l Dorado, meaning “The Gilded One”, was first known as Mud Springs from the
boggy quagmire the cattle and horses made of a nearby watering place.
Originally a important camp along the old Carson Emigrant Trail, by 1849 – 50 it
had become the center of a mining district and the crossroads for freight and stage
lines. At the height of the Gold Rush its large gold production supported a
population of several thousand. A Trading post, emigrant stop, and mining camp of
the 1850’s, this became one of the remount stations of the Central Overland Pony
Express. Here at the Nevada House on April 13, 1860, pony rider William (Sam)
Hamilton changed horses while carrying the first west-bound mail of the Pony
Express from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California
Hiram Lodge No.43: Free and Accepted Masons, was chartered in the town of
Mud Springs, as it was then called, on May 16, 1854. The Lodge met in rented
buildings until the completion of this brick edifice in 1862. Through a series of
consolidations with other area lodges, our Lodge is now known as Hiram Lodge
No. 25.
to make good men better!
