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Adan Uber's Curse
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Genoa couthouse photo by Bill Oberding
Genoa is Nevada's oldest town. Golf, antique shops and charming b and b's aside, this picturesque little town at the foot of the Sierras has a dark past that began in a stand of tall Cottonwood trees just outside of town. Here is where an angry mob lynched Adam Uber on a long ago November night in 1897.
A friendless young man who kept to himself, Uber believed Hans Anderson when he threatened to beat him senseless in a local bar. And so he pulled his gun and fired. Anderson was beyond hope. And Uber was rushed to the Genoa jail.
Emboldened by alcohol, an angry mob gathered. Uber was guilty. Why wait for a trial? The phone lines were cut and the men rushed the jail. The Sheriff and the constable were held at gunpoint while Uber was pulled from his courthouse jail cell. What thoughts ran through the doomed man's mind as he was dragged down the lane toward the Cottonwood trees we will never know. 
As they yanked him up and knotted the noose around his neck, Adam Uber placed a curse upon each and every one of them. It wouldn't stop there. His curse, he warned them, would follow through for seven generations. Someone pulled the rope and Uber was hoisted into eternity. Not satisfied with their cruel deed, some of the men shot wildly at Uber's lifeless body as it swung in the tree.
The senseless lynching shocked the state. The Carson Appeal called the lynching as needless as it was cowardly. There was no possible excuse for the lynching and it was attended by circumstances of extreme cruelty and brutality.
Appalled, Governor Sadler offered a $500 reward for the arrest and conviction of those responsible. The reward was never collected.
But it was not the end of Adam Uber. One by one, his angry ghost visited those who had ridden with the lynching party that night.
A vengeful ghost is the worst sort. Those who'd been involved cringed in fear lest the ghost come to see them. A few of those who'd help to string Uber up died by their own hands, one of the men was maimed in a freak runaway horse accident very near the spot where Uber met his fate. All of them met terrible ends.
The tall group of Cottonwood trees where Adam Uber was hanged still stand just outside of Genoa. According to some, the phantom of Adam Uber is seen there on certain moonlit nights.
Heads up to anyone who visits for the first time. Here in Nevada we have our own way of pronouncing the name of our state and the names of some towns and cities. Genoa is pronounced: "juh-NO-ah" not “JEN-o-wah
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