As you turn off 1-80 onto State Highway 400 at Mill City, about halfway between Lovelock and Winnemucca, the beauty of the desert ranges becomes mesmerizing. Long valleys with distant ridges take shape and recede against the patterns of light, sand and sagebrush. Part of the romance of driving to Unionville, Nevada, is that you can quickly get by the White Man's West--even the West of the Paiute and older Great Basin cultures--to another time.
Suddenly you're nearing the era when giant sloths and mammoths roamed this place, when restless inland seas covered these vast valley floors. Unionville, nestled in Buena Vista Canyon, was quickly established after the discovery of silver in May, 1861. It immediately became the county seat of Humboldt and played an integral part in the great mining boom of the 1860's. At one point, the town was reported to have had as many as 1,500 citizens.
Today, Unionville is home to about 20 hearty souls. Mark Twain made his way through Unionville in the early 1860's and, as the story goes, had to tolerate a dinner of bacon and beans with no dessert, because the dried apple pies had already been eaten. That wouldn't happen today. The charm of present-day Unionville rests not only in its scenic beauty and historic relevance, but in the warmth and authenticity of the Old Pioneer Garden Country Inn, a bed and breakfast dating back to 1861.
Operated by Mitzi and Lew Jones for the past 12 years, it ranks high on
the list of true retreats. The main guest quarters are in the antique
Hadley House, which Lew has enlarged to include six bedrooms, three baths
and a kitchen with wood and gas stoves, should guests wish to prepare
their own meals. The thick rock walls of the original wagon maker's
residence now form shelter for one of the bedrooms and for the extensive
library, complete with fireplaces and over-stuffed reading chairs. A
sunroom with Persian carpets and a cozy bay-window overlooking the
creek are other delightful areas in which to rest.
Breakfasts are a special treat at the Old Pioneer Garden Inn and vary from fruit pancakes
and hickory coffee to fresh-laid over-easy eggs with home fries. Dinners
can be arranged, if guests prefer not to cook. These always include fresh
produce grown on the property.
Meals are served in the warm glow of
Mitzi's kitchen.
They usually come with a hearty serving of good
conversation from the hosts, and maybe a word from fellow travelers or
locals. 
Exploring remnants of the town's historic mining buildings, hiking canyon trails, coaxing German browns to give up stream bed hide-a-ways, and milking goats, before breakfast, are all viable pastimes.
Each season has its special benefit here: in summer Mitzi's whimsical
back-garden gazebo--a replica of one from Finland--offers a pleasant
mealtime setting or quiet spot for morning sun; in early fall, golden
browns of the canyon linger as deer step lightly along the creek-side; in
winter, a brisk after-dinner walk under starry skies is a satisfying
prelude to curling up with a good book in front of the library fire; and in
spring, of course, colorful wildflowers return, adding new life to the
desert. Within a half-hour drive, guests can soak in the steaming sulphur
pools at Kyle Hot Springs--once the setting for a hotel with changing
rooms. "The springs are a little rough," Mitzi cautions. "Some people love
them, and some people hate them; if you're the delicate kind, you'll hate
them." If all adventures have an element of danger and risk, then
Unionville is a true adventure---there's the danger of never wanting to
leave, and the risk of always wanting to return.
Return to Nevada Recreation Index Page.
