Stillwater

Stillwater began as an overland stage stop in 1862, named for the slow pools nearby, and grew into Churchill County's seat in 1868—a town of a hundred and fifty with a store, hotel, saloon, and blacksmith. Then the Newlands Project lifted Fallon, and in 1904 the courthouse and the county's future moved there, leaving barely thirty residents behind. The fields still farmed by the descendants of those who stayed prove what irrigation could do. The marsh itself became the Stillwater wildlife refuge, a haven for migrating birds.

What the plaque says

Stillwater’s beginning predates Nevada’s advent to statehood by two years. Named for large pools of tranquil water nearby, the town originated as an overland stage station in 1862, was granted a post office in 1865, and became Churchill’s third county seat in 1868. The community population peaked in 1880, and when the county seat was removed to Fallon in 1904, barely 30 residents remained. Although their community center has disappeared, the valley’s lush fields and abundant crops attest to the untiring efforts of Stillwater’s pioneer ranchers and their descendants who met the desert’s challenge with dedication and determination. The Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge of 163,000 acres of wetland habitat and natural breeding and feeding groups for waterfowl was created in 1949. The Stillwater Indian Reservation adjoins the Refuge.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Grimes Point — 9.5 mi
  Hundreds of desert-varnished boulders carved over eight thousand years — the Great Basin's most accessible rock art
• Sand Mountain — 18 mi
  Nevada's largest dune — a 600-foot mountain of singing sand, a buried Pony Express station, and a butterfly found nowhere else

More markers nearby

• Grimes Point — 9.9 mi
• Oats Park School — 12 mi
• Churchill County Courthouse — 13 mi
• Pony Express Route- 1860 Sesquicentennial 2010 — 16 mi