We Visited: 3/17/01
From Fallon, US 50 East for 40 miles, then Dixie Valley Road (SR 121) North for 27 miles, then East on Settlement Road for about 4 miles
Dixie Valley is a valley, a town, and the site of the briefly existing mining camp of Dixie. In 1861 an interest in mining
the locally available salt, potash, and borax drew miners to the area, and soon other mineral delights created interest.
Confederate sympathizers furnished the name "Dixie." The word "Dixie" may have originated from one of the Mason-Dixon Line surveyors, Jeremiah Dixon, separating free and slave states.
In the early 1860's
some also decided to take advantage of the abundant water in the valley, which
naturally manifested itself in the form of springs, which supply water
to the area even today. There were eventually up to 50 families living on ranches
growing alfalfa and raising cattle, using the water which just spews out
of the ground up there. The camp of Dixie briefly came into existence during that time, around 1907, near the Dixie Comstock Mine. Eventually, the U.S. Navy decided they they would like to fly very fast over the valley, and would everyone please leave so they didn't have to hear people complain.
The townsite of Dixie, north of the Dixie Comstock
Mine. In Nevada Place Names, Helen Carlson says it was settled in 1861. On the other hand, in Nevada Ghost Towns and Mining Camps, Paher says 1907. Or, as Michelle Michon points out in her article on Dixie Valley, it could be both.
Records of Dixie Valley date back to 1861, when the Dixie Marsh District was organized to mine potash, borax and salt and the first town of Dixie was formed. Not much is known about the mining operators, but it's fairly safe to surmise from their naming of the region that they were Confederate sympathizers. Before then, federal surveyors had marked the valley "Osobb."' The Dixie Marsh District was short-lived, but by 1864 the valley and its environs had attracted more miners, this time after gold and silver. In February of that year, Nevada Governor Nye located the county seat of Churchill County at La Plata, a silver boom town overlooking Dixie Valley on the slopes of the Stillwater Range not far from Job's Peak. The strike played out quickly, though, and the county seat was moved to Stillwater in 1868, leaving La Plata as the first of many abandoned towns and mills dotting the mountain slopes around Dixie Valley.
In the early twentieth century, mining in the Stillwater and Clan Alpine Ranges followed the boom/bust pattern of gold and silver strikes throughout the state. Between 1905 and 1910, many of the canyons around Dixie Valley were alive with prospectors, strikes, tent cities, and briefly-lived hope. In 1907 and 1908, the mining towns of Wonder, Hercules, Silver Hill and Victor rose overnight from the Clan Alpine foothills. In the valley itself, in early 1907, a second townsite named Dixie was established by two civil engineers from Wonder named Greer and Ray. The degree of optimism and energy prevailing in these early camps can be surmised by looking at the Dixie townsite plat map filed by the two engineers. They laid out 600 lots lining six streets (two of them were named Greer Street and Ray Street). The lots were offered for $6,000 each. By June 1907, Dixie consisted of five saloons, two restaurants, two general stores, a hotel, an assay office, a bakery, and 200 residents. However, by the end of the summer, Dixie could be characterized as another abandoned dream, just a name on a townsite map.
-Churchill County In Focus, Dixieland, Michon Mackedon
In Historic Site Studies, Davis says there is very little there besides a bit of historic debris and concrete pads.
Ranching and farming as always been at the center of Dixie's Valley's existence.
It is said that the first crop of alfalfa on the Boyer ranch in Dixie Valley is being cut this week. This is perhaps the earliest alfalfa haying in progress in a like latitude in the state.
-Churchill County Standard, May 15, 1912
Despite its isolation, its available water made it attractive for mining and agriculture.
The Mystery of Marvel, Nevada.
It's time we had an actual town out here in Dixie Valley!
Churchill County will have a new town, backed by agriculture and mines if the plans of the promoters G. Owens, Henry DiJoygny and L. E. Reufner are fulfilled. These men have platted a 320 lot townsite in Dixie Valley, where agricultural possibilities are said to abound. The water supply is underground and will be developed by pumping, it is said. Meanwhile mining is going on in the hills nearby and the support necessary for a village may some day be forthcoming, for the proposed settlement, which is to be called Marvel.
-Churchill County Standard. July 9, 1913
The plat and map of the township of Marvel in Dixie valley about 50 miles east of Fallon was approved.
-Churchill County Standard, July 9, 1913
The Marvel Investment company, a corporation of California parties, filed articles of incorporation with the county clerk Monday. The capital stock is given at $25,000 and the amount paid up as $1250 The parties behind the venture are the promoters of the townsite of Marvel in Dixie Valley.
-Churchill County Standard, July 23, 1913
California investors, you say? Frenchmen, you say? Hmmmmm.
DIXIE BOOMERS HERE.
Pass Through on Their Way to the Townsite of Marvel.
H. de Jeigny, one of the backers of the proposed town of Marvel, in Dixie Valley, was in Fallon this week from San Francisco, with a crew of twenty men, which he has piloted to the scene of future operations, which includes both mining and agricultural development. The early erection of a 60-stamp quartz mill at the Dixie mine is among the things planned, while a great deal of building is on the tapis for Marvel. This includes a fine hotel, storebuildings, etc., at Marvel, which is but a short. distance from the mine, which is included among the holdings of the company of San Francisco capitalists. It is said that several hundred thousand dollars have been set aside for promotion purposes and that efforts will be made to develop a model town in Dixie valley that will combine the characteristics usually attaching to mining camps and farming towns. Mr. de Jiegny and associates expect to float their company stock among the French residents of California. Stock will he sold in Europe as well as in this country. Among the schemes put forward by the promoters is the carrying of mail by aeroplane from Fallon to Marvel. Mr. de Jeigny promises a regular service between the two places within a short time, the air machine being in Fallon now. The aeroplane, a baby Beloit, is in Fallon ready for transporting to Marvel, where the atmospheric conout, before the matter of maintainditions will be given a thorough trying an aeroplane mail schedule is attempted. Mr. de Jeigny also assures the local people that the next project fair will have his machine, together with the aviator, for an attraction. The several automobiles, loaded fully with its cargo of human freight including several women, reminded local people of the days when the mining rushes issued from this town.
-Churchill County Standard, August 5, 1913
Hotels! Stores! Airplanes! But it looks like the local newspaper doesn't exactly share the thrill of the investors and their victi-- I mean, their customers.
Dixie Valley Drawing Settlement.
Dixie valley, the first geographical depression to the past of this project, is attracting more settlement than ever before in its history. A big outfit loaded down to the rails with bacon, flour and other neccesities was loaded yesterday by the firm of Grob & Bingham for Dixie Dailey. It is said that a dozen or more land locations have teen made there during the last month and that others are contemplating going there soon and establishing themeslves. The proximity of ranges for stock, which is alleged, Is said to be a factor In turning settlers thence. Land In the Dixie valley is fertile and underlying is said to an ample water supply for irrigation, but there is no means at hand for an economical development of a water supply or is there likely to be for many years, and it occurs to this paper that settlement there now with homebuilding in mind is a forlorn hope.
-Churchill County Standard, February 25, 1914
I hope they at least got an airplane ride out of it.
MARVEL NOW OFFICIALLY DEAD
Deputy Sheriff Takes Possession Of Seat of Spectacular Wildcat Operations
The inglorious end that has overtaken a multitude of wild cat mining camp promotions within Nevada is the portion of Marvel, an over exploited district east of Fallon in the Dixie valley. Of unholy conception, both Marvel and the men behind it have come to grief and with little formality. Put forward less than a year ago as a town tributary to Alladin's cave; with wide stretches of rich agricutural land surrounding the civic center, a bunch of Frenchmen from San Francisco and elsewhere, thought to lure the gold from investors back home in Gay Paris. But alas and alack, it was not to be so, for the folks back home were wise in their generation, which is one more than had been put forward by Father Time, when these gay promoters left home, with the result that Marvel is a miserable failure. Coincidently, there is a multitude of tradespeople hereabouts who feel miffed over the failure--the grouch varying in size from a few dollars to a good many. The curtain was rung down on the final act of this fiasco, with all of its embellishments, including high powered automobiles, flying ma-chines and an aerial passenger and mail service, last Friday when Deputy Sheriff C. M. Clark traveled Marvelward in company with J. W. Phelps, I .H. Kent and Harry Robinson and served the ends of law and justice by placing an attachment on the Marvel townsite including ho-tels, saloons, general stores, streets and alleys and the advertised swinging garden, imitating a fresh Babylonian of mythology. Not even the white elephants in the Marvel city park were sacred to this minion of the law, and whatever was lacking to make Marvel dead has been did. The last dash was added to the general compost and we are now authorized to officially announce that Marvel is dead. To be specific J. W. Phelps on behalf of himself and others and by the instrumentality of the deputy sheriff attached Marvel for about $800 due from the promoters of the failure. Whether there still remains in Marvel materials of a sufficient value to meet these demands is a question. for Goldsmith's deserted village had nothing on Marvel.
-Churchill County Standard, May 20, 1914
By 1914 Dixie Valley had its own school, and a place to vote. What they needed was a post office.
DIXIE VALLEY RESIDENTS TRYING FOR A MAIL ROUTE The enterprising citizens of the Dixie Valley section, one of the promising new farming districts of western Nevada, came in Monday from his home in company with Wm. Trout, the two making the trip for supplies and mail. The increasing population of Dixie Valley suffer utmost in mail service handicap, being far removed fom a center of population and an effort is now being made to establish better facilities. The abandonment of the Wonder post office annulled a convenience, enjoyed by the Dixie Valley residents for several years.
-Churchill County Standard, January 21, 1920
Farmers, ranchers, and miners were all interested in Dixie Valley.
SETTLERS VISIT DIXIE VALLEY
FALLON, May 17.—(Special to the Gazette).—A number of people from California arrived in Dixie Valley this week to look over that section with a view to locating, according to the statement of S. J. Taylor, a homesteader of that place, engaged in auto trucking. Taylor says there are twenty-seven families in the valley, all on homesteads. A number of wells are being put down for irrigation. Many of the wells there have artesian flow. There is one store and a postoffice, both kept by J. Tyrrell. The school has seventeen pupils, Mrs. C. B. Stark being the teacher. The distance from Fallon is seventy-five miles, too far to haul such crops is hay. Nearly all ranchers there raise cattle and feed their hay.
-Reno Evening Gazette, May 17, 1921
Joseph H. McCoy and son Bart, departed for their home In Dixie Valley with a truckload of lumber, coal, provisions and mining supplies. Mr. McCoy says that they will commence work at once on their gold properties at Camp McCoy. If future development is as favorable as in previous times, a mill is to be erected.
-Reno Evening Gazette, June 29, 1926
One of the major mines in the area was the Dixie Comstock Mine.
Dixie Comstock Mine
The Dixie Comstock mine, comprising 10 claims, is on the west side of Dixie Valley in the foothills of the Stillwater Range, about 45 miles north of Bermond on the Lincoln Highway. The property was discovered in April 1934 by Clyde Garrett, and shortly thereafter the controlling interest in the property was acquired by the Comstock Keystone Mining Co. of Virginia City, Nev. In the spring of 1935, a 30-ton-daily-capacity amalgamation mill was erected at the mine, and late in the summer of the same year flotation equipment was added. Incomplete data indicate that the production of gold and a little silver had been about $150,000 in shipping and milling ore. In 1939 the tailings pile, containing about 6,000 tons, was being reworked by the company, and several lessees were employed in the mine. Development includes a 200-foot incline, a vertical shaft about 100 feet deep, and drifts, winzes, and other workings, totaling about 1,500 feet. Mining equipment includes a 12-by 10-inch single-stage compressor, a 17-horsepower Hercules geared hoist, and a blacksmith shop. Milling equipment consists of a homemade ball mill 7 by 5 feet, 9-by 12-inch Blake-type crusher, simplex classifier, 4-by 10-foot, amalgamating plate, and four flotation cells. Power is furnished by an 80-horsepower 2-cylinder Fairbanks-Morse Diesel engine belt- connected to a 30-kilowatt alternating-current generator. Camp buildings at the mine can accommodate a crew of 15 men. Water for milling is supplied by a well 30 feet deep near the mine. Gold, associated with a little silver, occurs in a large vein in a hydrothermally altered igneous formation Mining is hindered by the intense heat and a large volume of hot water in the mine workings less than 75 feet from the surface.
-Mines of Churchill and Mineral Counties, William O. Vanderberg, 1938
Hot water, you say? I wonder if that might come in handy some day.
Besides ranchers and miners, the U.S. military also become interested in Dixie Valley. Near Fallon, the Civil Aeronautics Authority built an airport. It was soon taken over by the Navy for training purposes, and become known as a Naval Auxiliary Air Station. In 1972, it was upgraded in status to a full-fledged Naval Air Station.
SCHOOL REOPENS AFTER FIVE YEARS
Fallon -- The Dixie Valley School hs been resumed after being closed for five years during war times, when the Navy used thousands of acres in that part of Churchill county as a gunnery and bombinb range.
-Nevada State Journal, October 16, 1947
1954 brought a large earthquake.
Quake Experts Converge on Damaged Area
Fallon Resident Startled by Earth Upheaval
Geologists converged today on Dixie Valley. remote area 90 miles east of Reno today to inspect huge faults and cracks which appeared in the earth's surface after Thursday morning's earthquake. Dr. David Slemmons, University of Nevada's head seismologist, inspected the area this morning after an aerial reconnaissance Friday. Gladstone Marchand, Navy geologist from San Bruno; Geologist Dr. V. P. Gianella and others formed parties to go into the remote region for a close inspection of the faults.
REPORT NEW FAULTS
Meanwhile reports continued to trickle in of new fissures, and odd incidents in connection with the earthquake. Leonard Wood of Fallon told friends he was asleep in his car early Thursday morning when it started to rock and woke him up. He leaped from the vehicle and said he saw it bounce up and down as if seized by a giant hand. Seeking to flee the vicinity, Wood said suddenly the road cracked and dropped a full six feet. That was in IXL canyon on the west side of Dixie Valley. Concern was expressed by ranchers of the effect of the quake on artesian wells which supply water to the ranches there. Ed Stark, who with his father, C. B. Stark of Fallon operates a cattle spread at Dixie Valley, planned an inspection trip today after learning that a stream of water has appeared in the valley.
ARTESIAN WELLS
The Stark property, which includes a small acreage of hay, is supplied with water from artesian wells. The elder Mr. Stark homesteaded the property at the turn of the century. Ed Stark surveyed the area by plane Friday. He saw verticle displacements 25 miles long at the foot of the Stillwater range. H. K. Atkinson, Churchill county road superintendent said there is a crack 30 feet wide and a drop of 10 feet across the highway to Dixie Valley 35 miles north of Frenchman's station, halting travel on the road.
-Reno Evening Gazette, December 18, 1954
Dixie Valley was at long last getting a few upgrades.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1955
Dixie Valley School Gets Official Visit
Inadequate Facilities Draw Comment From New County Board Members
FALLON, Nov. 21.—Churchill's new county school board visited Dixie Valley Sunday in the first of a series of surveys of rural schools in the county, and came home with plans for many improvements there after they become officially operative next July 1. The board expressed surprise at the inadequacy of school facilities in Dixie Valley, a sparsely settled community in the northeast section of the county. But they had praise for the school board there, which they said `have done well on limited funds," the Fallon Standard reports. County Supt. Herb Chiara said Monday that the county board hopes to make a number of improvements in Dixie after July 1, when the new countywide plan becomes effective. Most urgent need is building improvement. The structure is small, poorly lighted and without electricity. Books, desks and other equipment will be improved. Next most urgent need is for transportation. All youngsters walk 1 1/2 or more miles to school. Under the new countywide setup, playground equipment. now nonexistent at the Dixie Valley School, will be provided. In order to provide the basic school necessities in Dixie Valley, it will be necessary to spend more money per capita than elsewhere In the county, something which was not possible for the residents of the area under the old school district plan. At the present time three students are in full-time attendance and four more come to school part time from the Boyer ranch 30 miles north. An enrollment of nine is seen for next fall. The Dixie Valley hoard has been hampered not only by extremely limited funds but also by the scarcity. of labor to help to make improvements. One improvement partially complete is the installation of an inside toilet, to be operated from the gravity flow of an artesian well.
-Nevada State Journal November 22, 1955
County residents living in Dixie Valley in 1968 were glad when phone lines finally reached them. A pay phone was installed in front of the Dixie Valley school. Unfortunately, its operation was unreliable. However, the twenty customers in the valley waiting for phone service did receive 4-party lines later that year.
-Churchill County In Focus, Vol. 10, From Telegraph to Telephone: The History of the Churchill County Telephone Company, Jane Pieplow
But, it was still suffering from its somewhat isolated location.
Dixie Valley Parents Protest Bus Trip
FALLON (AP) — Parents in the isolated Dixie Valley of west central Nevada say they would rather have their children attend a one-room school than be bused 155 miles round trip for classes here. The Churchill County School Board drew the ire of Dixie Valley parents when it decided low attendance did not justify the cost of maintaining the one-room facility.
Home After 5 PM
Tuesday five youngsters boarded a bus at day break to begin the nearly 80 mile, one hour and 40 minute trip to the county seat for classes. They returned home shortly after 5 p.m. Meanwhile, parents said they would continue looking for a way to get the local schoolhouse opened. Attempts so far, including holding their children out of school for a week, have been unsuccessful. The main complaint of parents is that their children will be spending nearly four hours a day on a bus. They also contend they can get just as good an education in Dixie Valley as they can in Fallon. Elmo DeRicco, Churchill County schools superintendent, said the decision to shut down the Dixie Valley school was not made rashly.
Closed in 1960
The school was closed in 1968, but parents persuaded the county school board to reopen it for the 1970-71 school year. "We started out with seven students, but it trickled down to two and we ended up with three," DeRicco said Tuesday. And this summer the school board decided growing costs required the school be closed, DeRicco said, despite protests from the parents. Operation of the Dixie Valley school and a station wagon for high school students cost the district about $18,000 last year, DeRicco said. Although one parent said it will cost $14,500 to transport students, DeRicco said the cost should be closer to $9,000. Dixie Valley, located at the end of a 35-mile dirt and gravel road branching off U. S. 50 east of here, has no established commercial businesses. Nearly all the half-dozen families sprinkled around the area are ranchers or miners. Lester Guire, a five-year res-ident who taught at the school-house, said it is not unknown for a school bus to get stuck on the dirt road during the snow and rain of winter. Guire is teaching in Fallon his term, living in town during the week and driving to his Dixie Valley home on weekends. Although he says he supports lie action of the school board, he has mixed feelings around closing the school. "I don't see how the kids can make that long trip and do justice to their studies, but I can see both sides of the issue," he said. Guire said he does not necessarily believe the youngsters can get a better education In Fallon (pop. 2,900) than in remote Dixie Valley.
-Reno Evening Gazette, September 9, 1971
Eventually, the school was closed, and the Navy finally decided it would be nice if everyone left so they could play undisturbed.
TODAY'S TOPIC: LANDOWNERS IN LIMBO
Last family in valley 'just trying to survive'
By Mike Henderson GAZETTE-JOURNAL
DIXIE VALLEY — Rodney Tschetter is at the wheel of his beat-up Ford pickup, kicking up clouds of dust as he tows a seeder sowing winter rye. His 10-year-old cow dog, Puppy, and Black Angus, a 10-month-old Labrador, scamper alongside the truck on this 120-acre tract that Tschetter, his wife Linda and son Jesse, 14, call home. Thunder shatters the serenity of this bucolic setting as an F-18 jet fighter streaks by, tearing a hole in the blue satin sky. Tschetter, deeply tanned and muscled from his hardscrabble existence in the desert sun, barely acknowledges this flexing of the nation's military muscle. "I'm just trying to survive," he says. It is because of the nation's military might that the Tschetters are the last family living in Dixie Valley. Rodney Tschetter's the de facto lord of its 600 square miles. That same military might has put him in legal limbo, helpless to free himself from his own land. Two more F-18s thunder past. "They've been using this air-space for years and years, but with no compensation for it," Tschetter says, glancing up from the 56-pound sacks of Green Thumb rye he's loading into the seeder. "I had some people ask me if I went to the air show a couple of weeks back. I told 'em I didn't need. to. I have my own air show out here every day." Eight years ago, then Navy Secretary John Lehman said the Navy needed this quiet valley with its vast artesian water supplies for supersonic air operations — a training ground for the Navy's sleek jets. He ordered acquisition of the land held by the valley's 35 house-holds. Residents stood their ground, throwing every obstacle they could think of in front of the Navy. But eventually the full force of the federal government prevailed. Most residents acquiesced and sold out. But there were a few holdouts. Tschetter, who with his brother Tom also owns an adjacent 260 acres; Edward and Alice Slawinski, an elderly couple who left their 599 acres and moved to Southern California; and Bill Anderson, who owns a little over 1,000 acres. They're caught in a legal Twilight Zone. By spring 1990, they had either agreed to sell or were about to negotiate, although they thought the Navy was offering too little for their land. In the case of the jointly held Tschetter property and the Slawinski land, the Navy agreed to a purchase price and committed itself to buy. But months passed and nothing happened.
-Reno Evening Gazette, November 1, 1993
But the military isn't alone in Dixie Valley. Ormat Technologies operates a geothermal power plant in the valley.
On the other hand, you have lots of flat land and good weather, perfect for flying supersonic jets as fast as they will go while you shoot things and drop bombs. Since the 1980's, Dixie Valley has been part of the U.S. Navy's electronic warfare range. They must also use it for ground training, since we found a pile of 7.62 NATO and 5.56 NATO blank cartridges- with links- on a street corner. Dixie Valley is an interesting blend of abandoned ranches, cows, and parked armored vehicles. Some homes look suspiciously lived in, and one- surrounded by signs warning about Federal trespass- looks pretty new. Smooth dirt roads "in town." a couple of street signs still standing. On the east side of Dixie Valley you can see the six foot vertical fault from the 1954 7.3 earthquake. This was the 12th largest earthquakes in the contiguous United States. The Navy's nearby Centroid facility basically makes the valley into a giant game board for its jets to play on.