Paradise Valley

Paradise Valley earned its name with soil, not silver. Settlers came to this well-watered basin north of Winnemucca in 1863, but conflict with the Paiute—whose land this was—led the Army to build Camp Winfield Scott nearby in 1866 to guard the homesteaders. Once the fighting ended, the valley became the granary and fruit-growing center for the mining camps of central Nevada and southwest Idaho, feeding boomtowns that couldn't feed themselves. The town was called Scottsdale, then Paradise City, and finally just Paradise Valley. Livestock ranching carries on there today, in a secluded community of old buildings and green fields.

What the plaque says

Hudson Bay Company’s Peter Skene Ogden traversed Paradise Valley in November 1828. Settlers came to Paradise Valley in 1863. Conflicts with local Native Americans started the next year, causing the establishment of Camp Winfield Scott (1866-70) four miles from here. Paradise Valley farms supplied the nearby Nevada and Idaho territory mines. In the original town of Scottsdale (1866), John C. Kemler built the first hotel, now used as a residence. Renamed Paradise City (1869), the town was a mining supply center from 1878 until 1920. Later when livestock raising predominated, the town was again renamed, this time “Paradise Valley.”

Where it stands