Today, the stand-alone wedding chapel is an iconic feature of the Nevada landscape. But the state was easing the path to matrimony long before you could hire Elvis to serenade you through your wedding vows.
Way back in 1897, California kicked things off by passing a law that prohibited remarriage within a year of getting a divorce. That move prompted impatient lovebirds to cross the border to Nevada, where a person could get divorced and remarried the very same day.
California gave another boost to Nevada’s budding wedding industry in 1927 by instituting a mandatory three-day waiting period between the issuing of a marriage license and the wedding ceremony. Known as the “anti-gin law,” the Prohibition-era requirement was intended to prevent hasty unions fueled by overindulgence in the hooch. But Nevada opened its arms to these couples, too, offering marriage licenses on demand, with no waiting period, no blood tests, and no medical exams of any kind.
First on the Reno scene was the Park Wedding Chapel, opened in 1956 in a converted home directly across Virginia Street from the Washoe County Courthouse. A few years later, an Oregon minister named George Flint arrived in town and later recalled what inspired him to open the Chapel of the Bells on West Fourth Street, which was then U.S. Highway 40.
By 1970, Reno had thirteen wedding chapels, and by the early eighties the number peaked at about 20. Only a handful of the city’s freestanding chapels remain today, but like the Chapel of the Bells on West Fourth Street, those that have survived continue to fill a niche for brides and grooms seeking a quick and affordable wedding, with a slice of vintage Nevada on the side.
Logging Requirements
Email me with the answers to the first two questions and post your picture as directed in #3
1. Provide the caching names of the individuals in your party
2. email me with the type of fruit pictured above the front door..
3. At GZ take a picture of your entire party with the chapel in the background and post it with your found log. (If you do not wish to have your face in the photo, then you must post a photo of your hand holding your gps device).
Remember, you only need to email once per party. Your subsequent log of this Virtual must not include any of the requested information.
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.