NEVADA FOCUS: What pioneers have to say about Old Mormon Station’s location

Friday, Jan. 31, 2003 | 7:21 a.m.

Here are verbatim written statements, including parenthetical comments and misspellings, by seven pioneers concerning the location of Old Mormon Station in 1850 - and the year the pioneers made them. Some refer to John Reese, who built a permanent settlement also known as Mormon Station in 1851 in what is now Genoa:

-"In Genoa we settled right west of Reese's place, where he afterwards built his sawmill. My place was about 50 yards from the place where built his trading post. We put up a log cabin." 1884. H.S. Beatie, an Old Mormon Station clerk who paid a return visit to Genoa in 1855.

-"I being the best acqainted with country, took them back to wheare Genoa now is. There was no better place on the river..." 1890s. Abner Blackburn, an Old Mormon Station partner.

-"At this place in 1850, there was a trading post a little way off mine ... I bought the log cabin afterward that they had. I don't think it had any name, it was only about 1/2 mile from mine. (My claim was different from that)." 1884. John Reese.

-Stephen Kinsey "visited the head of that valley ... until arriving at the place known in 1850 as Mormon Station. He concluded that it was the most favorable point for a trading-post in that section of country; and camping, remained there until Mr. Reese arrived with the train ... Immediately upon their arrival at Mormon Station the building of a log cabin was commenced ..." 1881. Based on statement to Thompson and West's "History of the State of Nevada" by Kinsey, Reese's nephew and partner who spent the rest of his life in Genoa until his death in 1903.

-"The Mormon Station (the present Genoa) was founded in June, 1850, by Salt Lake Mormons. I arrived at that station about July 20, 1850, and stayed there to rest one day ... They claimed a section of land, including the grass plat where S.A. Kinsey's orchard and house now stand." 1880. Robert Lyon, a California-bound pioneer who later lived in the Genoa area.

-"On my arrival in Carson Valley, I staked off a quarter section of land and commenced a permanent settlement ... The land to which I then made claim now contains the town of Genoa." 1874. George Chorpenning, a postal pioneer who some historians say took possession of Old Mormon Station in 1851.

-"We drove on to a little creek, with fine bottom land and stopped at a place near Lake Tahoe, now called Genoa. We were there three weeks waiting for the snow to disappear from the mountains ... After this delay we left Mormon Station (now Genoa)..." Later memoir, Thomas Orr Jr., a California-bound pioneer who visited Genoa in 1850.