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By Jane Pieplow as featured in Volume 10 of In Focus
The
face of Fallon’s Maine Street has changed over the years, from a few
buildings at a dusty crossroads to the bustling business center it is
today. As time passes and each generation supercedes the last, it
becomes easier to forget exactly what Maine Street once looked like or
to feel a real connection to the people who had lived and worked there.
Often street and building names are repeated without the knowledge of
where the names came from, and local "legends" about Maine
Street activities are shelved with other dusty relics of the past.
One of the missions of the Churchill County Museum is to illuminate
the past for others to marvel at and enjoy. The following article on
Maine Street should bring back memories for those who have seen it
change over the decades and will tell its story to those who are unaware
of its history.
* * * * *
The city of Fallon had its beginnings in 1894 when Jim Richards built
a little general store at the crossroads of two well-traveled trails
which would become Maine Street and Williams Avenue. The Native
Americans and the earliest settlers called this area "Jim
Town." In 1896, a couple of blocks further west, Mike and Eliza
(Bruner) Fallon established a post office on their ranch. Soon the
little community was officially named "Fallon." The Mike
Fallon family sold their property to then Nevada State Senator Warren W.
Williams and by 1902, they had left the valley, leaving only the Fallon
name as their legacy.
As more buildings were built and businesses begun, real estate values
along Maine Street rose. By 1906 the street had been surveyed and the
Fallon Standard reported that every lot was now worth more than $100
per foot.
Local legend tells why the street is wider at Williams Avenue and
narrows as it approached Center Street. While Warren Williams gave land
for the north end of the street, John Oats generously donated ground at
the south end. When each man had finished pacing off a certain number of
strides, the longer-legged Williams had covered more territory than the
shorter Oats, thus the street narrows at the Oats property!
