Dayton versus Genoa

In 1849, a man by the name of John Reese went to California to try his luck in the famous California Gold Rush. He went back over the mountains to Utah Territory(now Nevada), for the winter. In the spring of 1850, he headed back to California. When he discovered that the mountains were still blocked with snow, he decided to build a trading post in a lush, grassy valley near the foothills of the daunting mountain range on the trail that led over the mountains. This trading post was basically just a "lean-to" type of structure that Reese used to sell supplies to California-bound gold seekers. This trading post opened in June of 1850 and closed in October of the same year.
The next spring, in 1851, a Mormon Elder by the name of Orson Hyde, arrived at the Mormon Station trading post. He, along with a group of about 100 people, had been dispatched by church leader Brigham Young to establish a town and set up a government in the western part of Utah Territory. His new town sprang up on the site of the crude trading post that had been established the previous summer. In the next few years, others moved in, both Mormon and non-Mormon and Mormon Station was soon a thriving town. In 1855, Orson Hyde renamed the town Genoa, because he admired Christopher Columbus and Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy. However, he changed the pronunciation from "JENN-0-a" to " jenn-OH-a" with accent on the second syllable. In 1857, many of the original settlers left when they were recalled by Brigham Young to participate in the "Utah War" that was raging back home. This left just a handful of people in Genoa, but the town did not become a ghost town, it still served as a supply center for the area. Before it became the county seat of Douglas County, Nevada, Mormon Station/Genoa was the county seat of Carson County, Utah.
While Genoa can trace its beginnings to June of 1850, it was not a permanent settlement until one year later, in 1851. The trading post that opened in June of 1850 closed the following November before winter conditions became too harsh. The locale was completely abandoned until the following spring.