Kirkwood's

Three counties meet inside this building. When Alpine was carved out of Amador in 1864 the division left the barn and milkhouse on the Alpine side, and the state says the Alpine and El Dorado line ran straight through the barroom. Zachary Kirkwood built the place that same year at 7,800 feet, and the bronze on the wall, put up by the Clampers rather than the state, calls it one of the first resorts operated in the Sierra Nevada.

What the plaque says

KIRKWOOD'S THIS BUILDING HAS BEEN THE PIONEER HOME OF THE KIRKWOOD AND TAYLOR FAMILIES SINCE IT WAS BUILT BY ZACHARY KIRKWOOD IN 1864. THIS BUILDING WAS ONE OF THE FIRST RESORTS OPERATED IN THE SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS. DEDICATED BY E. CLAMPUS VITUS JAMES W. MARSHALL, NO. 49 SEPT. 10, 1966

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Emerald Bay State Park — 18 mi
  A glacial fjord on Tahoe's west shore with the lake's only island and a Scandinavian house at the water.
• Genoa — 24 mi
  Nevada's oldest town—a California Trail trading post and Carson Valley ranch country that came eight years before the silver and quietly outlasted it
• Cave Rock / De'ek Wadapush — 25 mi
  One of the most sacred places of the Wašiw—the Standing Gray Rock, a worn volcano the highway was blasted through and climbers bolted for sport, now closed and quiet again after the Washoe's long fight to protect it

More markers nearby

• Old Emigrant Road — 1.9 mi
• Kit Carson Marker — 4.6 mi
• Memorial to Pioneer Odd Fellows — 4.6 mi
• Old Emigrant Road — 5.9 mi