The Johnson Lane area is not very old compared to Minden, Gardnerville and Genoa, but it does have an interesting history. When Martin Johnson homesteaded a parcel close to Highway 395, he named the road Johnson Lane. Then the pavement ended at Heybourne Road where there was a cattle guard. Anyone else brave enough to homestead the area had to drive on dirt roads.
There were only a few homesteaders back in the 1950s - The Christensens, Claphams, Downs, Dudleys, Edwards and Yowells. Willi and Nanny Huf bought five acres from the Dudleysin 1959 at the end of Johnson Lane. Sadly, Willi passed away last year at age 80. He was unofficially called the "Mayor of Johnson Lane."
Back in the early days, the Johnson Lane area was called "Banana Flat," although no one's ever seen banana trees here.
Clapham, of course, was named after Harry Clapham. Harry Clapham's daughter was named Vicki. So he named that street after her.
Walter Sr. and Bessie Downs moved to the east end of Stephanie on Esaw in the 1950s and homesteaded 160 acres. They had to plant a crop, live on the property, make improvements and pay an application fee to qualify for their homestead. They cleared 20 acres by hand and planted rye. They also raised rabbits to sell for meat and chickens to sell the eggs.
Betty Downs, who was married to Walter Jr., says she remembers what Walter Sr. used to reply when someone asked, "Where do you live?" He'd say, "Tinsome Plum," which he meant "10 miles and then some and plum full of bushes."
Loretta Lundergreen was one of Walt and Bessie's children, and when asked how some of the roads got named, for instance, Chowbuck, she laughed. When her brother was a little boy and someone would ask him a question or he'd get frustrated, he'd say "Chowbuck!" It was funny, Loretta said, so his father named a street after it. Stephanie was named after her grandson, Stephen. Jones was named after Loretta's married name.
Rose and Gary J. Downs (son of Walt and Bessie) were also among the early homestead families. Gary passed away recently. Rose remembers life was hard with no power, water, phones and no cable television. In fact, there was no television at all. When Dangberg's windmill was running to water his sheep, residents would get water from the windmill, but if it wasn't, they would have to haul water from town.
The bus stop was at the end of the paved road where the cattle guard was. In winter, it made for a dangerous trek. Rose said if you rolled off the rotten, icy, snowy road, you'd just wait in your car till someone would come by and help pull you out.
Wildlife was abundant back then. There were lots of mustangs, deer, mountain lions, hawks and eagles, sometimes bears. Rose said one year in the '60s, snow was so deep, helicopters hauled hay for the mustangs. There still his wildlife; two mustangs crossed one of the nearby street last February, and most residents of East Valley and Johnson Lane remember the bear that frequented fruit trees in the spring of 2006.
