Genoa is listed online as the ghost town. But it is pretty much alive. Founded in 1851, it was the first settlement in what became the Nevada Territory.
Located within the Utah Territory before the Nevada Territory was created in 1861, Genoa was first settled by Mormon pioneers. The settlement originated as a trading post called Mormon Station, which served as a respite for travelers on the California Trail.
Genoa, General View, 1890, Genoa, Douglas County, NV (2)
Orson Hyde, an elder in the Mormon Church, was sent to “Mormon Station”, Utah Territory, to set up a government, survey the town into lots, and define the state line between California and Utah Territory. He renamed Mormon Station “Genoa” in 1855. As the story goes, Hyde admired Christopher Columbus and so named the town site “Genoa” after Columbus’s birth place, Genoa, Italy(1).
Genoa also claims to have the oldest saloon in Nevada:
In the center of the town there is Morman Station Restored log stockade and trading post. It was built in 1851 for pioneers to rest before continuing over the Sierra Nevada to California. Inside the building is a small Genoa history Museum.
Original building of the station which was destroyed in 1910
2017 photos of the town:
