Historic buildings quickly find foster parents

Instead, the creamery, schoolhouse and blacksmith shop were snapped up by foster parents eager to complete restoration of the buildings.

"I can't ask for anything better than that. I think community interest in this thing is still very high," said Bill Chamberlain, who is coordinating the Sherman Station project for the chamber.

Chamberlain said he expects the outbuildings at Elko's city park to be ready for tourists by June 1.

The big log house that's the centerpiece of the display near the convention center won't be ready, however.

The first floor of that structure will be reconstructed under a $529,316 federal grant administered by Nevada Department of Transportation for a tourist center, gift shop, historic displays, chamber offices and North East Nevada Development Authority offices.

Southwest Gas Corp. has adopted the school building, Soroptimists International of Elko has adopted the creamery and JR's restaurant and Gold Country Inn adopted the blacksmith shop, Chamberlain said. A tentative May 16 workday is planned.

And the Elko Garden Club and Elko Garden and Landscape are designing a plan for landscaping at Sherman Station.

Valentine Walther built the Sherman Station log house in 1903 in Huntington Valley. Born in 1842, he left Germany when he was 17 and later came out West with a Mormon wagon train when he heard about gold in Nevada.

After trying his hand at mining, Valentine Walther was ready to garden, and he homesteaded first in Diamond Valley and later moved to Sherman Canyon.

He also sent for his childhood sweetheart in Germany, and they had a dozen children.

Valentine Walther gardened, sold vegetables in Elko and Eureka and broke horses.

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