Pershing County

Pershing County was the last piece of Nevada's map to be drawn. For decades this was the southern reach of Humboldt County, but in 1919 the legislature split it off—the final county the state would ever create—and named it for General John Pershing, whose name was everywhere with the Great War just ended. Lovelock became the seat. The county holds a deep slice of Nevada: the old emigrant corridor along the Humboldt, the silver canyons of the Humboldt Range, and the vast playa of the Black Rock Desert.

What the plaque says

Here was a key point on Nevada's earliest road, the famed Humboldt Trail that brought 165,000 imigrants west in the 1840's and 50's. Travelers named this rich valley the Big Meadows and stopped for water and grass before continuing south to cross the dreaded 40-Mile Desert, the most difficult lap on the trail to California. Mining, still an important industry, began here in the 1850's. George Lovelock merchant, rancher and prospector gave his name to the county seat. The coming of the railroad in 1869 brought new growth to the area. Pershing County, established in 1919, was previously part of Humboldt County.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• People of the Humboldt — 22 mi
• Forty Mile Desert — 22 mi
• Reunion in Unionville — 25 mi
• Unionville — 28 mi