39° 28' 30"N, 118° 46' 37"W - FALLON quad

This website began as "Historic Sites of Churchill County" so while not a "ghost town" by any stretch of the imagination, we included Fallon. We've since expanded our interest to the entire state, but we're leaving the Fallon page. So, if you're from Yerington or Pioche or somewhere and miffed about your town not having its own page, oh well.

The crossroads at Mike Fallon's ranch (later, the corner of Williams and Maine) was first occupied by a store operated by James Richards in 1884. Local Paiutes referred to the store as "Jim's Town," and the crossroads was referred to as "Jim's Town" until the post office was built in 1896, and was named Fallon. (Townley, Turn This Water Into Gold)

Wells Fargo & Co. Express had an agency in Fallon, NV from 1904 to mid-1918 when the federal government took over the nation's express. Following are the known agents with their year(s) of service: R.H. Douglass (1904-1906), W.P. Beach (1907), W.E. Lipscomb (1908) and O.F. Ambur (1909-1910). (Wells Fargo, personal correspondence)

Fallon didn't leave much of an impression on some Easterners. Effie Price Gladding, author of "Across the Continent by the Lincoln Highway- already in a bad mood by being tricked onto the awful Victory Highway- made these remarks in her 1915 book:

At Fallon, like most of these Nevada towns, the hotel was merely a rooming house and meals were to be found at filthy cafes. The sad old man who owned the rooming house was so interested in our tale of the Victory Highway that he called the only reporter in town on the `phone at six the next morning and as we were starting east the gentleman of the press ran after us tying on his tie and plying me with questions. He agreed with me that it was an outrage for anyone in Reno to divert motorists from the Lincoln Highway onto the practically impassable Victory.

Well golly Bob howdy, we got ourselves a Wal Mart, a giant Naval Air Station, slick shopping centers, new houses popping up everywhere, green fields, happy cows, and best of all- Bob's Root Beer is open all year 'round! Since this website began as a treatise on only Churchill County historic sites, Fallon got itself included in the list even though it's not what you'd call a "ghost town." This is also why directions to all sites begin in Fallon, in case you were wondering.

How much has Fallon changed? In some respects, it's almost unrecognizable; in others, probably not much. I grew up there, moving out from the Jersey Shore in 1968 to a weird and different place. The differences between Point Pleasant, New Jersey and Fallon, Nevada would take more time than I have to describe. Fallon was a great place to grow up, despite a great urge to leave after high school, part of me wishes I could go back, to Fallon V.1968, or maybe even Fallon V.1958, when "things were different" than they are today. Recently, passing through Ely, I got the same feeling, like time had stopped or at least slowed down to a syrupy slow speed, where you could take time to see what was going on.

The poet Richard Brautigan briefly found himself in Fallon in the 1950's, and his poetry was published by the Fallon Standard.

Is Brautigan's Fallon is still around somewhere?

The Breeze
by Richard Brautigan

In the time
of the evening
all things
grow cool again
in Fallon
when God
starts caressing
this city
with
His great hands.

UPDATE:There are some historic Fallon street maps in the Lincoln Highway section of the web site as well.