Early County Scandal
Within six months after Lyon County was officially founded the county was in court over county and school debts. So fierce for spoils was the board of supervisors, and others profiting from the frauds including a drunken district judge, that efforts to compel honest county government failed. One favorite fraud was to issue warrants on bridges that were either never built or were flimsy, worthless structure-the board pocketing the money. There was the "swampland proposition," and the enormous kickbacks from persons selling good to the county. Within three years, (1872 to 1875) $55,000 of judgment bonds were issued under a statute then in force. The plunder of the county was not stopped until the influx of new settlers brought about a new order of things. Hundreds of cases followed and the last was decided about 1900. Some cases were taken to the U.S. Supreme court. Some judgments were favorable to the county but in the end the good people of Lyon County paid dearly for the fraudulent indebtedness that at one time peaked to $167,000. The Independent School District of Doon was involved also in a graft in the early years that left the honest settlers with a case in the court that ended in the U.S. Supreme court years later.