The Humboldt Canal

Some dreams die in the sand. Conceived in 1862 and begun the next year, the Humboldt Canal was meant to run sixty-six miles from the river to power more than forty stamp mills planned above Mill City. French emigrants drove the work: Louis Lay dug the first segment, and Winnemucca's founder Frank Baud labored as a teamster, with much of the capital coming from France. Engineering errors and severe seepage doomed the stretch between Winnemucca and Mill City, which was never finished. The project failed, but it helped build Winnemucca, and traces of the ditch survive today.

What the plaque says

The Humboldt Canal, sometimes termed the Old French Canal, coursed southwestward from Preble, near Golconda, toward Mill City. The present highway crossed it at this point, from whence it ran southerly toward the Humboldt County Courthouse on Bridge and West Fifth Streets. The canal was conceived in 1862 by A. Gintz and Joseph Ginaca. The waterway with a projected cost of $160,000 was to be sixty-six miles long, fifteen feet wide and three feet deep, and with a fall of thirty-five feet. Its primary purpose was to supply water for over forty stamp mills planned at and above Mill City, but it was also designed for barge traffic and some irrigation water supply. Construction of the canal began in 1863. Louis Lay, a French emigrant from California, sub-contracted the first segment. Winnemucca city founder Frank Baud, another Frenchman, came on the project as a teamster. About $100,000, largely French capital, was expended in building the Humboldt Canal to the Winnemucca area. Because of engineering errors and severe seepage problems between Winnemucca and Mill city, that section was never finally completed or used. Several portions of the old canal are stil visible in the Golconda area, in various sections of Winnemucca, and at Rose Creek, south of the city.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Winnemucca — 0.8 mi
  The crossing town at the western end of the Humboldt — Basque tables, a 1900 bank robbery the town still pins on Butch Cassidy, and the spot where I-80 meets US-95.

More markers nearby

• Pioneer Memorial Park — 0.8 mi
• Humboldt River — 8.3 mi
• Button Point — 8.3 mi
• Golconda — 13 mi