Huffaker’s

Before the arrival, 1858, of Granville W. Huffaker driving 500 head of cattle into the Truckee Meadows, the principal settlers were Mormons. The Comstock Lode and its mining needs focused attention on the valley. Huffaker established his ranch in 1859. Langton’s stage line and the first post office were functioning by 1862. For ten years, Huffaker’s was a most active stage-stop and a center for a community. The schoolhouse was constructed in 1868. Bachelors of a jolly nature gathered here for dancing, horse-racing and “land squabbles”. The Athenian Literary Society flourished for the more cultured. In 1875, the “Bonanza Kings” completed their pacific lumber and flume operation from the Lake Tahoe Basin. For fifteen miles, trestled logs were propelled “by waters rushing faster than any train”. At the terminus of the flume, the Virginia and Truckee Railroad opened a depot and telegraph office and constructed a spur where workers transferred timber.

STATE HISTORICAL MARKER No. 238

DIVISION OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION AND ARCHEOLOGY