Schurz, NV

Schurz sits in northwestern Mineral County at the junction of U.S. Route 95 and U.S. Route 95 Alternate, thirty-four miles south of Hawthorne and thirty-seven miles north of Fallon. The community is on the Walker River Indian Reservation, where the Walker River Paiute Tribe’s headquarters and departments cluster in Schurz. The post office has been here since 1891, and the town’s namesake is Carl Schurz, secretary of the interior. The road map says Nevada; the everyday civic map is tribal.

The Walker River Paiute Tribe’s own name, Agai Dicutta, means Trout Eaters, and its history reaches across the Great Basin. Schurz is also tied to Wovoka, the Northern Paiute leader associated with the Ghost Dance, whose burial place is here. Tribal services include health, education, housing, public utilities, and social services, all of which make Schurz more than a highway junction. The local scoop is a reservation headquarters town with desert roads, a long post-office history, and Paiute history built into the modern community.