Welcome to

Jiggs, Nevada

"From Elko, head east o Nevada 227 for 3.7 miles. Take Nevada 228 south for 26.8 miles to Jiggs.

Although Jiggs was never large, its history has many unique facets.During its lifetime, six different post offices have served the town, and it achieved national prominence when Volkswagen put all its residents in one of its vans for a nationwide advertising promotion.

W.M.Kennedy, the first settler in Mound Valley, arrived in 1866, thought Myron Angel, in History of Nevada, erroneously identifies the year as 1861. Kennedy named the valley for a large mound located near his property on Smith Creek. By the late 1860s there were quite a few homesteads in the valley. The boom at Hamilton (in White Pine County) led to the formation of a number of toll roads, including the Hill Beachey, the Gilson Turnpike, the Woodruff and Ennor, the White Pine toll road, and the Eureka-Hamilton road, which all came through Mound Valley. The main stop in the area was Hooten's Station, located east of the present Jiggs townsite.

The first post office in the Jiggs area was named Cottonwood. It opened at the Porter Ranch on December 14, 1869, with Mason Dexter as postmaster, and closed on July 12, 1870. Cottonwood was home to a strange mixture of hard-working, law abiding residents and wild outlaws who called the camp at Hooten's home. The latter group's reputation inspired popular western author Zane Grey to make Cottonwood home base for his fictional outlaw King Fisher.

In 1900 the population of Skelton and Mound Valley stood at 109. In November 1902 a gunfight - a rarity for Elko County - took place between Fred Stone, a cowboy fro the Carville Ranch, and Charles Conley, a saloonkeeper with a reputation for obnoxiousness. After a running argument, Stone challenged Conley to a fist fight. Conley came out with a gun, slugged Stone with it, and shot the hat off the unarmed Stone's head. Stone bought a gun for protection at the store, but when he prepared to mount his horse, Conley renewed the argument. Stone fired five times, hitting Conley four times. The shots killed Conley, who had just married local girl Hannah Guldager. The shooting was ruled as self-defense, and Stone was released.

Begging in 1902 Albert Hankins, formerly a rancher in Ruby Valley, became Skelton's main businessman. In 1912 Hankins and his wife, Julia bought everything in town except the Hylton store, which he purchased in 1916. in 1916 Hankins also built a new two-story brick hotel, which remains the town's most prominent landmark. In addition, he built a dance hall and erected large sheep corrals to capitalize on the sheep heads traveling through the area. With the arrival of prohibition in 1918, he closed his saloon, delivered the alcohol to federal agents in Elko, and converted the building into a small store. He also reestablished the post office on December 18 and renamed the town Jiggs, after the comic strip character. As a result, a local women's organization was named the Maggie Club, after Jiggs's wife. The original Hylton store burned on August 25, 1919, and was never rebuilt. When Hankins died in 1922 his holding were sold, and Jiggs slowly faded as buildings burned or were torn down. The hotel became a residence and the school a post office.

Electricity finally arrived in Jiggs in 1963, courtesy of the Wells Rural Electric Company. That was also a year in which the town became nationally know, when all of its nine residents were loaded into a Volkswagen van as part of a promotional campaign. The post office, which still contains original mailboxes, finally closed on December 15, 1975. A few people still call Jiggs home. A small school operates. The community hall, a brick hotel and a school/post office are among the remaining buildings. The two-story brick hotel, even after all these years, is still one of the most impressive building in Elko County."

Our thanks to author Shawn Hall for this bit of Jiggs history. This is just a small portion of this areas colorful history.

Located just miles from Southfork State Recreation Area.

Be sure to mark this town on your places to visit in Elko County.

 

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