Candy Dance lit up Genoa nights

In 1919, Douglas County's seat had been gone from Genoa for three years, leaving the little town at the base of the Sierra without the source of income having county offices had provided it for years.

In winter, the sun goes down in Nevada's oldest town at about 4 p.m., and anyone making their way down the rocky streets in the gloom welcomed a little bit of light to help find their way home.

This was the environment where Lillian Virgin cooked up a scheme to raise money to install streetlights in the town.

Let's hold a dance and sell homemade candy.

That experiment in raising government revenue without taxation was successful in purchasing the street lights and keeping them lit over the next 89 years.

The craft fair entered the mix in the 1970s to help pay for recreation for the town's children.

The fair was a huge success, growing from a few booths to hundreds in less than a decade and now accounting for the lion's share of the money raised by the event.

The event now attracts tens of thousands of people to the little town for a weekend a year. Money raised keeps the town's streetlights on, the roads graded or paved. It keeps the town business office in operation and the town's buildings maintained.

All without resorting to increasing taxes.