Denio is a census-designated place (CDP) in Humboldt County, Nevada, along the Oregon state line in the United States.[3] The Denio post office was originally north of the state line in Harney County, Oregon,[4] but the residents moved the building into Nevada in the mid-20th century. The population of the CDP, which is entirely in Nevada, was 47 at the 2010 census;[5] additional development considered to be Denio extends into Oregon. The CDP includes a post office, a community center, a library, and the Diamond Inn Bar, the center of the town's social life.[6] Recreational activities in the Denio area include bird watching, photography, off-road vehicle use, fishing, recreational black opal mining, rockhounding, hunting, visiting the hot springs, and camping on the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge.[6]
Denio Junction is about 3 miles (5 km) south of Denio, at the junction of State Route 140 and State Route 292.[7] Denio Junction's motel provides gas, food, groceries, and lodging.[6] Denio Junction Airport is a two-runway graded airstrip.[8] There is no scheduled air or ground transportation serving this field, which is a short walk from Denio Junction.[8]
History
The Diamond Inn in Denio, 1976
Denio was named after Aaron Denio, who settled in the area in 1885.[9] He was born in 1824 in Illinois and traveled to California in 1860.[9] He worked in milling, mining, and farming in Nevada and California for 25 years before settling near the Oregon-Nevada border.[9] He died at Denio in 1907.[9] The Denio post office was established in Oregon in 1888.[9] After World War II a number of businesses relocated south of the state line to take advantage of Nevada's lack of an income tax and more liberal liquor, gambling, and prostitution laws.[9] The post office was moved and reopened in Nevada in 1950 for Nevada addresses, not Oregon.[9]
Education
Public education in Denio (on the Nevada side) is administered by the Humboldt County School District, which operates the Denio School, a three-room kindergarten-eighth grade (K-8) school.[6] It is, more or less, a two-room schoolhouse, and lacks a full-service cafeteria. By design, as per circa 2004, the school functions to allow teachers more informal, flexible scheduling.[10] There were 20 students in the 1963-1964 school year;[11] likewise, enrollment in December 2004 was also 20 students.[10]
As of 2004[update], Denio, Nevada students of high school age may attend Humboldt County School District's Albert M. Lowry High School (in Winnemucca, Nevada); additionally, parents of high school-aged children who decide to attend Lowry High School may relocate to Winnemucca for the duration of their children’s time as a student there. High schoolers may also attend Crane Union High School, a public boarding high school in Crane, Oregon.[10] The Oregon side (across from Denio, Nevada) is, as of 2020, zoned to South Harney School District 33 (Fields School, K-8) and Harney County Union High School District 1J (the district for Crane Union).[12] The Denio, Oregon, community was historically served by Crane Union, with the high school taking in several Basque Oregonians from there.[13]
Denio has a public library, a branch of the Humboldt County Library.[14]
^ abcRoccapriore, Carla (December 12, 2004). "Tiny-town students visit biggest little city". Reno Gazette-Journal. pp. 1C, 2C. - Clipping of first and of second page at Newspapers.com. "a public boarding school in Crane, Ore." automatically refers to Crane Union HS, as it is the only boarding school in Crane.
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