A longstanding belief is that Walley's Hot Springs was Nevada's first hydrothermal, health resort. According to Walley's obituary published in the Carson Valley News for March 13, 1875, the spa opened a couple of miles south of Genoa in 1862.

A survey was made for Walley, and partners Jacob Jetter and J. W. Brown, on Nov. 20 and filed with the Douglas County Recorder on Dec. 1. With just a tent for shelter, baths sold for 50 cents each. Walley erected the first bathhouse the following year, and in 1864 Walley's wife, Harriet, arrived from the East to help run Genoa Hot Springs resort.

"From a mere rock pile has risen a magnificent hotel, bathhouses, stabling and ball room," the weekly news proclaimed after Walley's unexpected death at age 56 in Carson City's Ormsby House.

A handful of N

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