The Old Road to Virginia City: Lockwood, Lousetown, and the Climb to the Comstock

The road to the Comstock was never one road. After the silver strikes of 1859, the Virginia Range filled with competing toll roads, and the story most visitors know (Geiger Grade, the Concord stagecoaches, the Virginia & Truckee Railroad) leaves out a quieter corridor. It climbed from the Truckee River at today's Lockwood, passed a short-lived camp called Washington, ran through the freight-and-racetrack settlement of Lousetown, and carried on toward Virginia City. Today much of it survives as a graded county road called Lousetown Road.

This guide traces what can actually be documented about that route, and says plainly where the record runs thin. Lousetown is marked and well described; Washington is recorded mostly by modern ghost-town writers; and the early story of Lockwood itself is something of a puzzle. For the town at the top of the hill, see our history of Virginia City and the Comstock Lode.

Before the Geiger Grade

Everything the Comstock needed (lumber, flour, mining machinery, whiskey) had to arrive by wagon, and everything it produced had to leave the same way. The river valley below was the natural base. Emigrants who survived the Forty Mile Desert had long found their first reliable water on the Truckee, and by 1859 the Truckee Meadows was the logical supply point for the new camps on the mountain. One regional ghost-town writer counts 117 toll-road franchises awarded between 1861 and 1864 to connect Virginia City with the Truckee Meadows, Dayton, and Carson City.

The best known of them is the Geiger Grade. According to the Online Nevada Encyclopedia, the territorial legislature granted Dr. D. M. Geiger and J. H. Tilton a franchise on November 29, 1861, to build a northern route from Virginia City to the Truckee Meadows; construction began in 1862 and the road was fully open, with several toll stations, in 1863. Across the Sierra, the Henness Pass road served the same hunger from the California side: a Pioneer Stage run in 1862 made the improved route in 25 hours and 38 minutes, and early-1860s tolls ran about $2.50 for a wagon and team.

A note on the title: the Lockwood-to-Lousetown route is not clearly older than Geiger Grade. The Washington end of it dates to 1864 in the sources we found, so it ran alongside Geiger Grade rather than before it. It is "old" in the way an abandoned road is old.

Up from Lockwood

Lockwood is an unincorporated community on the northern edge of Storey County, about ten miles east of Reno and Sparks, where the road leaves the river and starts to climb. The name is a surprise. One regional guide to the area says the site was the Lagomarsino Ranch, that George Lockwood bought it in 1916, and that the name "Lockwood" only took hold around 1968, after the 1960s era when the place was known for a brothel called Happy Valley. If that is right, no 1860s teamster ever called this spot Lockwood, and we could not confirm what the river end of the road was called in its working days.

What the surrounding country does show is how long people have used these canyons. Lagomarsino Canyon, between Lockwood and Virginia City, holds what is reported to be Nevada's largest petroglyph site, with some 2,229 recorded rock-art panels, some as much as 10,000 years old. Closer to the river, the community of Clark was settled around 1862 by James Clark, who raised potatoes and hay for the Virginia City market. Farm, mine, and mill all fed the same hill.

The Question of “Washington”

Halfway up the climb sits the place usually meant by "Washington." It was a small settlement in the Castle Peak mining district of Storey County, described as lying halfway up the Washington Toll Road between Lockwood and Lousetown. Sources also call it Red Mountain City or Washington City. One account says it was founded on February 29, 1864, as Red Mountain City on the old toll road; another says only that it was established in 1864 and abandoned in the 1870s, a life of about ten years.

Washington was built on hope. Prospectors expected the nearby silver ledges to pay, and a substantial mill was built downhill to treat the ore, but the mines never lived up to the promise. The camp never grew large enough to earn its own post office or newspaper and leaned on Virginia City for both. A toll station probably served travelers (one writer guesses at a hotel, restaurant, and livery, which is an inference, not a documented fact). Stone foundations on the hilltop, a possible corral, the ruins of a mill, a remnant known as Whiskey Bill's cabin, and a later house built by William Henry Goodburn are what remain.

The road outlived the town. A ghost-town writer reports it was designated State Route 45 in 1953 and dropped from the official highway listings in 1976, after which locals simply called it Lousetown Road. Two cautions: this is not Washoe City, which sits in Washoe Valley on the far side of the Comstock, and it is not the unrelated Washington mining district in central Nevada. We found no 1860s document describing the town; everything above rests on modern ghost-town sources that largely agree with one another.

Lousetown: A Stop on the Road

The best-documented place on the route is Lousetown. Nevada Historical Marker No. 41, erected in 1968 by the Julia C. Bulette Chapter of E Clampus Vitus on Geiger Grade Road (State Route 341), reads in part: "North of this marker, a station was established in 1860 on Geiger and Tilton's new toll road from Truckee Meadows. Fine springs, terminus of several wood roads, and a population of teamsters, stock and sheep men were found at Lousetown. Nevada's most unique name." It adds that the area saw the first Virginia City railroad surveys, a first ice project, a race track with trap shooting and picnic grounds, the first telegraph line to Reno, and the largest toll station in the area.

Other accounts fill in the street scene: saloons, freight yards, blacksmith and wagon-repair shops, and overnight beds for teamsters at roughly 6,400 feet. The racetrack drew Virginia City crowds, and one source says boxing matches and gambling banned in town found a home here. The same source calls it Nevada's first horse track and ties it to the breeder Theodore Winters. We could not verify the "first track" claim; Winters' own state marker confirms only that he raised outstanding race horses at his Washoe Valley ranch.

The name. The marker calls it unique and stops there. One ghost-town writer says it was not named for lice at all but is a play on "Louisa Town," with no source given. We treat that as plausible but unproven.

The dates. The marker places the station in 1860, yet Geiger and Tilton's franchise was not granted until November 1861 and the road was built in 1862 and 1863. Either the station predates the toll road or the marker's date is loose; we could not resolve it. Another listing records Lousetown as officially abandoned on January 1, 1879, and an 1883 map is the earliest map reference one gazetteer could find.

Stages, Freight, and Toll Roads

Toll roads were private businesses, each with a franchise, a gate, and a schedule of fees. The Old Geiger Grade marker (No. 211, 1978) describes the traffic: Concord stages, mud wagons, and ten-mule freighters carrying thousands of passengers and millions in cargo, along with "unpredictable winds, snows, landslides and the everlasting danger of lurking highwaymen." Dead Man's Point and Robber's Roost are named on it. The Online Nevada Encyclopedia, however, calls the grade's hairpin turns and steep slopes impractical for freight, though popular with stage operators. The two accounts conflict, and the likelier truth is that the steepest pitches favored light coaches while heavy loads sought gentler ground.

That is where a route like the Lockwood road earns its place. Lousetown was the "terminus of several wood roads," which points to timber and cordwood coming down from the range to feed the Comstock's mills and mines. In 1866, according to one regional account, Messrs. Baldwin and Tritle proposed a Virginia Truckee Toll Road through Long Valley as the "easiest, shortest" way to the Comstock; a narrow-gauge railroad was surveyed along it in 1867, and another proposal in 1877 was never begun. The road is described as still passable from Lockwood to Geiger Grade.

Why the Road Faded

The railroad changed the arithmetic. The Virginia & Truckee broke ground on February 18, 1869, began passenger service on February 1, 1870, and drove the last spike on its Reno extension on August 24, 1872. Hauling ore by wagon cost about $7 a ton; by rail it cost about $3. Across the Sierra, the Henness Pass road was eclipsed when the transcontinental railroad crossed at Donner Pass in 1868.

On the Lockwood road, the evidence points to a slow fade rather than a single blow. Washington was abandoned in the 1870s. Lousetown lost its stage trade as the Geiger Grade drew traffic and was largely deserted by the late 1870s. Geiger Grade remained the direct highway between the Comstock and Truckee Meadows until it was paved and realigned in 1936.

What Remains Today

Lousetown Road is now a county road of about nine miles, running between roughly 4,500 and 5,700 feet through canyons and high plains, with old stone ruins and wild horses along the way. It is suited to street-legal vehicles, the land beyond the road is private or off limits, and conditions change, so check before you go. At Washington you can still find hilltop foundations and mill ruins. At the Lousetown marker on Geiger Grade Road, foundations remain and the faint ovals of the old racetracks can still be made out.

At a Glance: The Old Road to Virginia City

• The route ran from the Truckee River at today's Lockwood, past Washington, through Lousetown, and on to Virginia City; the modern remnant is Lousetown Road.
• Geiger and Tilton's franchise was granted November 29, 1861; their toll road was built in 1862 and fully open in 1863.
• "Washington" was a Castle Peak district camp on the Washington Toll Road, founded in 1864 and abandoned in the 1870s.
• Lousetown was a teamsters' stop with springs, wood roads, shops, saloons, and a racetrack, marked by Nevada Historical Marker No. 41.
• The Virginia & Truckee Railroad (1869 to 1872) cut ore-hauling costs from about $7 to $3 a ton and ended the wagon era.
• The origin of the name "Lousetown," the exact 1860 date, and Lockwood's 1860s name remain unverified.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where was Lousetown, and is anything left?

Lousetown stood in the hills about four miles north of Virginia City, with its state marker on Geiger Grade Road (State Route 341) and the old townsite lying north of it. Foundations and the faded racetracks remain; there is no town.

Why was it called Lousetown?

Nobody has documented it. The state marker only calls it "Nevada's most unique name." One writer suggests it derives from "Louisa Town" rather than lice, but gives no source, so treat the story as unproven.

What is "Washington" on the Lockwood road?

A small mining and toll-road settlement in the Castle Peak district of Storey County, founded in 1864 (also called Red Mountain City) and abandoned in the 1870s. It is not Washoe City, which lies in Washoe Valley.

How did this road relate to Geiger Grade, and why did it fade?

It ran alongside Geiger Grade and joined routes toward Virginia City near Lousetown. When the Virginia & Truckee Railroad arrived in 1869 to 1872 and Geiger Grade took the stage trade, the camps along the Lockwood road emptied out.

Conclusion

The Lockwood road is a reminder that the Comstock was built as much by teamsters, toll keepers, and woodcutters as by mine owners. A spring, a wood road, a livery, and a racetrack were enough to make a town, and a railroad was enough to end it. What survives is thin, but it is real: a county road, a few stone foundations, and a marker with the most unusual name in Nevada.

If a day of looking at history makes you want to hold some of it, plan a visit to the Eclection or see what to know before the Reno Antique Faire. Our curated collection is chosen for the craftsmanship and history each piece carries.

Resources & Further Reading

For deeper study of the Comstock and its roads, these non-commercial sources are reliable starting points:

• Online Nevada Encyclopedia — articles on the Geiger Grade, the Comstock, and Nevada's toll roads.
• Reno Historical — photographs and local history of the Truckee Meadows.
• Nevada Historical Society — the state's museum and research library for Nevada history.