Welcome to Lander County!
Lander County was one of the original nine counties created in 1861. Named for Frederick W. Lander; chief engineer of a federal wagon route through the area in 1857. He later served as Special Indian Agent in the area, and died during the Civil War in Virginia in 1862 at the rank of brigadier general. Created in 1861, Lander County sprang forth as the result of a mining boom on the Reese River, along the old pony express line; taking a considerable portion of Churchill and Humboldt counties with it. Eventually, Lander County would be known as the "mother of counties" since three other counties in Nevada were formed from it: Elko, White Pine, and Eureka. Its first county seat was Jacobsville in 1862 which was soon after moved to Austin in 1863 and finally Battle Mountain in 1979.1 (photograph of courthouse at Lander)
"The Pony Express played an important role in Lander County's development. A number of stations were established in the county, and one of them, Jacksonville, became the first county seat. It was a Pony Express employee from Jacksonville that made the first Austin discoveries." Other stations identified include Dry Creek Station (Capehorn Overland Station), Jacobsville (Jacobs Spring, Jacobs Well, Jacobs Station, Reese River Station), Simpson Park, and Smith Creek Station (Maestretti, Edward Creek).2
Present-day communities include Austin, Battle Mountain and Kingston.
Census Records
History by Angel Myron, 1881
Sources
1Wikipedia, retreived December 3, 2014
2Shawn Hall, "Romancing Nevada's Past/Ghost Towns and Historical Sites of Eureka, Lander, and White Pine Counties;" University of Nevada Press, Reno, Nevada, 1994.
The background tartan in the footer logo is the Nevada State Tartan, adopted in 2001.
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