08/29/2026
A Little History of Schurz and the Walker River Paiute Tribe.
I spent some time traveling around Schurz and the Walker River Paiute Reservation, taking photos and learning more about the history behind the places we sometimes drive past without thinking about. Thanks Andrea Martinez.
The Walker River Paiute people, the Agai Dicutta Numa “Trout Eater People,” have a deep relationship with Walker River and Walker Lake (Agai Pahnunadu) that goes back long before the reservation, highways, railroad or nearby military installations. The reservation was formally established in 1874, with Schurz eventually becoming its governmental and community center.
The railroad through Schurz has a particularly interesting history. In 1880, Walker River Paiute leaders negotiated with the Carson & Colorado Railroad to allow a railroad across reservation lands. In exchange, the Tribe was promised payment and free transportation for tribal members and their fish, game and other products. The tracks were built through the reservation in the early 1880s, and the railroad station helped give Schurz its present-day name. Nearly a century later, questions about that original right-of-way resulted in important federal court decisions involving tribal land rights and sovereignty.
Water tells another major part of the story. The Walker River flows through the reservation and into Walker Lake, the ancestral lake of the Agai Dicutta. As upstream water diversions increased, the Tribe fought to protect its water. Weber Dam and Reservoir, constructed from 1933–1935, became an important part of the Walker River Indian Irrigation Project, storing water for agriculture on the reservation. It still is today.
Schurz also sits between two major military installations with long relationships to the Tribe. Hawthorne Army Depot, originally established as a Navy ammunition depot in 1930, is connected through the railroad, munitions transportation, emergency response, employment and cultural-resource protection around Walker Lake and Mount Grant. NAS Fallon has a separate history with Walker River involving military training lands, contamination of tribal lands, cultural resources, federal compensation and negotiations over additional lands. My Father Albert Phoenix was stationed there after the Korean War.
The old buildings tell stories too the former school, the historic Schurz Indian Hospital area, the Methodist church, VFW All Indian Post 6825, and buildings identified locally as former Babbitt military housing brought from the Hawthorne area.
But Schurz isn’t only about the past.
Today you can see the Tribe continuing to develop its community through the Four Seasons businesses, Tumatzekwae Nobe, local businesses, tribal programs, health services and even electric-vehicle charging infrastructure along U.S. 95. The highways connecting Schurz with Fallon, Yerington and Hawthorne continue a transportation story that has been developing for more than a century. Thanks Andrea Martinez for all that you’ve done and do to keep the tribe moving forward like all the other leaders from the past!
Taking these photos gave me a much better appreciation for how everything connects:
The people, the river, Walker Lake, the railroad, the highways, Weber Reservoir, the military installations, the old buildings and today’s economic development.
There is a lot of history sitting right there in Schurz and a lot more still to learn, especially from the people and elders who know the stories behind these places.
History isn’t just what used to be there. It’s also understanding how the past helped shape what we see today.
I know there are a lot of us who have heard stories about Old Schurz Indian Hospital.  The hospital became an important regional center for native healthcare in Nevada and even serve native people coming from considerable distances. In 1955 responsibility for Indian healthcare nationally transferred from the BIA to the US Public Health Service . It is now known as the Indian Health Service.
Thanks for those who read this entire message and are now interested in researching on their own.
JJ Phoenix 🐦🔥 
