Jacobsville, Nevada

Jacobsville[3] is a ghost town located in Lander County, Nevada, six miles west[4] of Austin, on the east bank of Reese River, 0.7 mi N of US 50.[3] Jacobsville was also known as Jacobs Spring, Jacobsville Station, Reese River and Reese River Station.[3]

Jacobsville, Nevada
Ghost town
Jacobsville
Jacobsville
Coordinates: 39°30′04″N 117°10′52″W
Named forGeorge Washington Jacob, an agent for the Overland Mail Company[1] [2]
Elevation
1,737 m (5,699 ft)

Mail station

The station possibly began as a mail station operated by George Chorpenning's 1859 mail posts near the Reese River.[5] The station was burned by Indians in 1860 and partially completed adobe structure was present on October 13 of that year when it was visited by Richard Francis Burton.[6]

Pony Express station

Reese River Station was a Pony Express station during the 18 months of its operation (April 3, 1860, to October 1861).[2]

The ruins of the adobe Pony Express station were present northwest of Jacobsville in the early 1980s.[7]

Illustrated Map of Pony Express Route in 1860
by William Henry Jackson
The Pony Express mail route, April 3, 1860 – October 24, 1861 showing Reese River Station. Reproduction of Jackson illustration issued to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Pony Express founding on April 3, 1960. Reproduction of Jackson's map issued by the Union Pacific Railroad Company.

Later history

In 1861, Mark Twain traveled through the area and in "Roughing It" he wrote, "On the eighteenth day we encountered the eastward-bound telegraph-constructors at Reese River station and sent a message to his Excellency Gov. Nye at Carson City (distant one hundred and fifty-six miles)."

On May 2, 1862, a former Pony Express rider named William M. Talcott discovered rich silver ore in Pony Canyon while cutting wood for Jacobs Station on the old Pony Express route and a maintenance point on the overland telegraph line. The result was a silver rush known as the Reese River excitement.[2][8]

Jacobsville was the provisional Lander County seatfrom December 1862 to September 1863.[9] A courthouse was built in Jacobsville, completed in August 1863, and moved to Austin in September.[4]

Myron Angel wrote that "[In 1863, Jacobsville] had a population of three or four hundred; also contained two hotels, three stores, post-office, telegraph office, Court House and fifty residences."[4]

The Jacobsville post office was in operation from March 1863 to April 1864.[10]

By the late 1870s or early 1880s there was only a single farm house at the site.[4]

References
  1. History of the Buell Family in England. 1881. p. 361. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  2. Carlson, Helen S. (January 1, 1974). Nevada Place Names: A Geographical Dictionary. University of Nevada Press. p. 144. ISBN 978-0-87417-094-8. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  3. "Jacobsville (historical)". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. December 12, 1980. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  4. Angel, Myron (1881). History of Lander County. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014.
  5. "Pony Express NHT: Historic Resource Study (Chapter 8)". National Park Service. Retrieved December 2, 2019.
    - Townley, John M. (Autumn 1982). "Stalking Horse for the Pony Express: The Chorpenning Mail Contracts between California and Utah, 1851-1860". Arizona and the West. 24 (3): 248. JSTOR 40169027. Jacobsville appears on a map between pages 232 and 233.
  6. Burton, Sir Richard Francis (1862). The City of the Saints: And Across the Rocky Mountains to California. Harper & Brothers. p. 486. Retrieved February 12, 2019. Reese.
  7. Townley, John M. (1984). The Pony Express Guidebook. p. 40.
  8. Myron Angel, ed. (1881). History of Nevada. Oakland, California: Thompson and West. pp. 512 and 513. Retrieved February 7, 2016.
  9. Federal Writers' Project (1941). Origin of Place Names: Nevada (PDF). W.P.A. p. 40.
  10. "Jacobsville Post Office (historical)". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. September 1, 1991. Retrieved February 12, 2019.


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