In October, my wife and I were out exploring in the wilds of Churchill County and found ourselves in the historic and forgotten town of La Plata. After walking around what is left of the buildings of what was once the county seat, we saw a concrete marker or monument standing on a flat area in front of the one remaining wall of a main building. It was obvious that there was once a plaque of some sort on that monument. The holes that were drilled out for what would likely be bolts to hold the plaque in place are still visible but whatever the plaque had been, was gone. It was replaced by a piece of paper stating that “some *&^%” had stolen it.
I later posted on several Fallon Facebook pages, my concern about this loss of history and posted pictures of the monument missing its plaque. Almost immediately, someone posted a picture of what the plaque had looked like from http://www.forgottennevada.org/sites/laplata.html. The plaque was some sort of bronze material so probably worth something in today’s black market. Later, a longtime Fallon resident, Julia Bennett, reached out to me by email after reading my Facebook post. She let me know that if I was willing to take it up there, she’d make a new plaque out of granite so that hopefully it would have no value to a thief. I agreed to do it and she got to work.
This past Saturday the 11th of December, my wife and I traveled back to La Plata and mounted the new marker. I am thrilled to report it is up and ready to greet the next people to explore this beautiful site. I want to thank Julia for making this marker and giving me the chance to return it to its rightful place. I hope that the readers of this article will take the time to make the trip and pay a visit to one of Nevada’s truly forgotten places.
Bill Post is a new Churchill County resident coming from Oregon where he served as a State Legilator. His wife teaches in the Churchill County School District and we are glad to have them in our community.
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