7 Stunning Small Towns In Nevada
The Genoa Bar in the Carson Valley has been pouring drinks since 1853, and most of its wooden interior, mirror, and fixtures are original to the building. Other Nevada small towns have held onto similar specific anchors. Piper's Opera House in Virginia City still stages performances in its 1885 building, which once hosted Mark Twain when he was writing for the local Territorial Enterprise. Tonopah's 1907 Mizpah Hotel still operates and runs ghost tours every evening. The seven Nevada towns below cover the state from the alpine north shore of Lake Tahoe at Incline Village through the Hoover Dam-era planned community of Boulder City, the federal-built mining town of Austin on Highway 50, and the Spring Mountains alpine community of Mount Charleston.
Tonopah
Tonopah sits on US Routes 6 and 95 about midway between Reno and Las Vegas, with no other towns of significant size for a hundred miles in any direction. The Tonopah Historic Mining Park preserves the original 1900-era silver mining camp on a 100-acre site at the edge of town, with above-ground headframes, original stamp mill machinery, and underground tunnels open to walk-through tours. The Mizpah Hotel, opened in 1907, was the tallest building in Nevada at the time of its construction; it operates today and runs ghost tours every evening covering the resident "Lady in Red" legend. The Tonopah Brewing Company on Main Street pours locally produced beer and serves smoked barbecue. The town also has one of the best-rated stargazing reserves in the lower 48: the absence of light pollution makes Tonopah a regular destination for amateur astronomers.
Incline Village
Incline Village sits on the northeast shore of Lake Tahoe at about 6,200 feet elevation, on the Nevada side of the state line that runs through the lake. Diamond Peak Ski Resort, owned and operated by the Incline Village General Improvement District, has 1,840 vertical feet and 30 trails on the mountain immediately above town. The Tahoe East Shore Trail, a paved three-mile path completed in 2019, runs from Incline Village south along the lake's most photographed eastern shoreline, with overlooks at Sand Harbor and Memorial Point and several closed coves accessible by short detours. The Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe and the Lone Eagle Grille on its lakefront beach handle the high end of the town's lodging and dining.
Boulder City
Boulder City was built in 1931 by the federal government to house the workers constructing Hoover Dam, and it remains one of only two Nevada cities where gambling is illegal by city ordinance (the other is Panaca). The Boulder Dam Hotel, built in 1933 to house dignitaries during the dam's construction, is still in operation and houses the Boulder City-Hoover Dam Museum on its second floor, with exhibits on the construction and the lives of the men and women who worked on it. Hoover Dam itself, ten minutes east, runs daily tours that descend into the dam's interior. The Historic Railroad Trail, a paved seven-mile rail-trail along the route of the original construction railway, runs through five tunnels along the cliff above Lake Mead.
Genoa
Genoa, in the Carson Valley about 13 miles south of Carson City, was settled in 1851 as a Mormon trading post on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada and is recognized as the oldest permanent non-Indigenous settlement in Nevada. The Genoa Bar and Saloon, in operation since 1853, is the oldest bar in the state; the wooden interior, mirror, and most of the fixtures date to the 1860s, and the bar has been used as a filming location for several westerns. Mormon Station State Historic Park preserves a reconstructed log trading post on the site of the original 1851 station, with a small museum and grounds used for community events including the Genoa Americana Celebration each Fourth of July. The Genoa Courthouse Museum on the main street covers Pony Express and territorial-era history.
Austin
Austin sits on US Highway 50, the road Life magazine famously called "The Loneliest Road in America" in 1986. The town was founded in 1862 after a Pony Express rider's horse kicked up a chunk of silver ore on Pony Canyon, setting off a brief rush that put the population over 10,000 within a year. The current population is about 200. Three churches built in the 1860s (St. Augustine's Catholic, the Methodist Church, and St. George's Episcopal) remain standing. Stokes Castle, a three-story stone tower built in 1897 by mining magnate Anson Phelps Stokes as a summer house, sits on a ridge above town with open views across the Reese River Valley. Spencer Hot Springs, about 20 miles east on graded dirt road, is a free, undeveloped hot spring with two metal soaking tubs and views of the Toiyabe Range; bring water and a towel.
Mount Charleston
The Mount Charleston community sits about 35 miles northwest of Las Vegas in the Spring Mountains, climbing from 7,000 feet at the entrance to over 8,500 feet at the upper village. The temperature drops by 25 to 30 degrees from the desert floor, which makes Mount Charleston the standard summer escape for the Las Vegas Valley. Mount Charleston itself (technically Charleston Peak) is the highest point in southern Nevada at 11,918 feet. Lee Canyon Ski and Snowboard Resort, on the mountain's north slope, runs lifts from late November through early April with the southernmost ski area in the contiguous United States. The Cathedral Rock Trailhead and the Mary Jane Falls Trail are two of the more popular summer hikes, both starting from Kyle Canyon.
Virginia City
Virginia City sits at 6,200 feet on Mount Davidson, above the Comstock Lode that produced the silver and gold rush of the 1860s and 1870s. At its peak the city had a population of around 25,000; today it sits around 850 year-round. The entire downtown is a National Historic Landmark District. Piper's Opera House, built in its current 1885 form after two earlier buildings burned, hosted Mark Twain (who began his journalism career as a reporter at the local Territorial Enterprise), Buffalo Bill Cody, and Al Jolson; it still stages performances. The Washoe Club Saloon and Museum runs ghost tours and overnight investigations through its 19th-century interiors. The Virginia & Truckee Railroad runs heritage steam excursions south to Carson City between Memorial Day and Halloween.
Nevada is more than its two big metropolitan areas. The seven towns above frame the rest of the state from very different angles: alpine on Lake Tahoe, basin-and-range on Highway 50, mining-era preservation on the Comstock, dam-era planned community south of Vegas. Most are reachable on a long weekend from Reno or Las Vegas, and the drives between them through the open Great Basin landscape are part of why Nevada draws the people who notice it.
