state of Nevada it was founded by Mormon pioneers in 1851 as a trading post but as more people passed through the area many decided to stay and Genoa began to thrive sawmills and blacksmith shops opened for business along with stores and ends and it wasn't long before regular postal service was established the town is said to be named after Genoa Italy the birthplace of Christopher Columbus however locally it is pronounced Genoa in 1861 it briefly served as the first capital of the Nevada Territory and was home to its first newspaper the territorial Enterprise just outside of town situated among the pines on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains is a quiet graveyard that we are about to explore come walk with me in to Genoa Cemetery and meet those who built the highways and byways to the future and transformed a wilderness into a civilization unless you know where to look Genoa Cemetery is nearly invisible from Jax Valley Road that passes in front of it there are no lofty obelisks or mausoleums here to point the way but below the shrubs and Pines are the enduring memories of a proud community caddy Rowland Smith was the only child of the editor of the Genoa Courier newspaper and was said to be a boy of unusual intellect on a hot summer's afternoon he and five other boys were swimming near a dam in the Carson River when tragedy struck the heartbreaking loss was deeply felt throughout the tight-knit community caddies Woodmen of the world tree stone features a carefully placed straw hat and a pair of shoes left as if waiting for their owner to finish swimming and reclaim them another Woodman tree stone belongs to edgar seaman who was the deputy sheriff of Genoa up until his untimely death at age 30 here is a group of tree stones the severed trunks dramatically symbolize a life cut short and the ivy represents immortality esra jarvis seen on the right is said to be the only veteran of the civil war who's buried here the cemetery has two sections designated for the Odd Fellows and the Masons their headstones are commonly marked with the organization symbols such as three chain links for The Odd Fellows and the square and compass for the Masons a fine example is the headstone of Henry camp he owned a prosperous farm on the eastern Fork of the Carson River and was a prominent figure in the community according to his obituary in the Reno Gazette camps friends noticed a sudden pattern of erratic behavior in the months leading up to his mysterious suicide the first recorded burial was Luis cosa in 1866 the headstone we see today is only a memorial the exact location of his grave is unknown many of the original markers were fashioned from whatever was at hand it might have been a scrap of lumber a boulder or a pile of rocks as a result a lot of Genoa's original wooden markers or fences didn't survive chances are if you find anything in the cemetery made of wood like this fence around the grave of Adam Lantz it was put here sometime in the last 80 years the reason is that sometime in the 1930s a WPA work project came through to clear the cemetery of dry-brush in doing so they also gathered most of the wooden markers and burned them with the weeds before anyone in town knew what was happening it was too late finely carved headstones didn't appear until the 1870s when stone cutters set up shop in nearby Reno and Carson City that is also the time that elaborate cast-iron grave enclosures were in vogue a fine example of this work is the grave of Friedrich fridge the enclosure as well as the headstone feature weeping willow trees a common victorian symbol of mourning more examples of stonecutter art can be seen in Gesine forever it's headstone right beside it is the stone for Wilhemina and friedrich forever and again we see the weeping willow tree and here is the Masonic headstone of Rufus Adams which brings us to the plot of the first family of Genoa john quincy adams of genoa nevada was a descendant of the second and six presidents of the united states and although they shared the same blood politics was not as calling instead he followed the path of the sun and tried his hand at placer mining during the California Gold Rush not having much luck he settled near Genoa and took up ranching not long after his arrival a rich vein of silver ore was discovered a few miles away near mount Davidson the strike became forever known as the Comstock Lode and it brought thousands of hopeful prospectors into the area the influx of people created a building boom and Adams utilized the red clay soil on his ranch to make bricks Adams as bricks were used in many historic buildings throughout the area that still survived including the Genoa courthouse and the Carson City mint the nation founding spirit of Adams illustrious ancestors was put to work in Genoa where it continues to flourish up to the present day and part of their legacy can be found right here among their friends and neighbors and this plot is judge Daniel Webster virgin and his wife Mary they were early pioneers of the Carson Valley Daniel was elected District Attorney of Douglas County in 1870 and held that office for the next three decades judge virgin was part of the movement that steered the Nevada Territory towards statehood in 1864 before law and order was established the mining districts attracted all sorts of villainy robberies assault arson and murder were common occurrences and its citizens were forced to either submit or to take justice into their own hands such as the story of Henry Van Sickle who owned a weigh station where Pony Express riders changed horses in the early 1860s the Carson Valley was terrorized by Sam Brown a criminal of the lowest order who in the manner of all cowards preyed upon the timid and weak once in a Virginia City saloon he gutted a man with a bowie knife for the sin of being intoxicated in his presence for more than a year he had a free hand in the valley until he paid a visit to Van Sickle station on the night of July 6th 1861 seeing the station's proprietor standing on the front porch Brown fired two errant shots at him without provocation Brown then rode away expecting the usual cowering response from his victim but he was soon to discover that he crossed the wrong man Van Sickle armed himself with pistols and a shotgun then gave chase to his attacker the pursuit lasted until early the next morning when Van Sickle cornered Brown at a safe house and ended his reign of terror with both barrels of a shotgun when Sam Brown's demise was announced in the newspaper the story began with the words the community will rejoice to hear of the merited fate of one desperado Henry Van Sickle lived in the Carson Valley until his death in 1894 at age 72 by then he had become a prosperous rancher and businessman but his obituary recalled the night thirty-three years earlier when he put bad man Sam Brown in his grave in my explorations I have seen headstone epitaphs describe how its owner met their end in the case of young John McCoy and Anaheim Cemetery it came as the result of a terrible farm accident and here is Frederick breed in LA's Evergreen Cemetery he was killed in a rail disaster but this is the first time I have ever seen or heard of someone's headstone being the cause of their death and it belongs to Bill's urn he was part owner in the Shultz earn gold mine located in the pine nut mountains east of Genoa the story goes that on June 6th 1896 bill was using a pickaxe to loosen and overhanging Boulder near the entrance of the mine when it unexpectedly broke loose a helper named Portuguese Frank rushed to his aid but it was too late the quartz boulder weighing one tonne fell on Bill crushing his legs and chest Portuguese Frank reached him in time to see him take his last few breaths Bill's urn was fifty years of age when his body was laid to rest in Genoa Cemetery his headstone was cut from the same piece of quartz that killed him no care was taken to make it look pretty you can still see the jack marks made when the stone was cut nor did anyone inscribe a fitting epitaph it simply bears the name bill the deep divisions caused by the American Civil War did not only affect those living in the East but spread like wildfire across an entire continent the journals of the American West are filled with accounts of neighbor fighting neighbor over the causes of the war an example of this can be found in the story of Thomas ah drain a missourian who moved West after the discovery of gold in 1860 he built a way station south of Lake Tahoe at Echo Summit five years later when news of President Lincoln's assassination reached Nevada the outspoken Thomas aa dream carelessly spoke words that mirrored those uttered by John Wilkes Booth for his candid but poorly timed remark he narrowly escaped lynching instead his offended neighbors burned his way station to the ground despite the differences with his neighbors he lived in the area until his death in 1886 lekha drain near Tahoe was named in his memory this white marble obelisk with cupola belongs to David and Harriet Walley in 1862 they advertised the area's natural mineral Hot Springs to ease sore muscles and to cure ailments such as arthritis and rheumatism they built a forty room hotel and spa that included every modern amenities available at the time including a first-class restaurant soon it became a draw for such illustrious guests as Mark Twain and presidents ulysses s grant and Theodore Roosevelt in 1934 bank robber George babyface Nelson used Wally's hot springs as a hideaway for several weeks before moving on to Chicago where he was killed in a gun battle with FBI agents after David Wally's death in 1875 his widow Harriet ran the Hotel and Spa until her own passing in 1897 and today over 150 years after it opened wally still receives guests and is an enduring testament to the vision of its founders who rest nearby after serving his country in the Mexican War William cradle ba moved west and settled in the Carson Valley in 1861 he built the cradle ba bridge over the Carson River shortening the distance from Carson City to the mining districts and Esmerelda County to the south cradle ba also constructed a waterwheel along the river that inspired an innovative young man named George Ferris years later he adapted the design although on a mammoth scale for his invention of a 264 foot tall observation wheel that debuted at the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893 this rare film footage taken by the Lumiere brothers in 1896 shows George ferris wheel in operation to this day Ferris wheels remain a popular form of amusement that oh a small part of their existence to William Cradle Baz waterwheel on the Carson River [Music] winters in the Sierra Nevada mountains are some of the harshest on earth and have spelled death for many able-bodied explorers no story better illustrates this than the tragedy of the Donner Party they were a band of 90 pioneers on their way to California and after many setbacks and delays they went into the mountains in November 1846 and became snow bound in the worst winter on record by the time the last of the survivors left the Sierras five months later forty-one of their number had perished due to starvation sickness and exposure some had resorted to cannibalism in order to stay alive years later this photo was taken where the Donner Party made camp the trunks of trees they cut down for firewood graphically illustrate the snow level that terrible winter in those early days of westward migration winter turned the Sierras into an impassable barrier effectively shutting down all transit in and out of California for months but somehow this forbidding Alpine land was mastered by a lone hero whose job was to deliver the mail in 1855 the postmaster of Placerville California ran an advertisement in the Sacramento Union newspaper looking for expressman to carry the mail to the isolated community of Genoa that was 90 miles away over the Sierra Mountains deliveries had to be made during the winter and the carrier would have to brave the same weather conditions suffered by the Donner Party not many answered the call but one who did was a six-foot tall Norwegian immigrant named John Thompson he arrived in Placerville On January 3rd 1856 equipped with homemade long skis card from Oak that were of the type he used in Norway to protect himself against the elements he wore a thick woollen shirt and a wide-brimmed hat for food he brought dried meats and crackers and that was about it when filled his mail sack weighed as much as 100 pounds so things like a blanket or firearm were not carried because of the extra weight as he started out over the mountains with his strange snowshoes people placed bets on whether he turned back early or if they'd ever again see him alive to the astonishment of all Thompson returned to Placerville five days later carrying correspondence and news from Genoa he just accomplished what no one else could and came through it unscathed and he continued to do so at least twice a month for the next 20 winters he had an uncanny sense of direction kept by observing the rocks and trees at night he navigated by moonlight and used the Stars to guide him towards his destination you can't get lost he said if you keep your wits about you his trips over the mountains were fraught with dangers not only from the weather but from Indians and wild animals he claimed to have been frightened on only one occasion when he came upon a pack of Timberwolves feasting on a deer carcass as he raced by at great speed the Wolves sat on their haunches and watched him pass before returning to their meal Thompson not only carried the mail from medicines to news type for the territorial Enterprise newspaper and even the first or samples that confirm the discovery of the Comstock Lode if it fit into his rucksack he carried it he is also credited for saving the lives of stranded travelers most famously on Christmas Eve 1856 he came upon the cabin of James Sisson who was trapped inside by the weather for 12 days he subsisted on raw flour and when found his feet were frozen in their boots Thompson raced down to the Carson Valley and returned with a rescue party and when it was determined that the unfortunate man's feet would have to be amputated Thompson traveled back across the mountains to procure the needed chloroform forever after he was called snowshoe Thompson for the skis he wore and on both sides of the Sierra Mountains legends grew about him that were worthy of his biking forefathers but astonishingly during all the years he carried the mail he hadn't fought to ask for a contract and so was never paid by the postal service despite the absence of compensation the thought of quitting never crossed his mind with the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 the mail was conveyed by train but during the fiercest storms when the Iron Horse couldn't make it through the Sierras snowshoe Thompson was there and saw to it that the mail was delivered after years of defying the elements of cutting through mountain passes at frightening speeds and making jumps of over 100 feet all without incident John Thompson died on May 15th 1876 from pneumonia following appendicitis his eulogy at the Genoa courthouse was concluded with the following remarks he was possessed of Herculean strength with nerves of steel and an iron will but with a heart susceptible of the kindest feelings the bravest hearts they said are often the tenderest Thompson's Widow Agnes had the snowy-white headstone placed over his grave and carved upon it are the snowshoes that bridged the wintery gap that otherwise would have isolated an entire community from the world [Music] [Music] every cemetery has a character of its own at first sight Genoa might seem neglected or forgotten but nothing could be further from the truth although the grounds are not manicured lawns of lush green grass the graves are tended to and everywhere tokens are left as a sign that people have been here otherwise the cemetery exists in a rugged state befitting the community's origins as an outpost on the edge of civilization some of its most regular visitors are the wildlife that come down from the surrounding forest to mingle with the ghosts of the past there is a common inscription found on old headstones that goes something like this deer is the place where loved ones sleep and sweet are the strains that angels pour oh why should we in anguish weep for they are not lost but gone before Genoa's history is one of endurance it is lasted because the spirit of the pioneers who laid its foundations was passed down from generation to generation so that to this day Jeannot UNS who are living descendants of those in this graveyard continue to walk in the footsteps of those who have gone before at the beginning of our exploration i said that there are no lofty obelisks or mausoleums here but we are so seldom equal to the monuments we erect to ourselves for if the toil and sacrifice of those buried here could be fittingly matched in marble the monuments would rival the mountains but frame it if your travels should bring you to this part of Nevada be sure to stop and pay a visit to Genoa knowing that you're standing in the place where it all began [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Grave Explorations

Views: 17,112

Rating: 4.9667773 out of 5

Keywords: Lake Tahoe, skiing, Donner Party

Id: 8XMe7YimrHo

Length: 27min 36sec (1656 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 16 2019