Lyon County is the onion of Nevada’s eye

Editor’s Note: Nevada 150 is a yearlong series highlighting the people, places and things that make up the history of the state.

It’s become a summertime ritual for thousands.

In late July, country music fans gather at the Lyon County Fairgrounds in Yerington, set up camp, mingle at the Full Moon Saloon, buy food from local vendors and then settle under the stars for two nights of music.

Night in the Country, a fund-raiser for the local Boys and Girls Club, has had its share of big names — Blake Shelton, Billy Ray Cyrus, Travis Tritt, Jason Aldean and Diamond Rio among them.

“It’s become pretty big,” said Barbara Tamagni, an administrative assistant with the Mason Valley Chamber of Commerce in Lyon County. “The first year, there were maybe a couple hundred people, but as more people heard about it, it grew. This year, I think, we had about 12,000 people here for it.”

But then, Lyon County is no slouch when it comes to music.

Yerington gets a mention in the John Denver folk song “Darcy Farrow,” and it’s also where Grammy Award winner Eric Whitacre, widely regarded as the world’s leading contemporary conductor and composer, grew up. The UNLV graduate returns to his birthplace from his London home to speak at this month’s Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Reno just before Nevada’s sesquicentennial celebration.

Yerington also was home to mystery writer Nevada Barr, professional boxer Jesse Brinkley and state political icon Joe Dini.

It’s a diverse mix, the people of Lyon County. But then, diversity seems to be the hallmark of the county.

The county has an economic blend of mining and agriculture, and in a few years, its northern reaches in Fernley will enjoy the spinoff of new technology, Tesla’s planned lithium battery Gigafactory. The plant won’t actually be in Lyon County, but it will be close enough for some of its workers to call the county home.

There’s a patchwork of high desert, onion fields, rivers, valleys and a piece of the Humboldt-Toyaibe National Forest within the boundaries of the arrowhead-shaped county. Lyon County touches Washoe County, Carson City and the California border, and it’s also home to the notorious Moonlite BunnyRanch brothel.

To Tamagna and her neighbors, it’s a quiet, peaceful and friendly place to call home that retirees retreating from cities have only recently discovered.

“There isn’t much crime or drugs, and a lot of the people who live here know each other,” she said.

There are just over 52,000 people scattered over a little more than 2,000 square miles.

But it wasn’t always that way. Like other places across rural Nevada, Lyon County and Yerington were once bigger because of the gold rush and transcontinental railroads.

The county seat used to be in Dayton, but a 1909 fire that destroyed the courthouse resulted in the county government moving to Yerington two years later.

That community was on the Central Pacific Line, the nation’s first transcontinental railroad.

Townspeople named the town for Henry M. Yerington, a onetime superintendent of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad to Virginia City, hoping to win favor for keeping the transcontinental route there, but it didn’t work. The railroad eventually moved north to become the main line now operated by Union Pacific.

Today, it’s a major freight route, and even Amtrak passes through a tiny piece of Lyon’s northern end, but the trains no longer stop in the county.

The Virginia & Truckee still runs as an excursion train and tourist attraction between Carson City and Virginia City in the county’s northwestern reaches.

Nevada is known for being “Battle Born” during the Civil War, and Lyon County certainly fits that bill. It was named as a tribute to Nathaniel Lyon, the first Union general killed in battle in that war.

Miners found their way to the region, but gold wasn’t the only thing they pulled out of the ground. Prospectors also found uranium and copper. In 1918, the Empire Nevada Mine was opened just outside Yerington in the company town of Weed Heights. In 1953, the open-pit mine was acquired by Anaconda Copper and was productive until 1978 under Atlantic Richfield, which had acquired Anaconda.

Today, a new copper mine is being developed by Nevada Copper. County residents are optimistic that the Pumpkin Hollow Project will be in production by next year.

The mine project and the battery factory may well change the county’s economic outlook, which currently is based on agriculture and ranching.

Fields irrigated by the Walker, Carson and Truckee rivers produce alfalfa, corn, lettuce, broccoli and, most famously, onions. Lyon County’s onion fields are largely responsible for Nevada having the greatest yield per acre for onions in the nation.

The abundance of ranches and farms have some local residents exploring the prospects of agritourism, which gives city slickers the chance to experience the agrarian lifestyle.

The rivers that establish the valleys of Lyon County also have carved some beautiful canyon landscapes in the area.

Just west of Yerington is Wilson Canyon, a 2-mile Walker River cut through the volcanic Singatse Range. It’s not uncommon to see fishermen pulling trout from the river fed by Sierra snowmelt.

Contact reporter Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.