Walley’s Hot Springs & “Baby Face” Nelson

Walley’s Hot Springs has been a treat for travelers for over 160 years. During the silver rush, Comstock’s elite and miners traveled via rail and wagon for the health benefits of the natural waters. The resort was first-class, offering visitors every imaginable service, including a grand ballroom. U.S. Presidents, Hollywood movie stars and even Chicago gangsters soaked, relaxed, and used Walley’s as a hideout.

The earliest visitors

The Washoe Tribe was the first to utilize the warm waters at the base of the Sierra, south of Genoa. The Mormon Batallion and emigrants on the Carson River Route were the first non-native people to encounter the warm waters.

David & Harriet Walley

In the late 1800s, hot springs became popular. Visitors believed the warm waters, minerals, and fresh air offered various health benefits. Some hot springs even advertised healing “secondary sins.”  

David Walley located a natural hot spring south of Genoa. In 1861, he began his enterprise charging fifty cents a bath.

In 1862, Walley and his wife, Harriet, built a forty-room luxury hotel with eleven baths and a swimming pool. They spent an estimated $100,000 to create a first-class operation, including a ballroom and gardens. While there were other hot springs in western Nevada, including Steamboat Springs and Carson Hot Springs, Walleys drew the elite.

The resort offered mud baths, bathrooms with hot water, showers, a masseuse and a physician. Billy Wilson ran a stage between the V&T and Walleys three days a week. The line ran from the St. Charles Hotel in Carson City on alternating days.

Walley’s establishment became famous among Virginia City’s elite and was known for curing a host of ailments, including rheumatism, syphilis and Scrofulous afflictions. Even Samuel Clemens, later known as Mark Twain, enjoyed the famous healing waters.

These springs, without a doubt, have no equal on this coast for the cure of rheumatism and all afflictions that necessitate me visiting them. I now leave without crutch or cane, entirely well, not only relieved from pain but gained in spirit.

Mark Twain, 1887

David died in 1875, and his wife ran until she died in 1896. Heirs sold for $5,500 to John and Dick Raycraft.

In 1935, a fire destroyed the hotel, leaving only the stone structures: a cool cellar and bath.

A Chicago gangster comes to Walley’s

United States presidents and Hollywood stars Clark Gable and Carole Lombard enjoyed soaking in Walley’s famous waters. The mob also thought Walleys made a great place to hide from the long arm of the law.

Lester Joseph Gillis, better known as “Baby Face” Nelson, was a notorious Chicago gangster. Nelson started his career early as a “youthful lawbreaker” who ended up in reform school by age 12 after shooting an associate. Multiple parole violations extended his incarceration. Not to be deterred from his life of crime, Nelson joined other teens running bootleg hooch. Under the tutelage of other gangsters, Nelson expanded his repertoire of criminal behavior.

In 1932, at age 23, Nelson was serving a one-year to life sentence for bank robbery at Joliet Penitentiary. He was moved from the prison to face charges of another bank robbery. On the return trip to the prison, Nelson punched the guard and went on the lamb.

Mob connections helped Nelson, his wife and affiliates relocate to Reno and then San Fransisco. Old ways are difficult to change; Nelson used Reno as a base for bank robberies across the country. Following the killing of an FBI agent, Carter Baum, in 1934, Nelson became the most wanted man in America.

With the heat turned up, Nelson fled to the warm waters of Walley’s Hot Springs. “Baby Face,” his wife, Helen Wawrzyniak Gillis, and other mob affiliates hid at Walley’s for a month, enjoying bathing, dances, and chicken dinners.  

Within a month of leaving Walley’s Hot Springs, the gang headed back east, stealing a car on November 26, 1934. The following day, the FBI learned of Nelson’s location in Barrington, Illinois. A firefight ensued, resulting in the deaths of Special Agent Hollis and Inspector Cowley. Nelson was seriously injured but fled the scene. He died at 8 pm. An anonymous tip led the FBI to his body in a cemetery in Niles Center, Illinois.

Visiting Walley’s Hot Springs Today

Over 160 years after David Walley developed the springs and charged fifty cents a bath, visitors worldwide come to soak in the hot springs. While relaxing, it is not unusual to overhear Russian, German, and Japanese speakers. After bathing, you can enjoy a delicious dinner at the 1862 Restaurant & Saloon and stay in one of their many accommodations.

WANT MORE GHOST TOWNS?

For information on more than five hundred ghost towns in Nevada & California, visit the Nevada Ghost Towns Map or a list of Nevada ghost towns.

Nevada Ghost Towns Map

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References

• The Buffalo News Wednesday, November 28, 1934
• Carlson, Helen S. Nevada Place Names. University of Nevada Press, 1974. Page 241.
• Carson Valley Nevada: David Walley’s Resort: Come For the Hot Water, Stay for the History
• Clairitage Press: Baby Face Nelson at Walley’s Hot Springs, NV
• The Daily Appeal Saturday, June 01, 1872
• Daily Independent Saturday, November 27, 1897
• Dangberg, Grace. Carson Valley: Historial sketches of Nevada’s First Settlement. Carson Valley Historical Society, 1972. Pages 38-40.
• FBI: Lester Gillis (“Baby Face” Nelson)
• Nevada State Historic Preservation Office: Walley’s Hot Springs
• The News Reporter Dayton, Nevada · Thursday, August 12, 1886
• Reno Gazette-Journal Wednesday, February 15, 1882
• Reno Gazette-Journal Monday, January 15, 1883
• Wikipedia: Baby Face Nelson

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