The Panaca Ward Chapel (1867–1868) is the oldest building in Lincoln County.Old Panaca Mercantile, Nevada Historical Marker #93
The area that was to become the Panaca settlement was explored by Mormons in 1857. Brigham Young dispatched the explorers in order to locate a potential refuge in case of a U.S. military campaign against Utah. The location was selected due to the Meadow Valley oasis at the headwaters of the Muddy River. Mormon scouts began irrigation ditches and started fields, but the site was soon deserted after the feared violence never materialized.[6] Panaca was the first permanent settlement by European Americans in southern Nevada. It was founded as a Mormon colony in 1864.[7] It began as part of Washington County, Utah, but the congressional redrawing of boundaries in 1866 shifted Panaca into Nevada. It is the only community in Nevada to be "dry" (forbidding the sale of alcoholic beverages),[8] and the only community in Nevada, besides Boulder City, that prohibits gambling.[5]
Coke ovens here once produced charcoal for the smelters in nearby Bullionville (now a ghost town), but the town's economy is predominantly agricultural.
The name "Panaca" comes from the Southern Paiute word Pan-nuk-ker, which means "metal, money, wealth". William Hamblin, a Mormon missionary to the Paiutes, established the Panacker Ledge (Panaca Claim) silver mine there in 1864.[9]
Geography
Panaca Elementary School, 2011
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Panaca census-designated place has an area of 3.3 square miles (8.5 km2), all of it land.[4] Along Nevada State Route 319 it is 19 miles (31 km) east to the Utah state line and from there another 60 miles (97 km) east to Cedar City, Utah. West from Panaca it is 1.0 mile (1.6 km) to U.S. Route 93, at which point it is 11 miles (18 km) north to Pioche and 14 miles (23 km) south to Caliente.
Transportation
The Panaca area is served by the following highways:
Panaca celebrates Pioneer Day on the Saturday closest to July 24. Events include cannon firing at 6 A.M., games and races, a parade, art displays, and a community dinner. This coincides with the Utah holiday commemorating the arrival of the Mormon pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley.[12][13]
Brooks, Juanita (Spring 1971). "A Place of Refuge"(PDF). Nevada Historical Society Quarterly. 14 (1): 13–24. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
Earl, Phillip I. (1986). "Panaca: Meadow Valley Mormon Outpost". This Was Nevada. Nevada Historical Society. OCLC144709060.
Edwards, Elbert B. (Summer 1971). "The Panaca Co-Op — A Way of Life"(PDF). Nevada Historical Society Quarterly. 14 (2): 58–61. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
Hall, Stephen L. (August 2004). Utah in Nevada: Expected and Aberrant Landscapes in the Mormon Village of Panaca, Nevada (M.S.). University of Nevada, Reno.
Panaca Centennial Book Committee; Lee, Ruth; Wadsworth, Sylvia, eds. (1966). A Century in Meadow Valley, 1864-1964. Salt Lake City: Deseret News.
Vanderbeek, Helen Free (1983). George Allen Wadsworth: Pilley to Panaca. Baltimore: Gateway Press. LCCN83080905.
