International Hotel

Austin's first commercial building arrived secondhand: its lumber came from the original International Hotel in Virginia City, hauled over and raised again here. David Buel put it up after Clifton, the older camp down the canyon, refused him a free lot — so Buel and three partners simply laid out the townsite of Austin instead, and the hotel anchored the new street. It is a fitting origin for a place built fast from whatever the boom could move: even the landmark was a hand-me-down.

What the plaque says

First Commercial Building Constructed in Austin. Built of lumber from the first International Hotel constructed in Virginia City. David E. Buel built the hotel after being refused a free lot in Clifton at the mouth of the canyon below. Buel, Frederick Baker, W.C. Harrington and John E. Veatch located and recorded the original townsite of Austin.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Austin — 0.2 mi
  A silver boomtown that hit ten thousand and fell to under two hundred — the living ghost town at the high middle of US-50
• Hickison Petroglyphs — 23 mi
  Western Shoshone rock art cut into soft white tuff at a 6,500-foot summit — the easiest rock art to meet on the loneliest road

More markers nearby

• Austin Churches — steps away
• Stokes Castle — 0.4 mi
• Austin — 0.5 mi
• Reuel Colt Gridley “Citizen Extraordinaire” — 0.6 mi