Camp McGarry

Camp McGarry guarded a lonely corner of the far northwest. The Army established it in 1865 near Summit Lake, in Paiute country along the road toward Oregon and Idaho, and in 1866 made it headquarters of the Military District of Nevada. At seventy-five square miles, its military reservation was the largest in the state. Its life was brief: in autumn 1868 the troops moved south to Camp Winfield Scott near Paradise, and Camp McGarry was abandoned. The country it once watched remains some of the emptiest in Nevada, near the Summit Lake Paiute Reservation north of the Black Rock.

What the plaque says

The U. S. Army operated Camp McGarry twelve miles northeast of here at Summit Springs near Summit Lake on the Old Applegate Trail from 1865 to 1868. Troops protected the Idaho-California mail and stage roads and the nearby trails in Nevada and Oregon. The army constructed officers quarters, a mess hall, barracks, and a 100-horse stone barn near here. In 1866, Camp McGarry was made headquarters of the district of Nevada. In autumn 1868, troops were moved to Camp Winfield Scott, north of Paradise Valley, Nevada, and Camp McGarry, largest military reservation in Nevada, comprising 75 square miles, was abandoned. In 1871, the land transferred to the Bureau of Land Management and was eventually used as an American Indian reservation.

Where it stands