The town of Panaca is located 165 miles north of Las Vegas at 4,729 elevation and a population of just over 800. Panaca has midsummer high temperatures of grees Fahrenheit, with just over 11 inches of annual rainfall, and a growing season of 138 days. It is a quaint Mormon farming community, dating back to the1860s. Rich in tradition and agricultural beauty, Panaca has been a favorite stop for people traveling to the Cathedral Gorge State Park.Panaca was founded in the 1860s by Mormon Settlers. Many of the inhabitants today are direct descendants of those original families.

From Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 2, p. 181
"On the 8th of October, during the first conference that convened in the great Tabernacle,...a large number of missionaries were called to go with their families and strengthen the settlements of southern Utah. This was the origin of the famous "Muddy Mission". The names of those called to go south" included John S. Haslam and Samuel Hamer. "Several new settlements were formed in what is now southeastern Nevada by those who went to "the Muddy", but most of those settlements, owing to the excessive heat and unhealthy climate, added to the heavy taxation imposed by the Nevadans, were afterwards abandoned."

From http://pr.erau.edu: "The first permanent settlers arrived in Panaca in May of 1864. Francis Lee and his family, along with others, were the first group to arrive. There were seventeen people in the group, with five wagons, a heard of stock, a flock of sheep, some swine and other domestic animals. On arrival, this group immediately set about clearing land, digging ditches and canals, and planting crops, as well as building dwellings for themselves. After this first group arrived others followed, and soon a full scale colonization was underway. There were problems with Indians whe were native to the area, and these problems almost caused Panaca to be abandoned in the early days. A fort was built to protect the inhabitants and a detachment of Militia was sent to help in the protection.

There were differences of opinion of where the name Panaca came from. Some say it is an Indian word for warm water, which could be bourne out by the warm spring just north of town. Another possible origin of the name in the Indian word for white metal, which could come from numerous deposits of silver nearby.

When Panaca was first settled, the inhabitants thought that they were in the Territory of Utah, and paid their taxes to Washington County. When a proper survey was taken after Nevada was admitted into the union in October 1864, it was found that Panaca was in Nevada. There was then a long dispute over taxes which already had been paid to Utah, but which Nevada claimed should be owed to them. Some of the inhabitants didn't like the idea of not being in "Deseret", and moved back across the border to towns in Utah.

Panaca is still a predominantly LDS town of roughly 800 people."