Genoa, Nevada (pronounced je-NO-a) might be the most American town ever, right down to its assocation with the most American religion ever. Genoa was founded as Mormon Station by Latter Day Saints, but it was more than just a town. It was a strategic outpost in the church's claim to the great and powerful state of Deseret stretching from Salt Lake to the Pacific Ocean. The Saint, like many despised religious minorities, utilized trade as a way to become indispensable to their enemies. The settlers who reached the base of the Sierra Nevada would be less discriminate about heretics and blasphemers in order to replenish their supplies. The mixture of religion and empire could not have been more American.
The road to wealth shifted north after the discovery of the Comstock lode, a mass of silver named after a man whose cultural relevance would flatter his ego. The Saints were recalled to fight - and lose - the Utah War against the United States government, The pragmatism born of this experience correlates well with the future of this town, renamed Genoa in the wake of antebellum hostility to the Saints of God - the name Mormon Station seemed less friendly after the growing consciousness by Gentiles of Mormon elite polygamy. The local Washo no doubt did not appreciate the racial theology of the Church, but the white settlers, even the Gentiles, would not have cared.
The town of Genoa suffered the fate of nearly all strategic settlements and many genre books - passed over for the new exciting places such as Virginia City, the Disneyland of ghost towns. Genoa was still, however, on a critical trade route. Its most ephemeral instance might be its most famous - the Pony Express. The Pony Express lasted less than a year, eclipsed by the railroad, but its media portrayal in the Young Riders lasted thrice as long - much like the eleven-year Korean War in the universe of MASH. Distorting the past to reflect on the present is not unique to America. It is, however, quite popular.
Genoa also had the honor of experiencing another of America's small town pasttimes - budget woes. When the town installed the first streetlight, the annual budget was already settled - it did not include the nineteenth century equivalent of high speed rail. The splendidly name Mrs.Virgin, therefore, recruited her friends to have a bake sale to fund the light. This instance of necessity became an annual tradition and quickly turned into a party. You can still attend.
Genoa had another brush with fame when a local boy made good at the Chicago World's Fair, the birthplace of American industrial miracles, Mr. Ferris had observed the water wheel in Genoa and thought "what if I made it bigger and more fun?" The American obsession with size is not just a contemporary phenomenon. There were many challenges to the construction of the first Ferris Wheel in the wastelands of Chicago - metal fatigue and frozen mud being foremost. Yet he succeeded in creating one of the most iconic fairground rides of early twentieth century America.
Genoa also experienced the youth-oriented aspect of America the Great - inadequate education, The lack of schooling perturbed some of the ladies of the great town of Genoa, so a brief academy was established before a true school system could exist. The old courthouse eventually became the schoolhouse, a circumstance about which the students therein no doubt made many tasteless jokes.
Just as the fortunes of Genoa shifted with the times, so too, early on, did the boundary. The initial placement of the boundary marker between California and Nevada in Genoa was deemed inaccurate. The original surveyor, therefore, moved it, but not very far and not up the mountain slope. Perhaps we should not be too harsh on him, since there were many errors, accidental and intentional, in establishing boundaries of territory and state.
Genoa reflects the quirks, both good and bad, of the American experience, from the Latter Day Saints to boom and bust economies to shortfalls in education and utilities to the local boy who gave his name to something famous. If any of these aspects intrigues you, I urge you to visit Genoa yourself. If you enjoyed this or have any comments or questions, feel free to contact me. There is much I have omitted and I would love to talk more about this corner of the world.
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