Cherry Creek School

20 Wednesday Jul 2022

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Cherry Creek, Historic Buildings, Historic Markers, Nevada, Schools, White Pine County

Cherry Creek School

Built when Cherry Creek was founded in 1872, it is one of the two oldest standing Nevada schoolhouses. In November 1894 a dispute between Pat Green and Pat Dolan over the building’s location turned violent with Dolan killing Green in a gunfight. With successful mining operations the area population grew to 6000 people and a peak enrollment of 56 students. In 1901 a lantern was fueled with gasoline and exploded. The fire burned several buildings nearly destroying the schoolhouse. After the last class in 1941, the building was used as a post office until 1971. Acquired by Walter Campbell in 1994, the schoolhouse has been converted into a museum.

This historic marker was dedicated June 12, 1999 by the Lucinda Jane Saunders chapter 1881 of E Clampus Vitus.

E Clampus Vitus Markers
Cherry Creek, Nevada

Cherry Creek and Egan Canyon

20 Wednesday Jul 2022

Posted by Jacob Barlow in Uncategorized

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Tags

Cherry Creek, Historic Markers, Nevada, Nevada Historic Markers

Cherry Creek and Egan Canyon

The town of Cherry Creek before you was part of a network of mining districts that operated in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including the Gold Canyon district in Egan Canyon, five miles to the south.

Peter Corning and John Carpenter helped start the town of Cherry Creek when they staked the Tea Cup gold claim in 1872, resulting in a boom and the development of a town. At the town’s peak in 1882, it boasted a population of over 1,800. While production fluctuated, Cherry Creek continued to produce gold and silver ore into the 1940s.

Egan Canyon to the south was part of the 1855 route established by Howard Egan and the Mormon Battalion, and surveyed for use in 1859 by the U.S. Army. By 1860, the Pony Express placed a change station at the west opening of the canyon. Between 1861 and 1869, Butterfield’s Overland Mail and Stage established a station here that grew into a small temporary town.

In 1863, soldiers from Fort Ruby discovered gold in the canyon, leading to the creation of the town of Egan and a mining district. By 1865 there were three stamp mills in Egan processing ore from the district. Like Cherry Creek, to the north, Egan boomed and busted into the 1920s before mining ceased.