With just under 39,000 residents, Lyon County is the largest of the three counties if you’re counting people, the second-largest, at 1,994 square miles, if you’re measuring area and probably the most diverse if you’re tallying lifestyles.

At the Peri & Sons onion farms out of Yerington, the world's largest soil-to-supermarket onion supplier, according to owner Butch Peri, ethnic diversity has increased since the business opened in 1979. "Right now, of my full-time employees, around 50 of them are Hispanic or Mexican and 20 of them are Caucasian," he said. "We also employ more than 500 contract workers through the U.S. government during our harvest season, which runs from August to November." Peri said the contract workers at the Mason Valley farms are mostly Mexican or Hispanic laborers. He also said fulltime workers at the farm make a good living, with top people making $50,000 to $60,000 per year.

In addition to Yerington, the county seat, Lyon County has nine other communities, Dayton, Mark Twain, Mound House, Silver City, Silver Springs, Stagecoach, Smith Valley, Wellington and Fernley. The county is run by an elected board of five county commissioners and one county manager.

David Fulstone II is the commission chair this year, and says Lyon County faces many diverse issues, from controlling growth while preserving history, to maintaining roads and managing water from the three rivers, the Walker, Carson and Truckee, that flow through the county.

Lyon County calls itself ‘Star of Nevada’

"We call Lyon County ‘The star of Nevada,’ because it’s star-shaped, and each point of the star is diverse, from historic mining in Dayton and Silver City to some of the best industry in Nevada, plus residential growth in Fernley, to agricultural land in Smith and Mason valleys, which are largely unchanged today," says Fulstone, whose family first came to Nevada in 1858, making him a (proud) fifth-generation Yerington farmer. "In a word, Lyon County is ‘dynamic.’"

The Dayton area is slated to become even more dynamic, with the construction of Occidental Square, the area’s first large commercial business complex. Also, Chase Development, a 4,500-home planned community, is still in the application process with the county.

One historic Lyon County settlement, Silver City, on the road to Virginia City, was a teeming part of the Comstock Lode during the last half of the 1850s. Today, Silver City is hilly, small and unpretentious, with what some say has "the largest concentration of Ph.D. anthropologists in the state."

Sherry Mattei has been the postmaster at Silver City’s post office, the state’s fourth oldest, for more than eight years, and says today’s Silver City residents prize privacy and solitude above all else. A native Nevadan, Mattei greets every postal customer by name.

"People here are very friendly, and politically active, too," she says. "In fact, we may have the largest percentage of registered voters in the state."

Tiny Storey County known for its wild mustangs and colorful towns

Storey County is the smallest county of the three, with a little more than 3,600 permanent residents in 263 square miles. There are lots of wild mustangs to be seen, though, and that makes drivers pause along the narrow roads.

In Gold Hill, population under 200 now (but around 8,000 in its heyday), Nevada’s "oldest working hotel," the Gold Hill Hotel, keeps history alive with weekly lectures. The 1859 hotel was purchased by Bill and Carol Fain in 1986 and eventually expanded. Still, two rooms in the original hotel have their own ghosts. "Rosie is in room four and if you smell roses, that’s her," Bill says. "And William is in room five and if you smell cigars, that’s him."

On staff at the Gold Hill Hotel, Robin Rondeau says the people in Gold Hill and Virginia City are so friendly they wave to each other on that single two-lane highway into and out of town.

"Everybody knows everybody," she says. "It’s very ‘small town.’"

"Maybe it’s bad that we all live in a fishbowl, but when people ask me where I go for vacation, I tell them I stay here," says Robin’s brother, Richard Rondeau, who also works at the hotel. Their father, Charles Rondeau, was a Hollywood director of television shows, including "Hawaii Five-0," "Bonanza," "Batman" and others. Robin and Richard say they like living in a smaller, more private place than Hollywood.

"I live in Virginia City, and it’s quiet," Richard says. "The best thing is, it’s not the suburbs."

Virginia City, home to an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people (depending on whom you ask) during the Comstock peak, is a historic treasure so worth preserving that the State of Nevada in 1969 established the Comstock Historic District Commission to protect it. Bert Bedeau is district administrator for the Virginia City office and has worked there two years, coming from Idaho. He says "heritage tourism" to historic locales is the fastestgrowing segment of the traveling population right now.

"I really think preservation is the key in Nevada, it’s what makes us unique, especially in the north," he says. "We can’t take these old buildings for granted, and here in Virginia City, in the Comstock historic district, we’re learning from the mistakes of other communities. Our job is to protect this history for the people of Nevada."

Churchill County has as many cows as people

Churchill County is the largest in size, at 4,929 square miles, with a population of a little more than 25,000 residents and maybe as many cows. According to County Manager Bjorn "B.J." Selinder, 95 percent of Churchill County’s residents are concentrated in a 12-mile radius around Fallon, the county’s main community.

"We have a lot of open space here, since the population is so concentrated," he says. The county is run by three elected county commissioners and Selinder, and this year one of the biggest challenges they face is balancing their budget. "Our economy actually mirrors the federal government pretty closely, which is very different than most of Nevada," he says. "We have a pretty stable economy, with the agriculture here (more than 50,000 acres in cultivation), coupled with the military, the Fallon Naval Air Station - those are our two mainstays."

Selinder says Churchill County has the oldest wooden courthouse, built in 1903, still in daily use, and the only countyowned telephone company in the United States, established by the board of county commissioners in 1889.

"We have 15,000 subscribers and broadband, and all the bells and whistles," he says.

Churchill County is widely known as one of the best places in the state to watch birds. Carson Lake, Stillwater Refuge, Soda Lake and Fallon itself, with its picturesque irrigation canals running through town, are all home to thousands of migrating and resident birds, including swans, ibis, heron, egrets, scads of ducks, geese and all the blackbird species.

Selinder himself is a rare bird, he says, having lived in Churchill County for 30 years, and serving as county manager for 28 of those years. While growth is slow just now, he likes the direction the county is headed, trying to invite clean businesses in and also tap one of the area’s unique natural resources.

"We’re sitting on some of the largest known geothermal resource areas here," he says. "It’s also been said that they were the best-kept little secret in Nevada." And speaking of secrets, it shouldn’t be a surprise that in every one of these three historic counties, there are tales of ghosts, hauntings and spirits, both malevolent and friendly, that await your company.