Dorrington Hotel

John and Rebecca Gardner built the Dorrington Hotel in 1852 as a stage stop on the Big Trees Carson Valley Road, and homesteaded the surrounding land in 1868. Rebecca had come out from Scotland. The place served as depot and summer resort, and as somewhere for cattlemen, miners and traders to rest on a hard road. When a post office was granted in 1902 the town was not named Gardner's Station, as expected, but Dorrington — after the maiden name of John's widow, Rebekah Dorrington Gardner. The town still carries her name, and staff say she has never left the building: she is described walking through the dining room, and she sets off the motion detector often enough that it is taken for granted. One Christmas she is said to have knocked over every artificial tree in the hotel, night after night, and on another occasion to have alerted an owner to a gas leak in the kitchen. Several children are also reported. The hotel is restored and operating.