Alpine and Douglas are very much twin counties, with Alpine established March 16, 1864, seven months before Nevada achieved statehood and a dozen years after Genoa was founded.
The county is actually five square miles bigger than Douglas, but there are only 1,200 Alpiners calling it home, according to the 2020 Census.
The two counties also established historical societies around the same time with the first meetings for the Carson Valley Historical Society formed in 1961 and Alpine County’s society in 1963.
Over the past 60 years, both counties’ historical societies have collected a significant trove of historical artifacts, including some from the earliest pioneer days and before.
While Douglas County’s historical society has operated independently of the county, due to its small population Alpiners decided their historical society would work with the county.
We recall back in 2004, when what was then known as the Carson Valley Historical Society was struggling financially, that many proponents pointed to the relationship between Alpine and its historical society as an exemplar Douglas could follow.
Douglas does contribute to the Douglas County Historical Society, which operates both the Genoa Courthouse Museum and the Carson Valley Museum & Cultural Center, but the society has its own board of directors, staff and membership.
We’ve been working on the current disagreement between Alpine County and the Alpine County Historical Society, and we sincerely hope that both sides can come to the table and resolve their differences.
But we’ve seen instances where that didn’t happen and instead of resolution, there have been bitterly fought arguments that have lasted so long they’ve become historical in their own right.
Regardless of who comes out on top, neither Alpine County nor the Historical Society will be better for the conflict, and that’s our real concern.
