Reese River Navigation Company

In 1860, a group of “businessmen” formed the Reese River Navigation Company and sent ads and posters back East showing large steamers on the river towing ore barges up to Battle Mountain. Gullible Easterners, hoping to cash in on Nevada’s potential millions, bought the company’s stock well until a group of investors came to Lander County to inspect the enterprise. Although the Reese River stretches over 100 miles from the Toiyabe Range to Battle Mountain, writer Phillip I. Earl described it as “barely ankle deep at flood tide and even less spectacular during the dry season,” usually shallow enough for a wagon to ford at full speed without jarring its passengers. When news of the hoax reached investors, the “businessmen” closed the company and vanished, yet the stock was reportedly still selling in New York in 1916, and the Reese River Navigation Company became one of the greatest hoaxes in Western history.

Austin, Nevada · United States