State Parks news release:
SILVER SPRINGS — Join Fort Churchill State Park Ranger Mike Dinauer and local community organizer Linda Conlin for the birthday remembrances of Sam and Eliza Buckland performed at Buckland Station.
Performances will be on the anniversary of Eliza’s Buckland’s birthday, September 5 and Sam Buckland’s on September 13. Chautauqua performances will be held twice daily both days at 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Each performance will be about 45 minutes to an hour long. Admission to the Chautauqua performance is $1.00 per person. Birthday cupcakes will be served free of charge.
Sam Buckland came west in 1850 to make his fortune in the gold fields of California. Like many miners of the times Sam found earning a living off gold mining was not an easy venture.
He moved back to Nevada in 1858 and in 1859 purchased the land where Buckland Station now sits. Buckland contracted with both the Overland Stage Company and Majors and Wadell’s Pony Express to provide services for both. Buckland also built a toll bridge, operated a tent hotel and sold wholesale groceries, hay and barley.
In 1860 Eliza Prentis arrived at Buckland on a wagon train bound for California. Sam and Eliza struck up a romantic relationship and married later that year. Both
In 870 Fort Churchill was decommissioned and sold to Sam Buckland for $750. Sam took all the salvageable lumber, windows and doors from the building and built the historic two story ‘Buckland Station’ that sits on site today. Both Sam and Eliza Buckland were a vital part of Nevada’s history and as such will be remembered in the Birthday Chautauqua performances.
Buckland Station is approximately nine miles south of Silver Springs on Highway 95A, cross the railroad tracks and Buckland Station is the large, two-story, white building on your left about a half mile south of the tracks.
Parking is free, but limited at Buckland Station; however, additional parking can be found directly across the highway at the Orchard. Seating is limited to approximately 30 people.
