Major Ormsby was killed leading a Militia force against Paiute Indians in what was called the Pyramid Lake War.

[1] Undeterred by his earlier struggles, Ormsby moved to Genoa, Utah Territory (later Nevada) in 1857 as an agent for the Pioneer Stage Line.

[1] Ormsby presided over a meeting in Genoa which selected Judge James Crane to go to Washington, D.C., in an effort to create a new territory, which they thought should be named "Sierra Nevada".

Curry left a large tract of land in the center of the valley open for the possibility of a capitol building.

That year, two proprietors of Williams Station, an overland stage stop near present-day Silver Springs, kidnapped two Paiute girls and abused them.

The Paiute chief Numaga ambushed Ormsby on May 12, 1860, and defeated the vigilantes, killing 76 men and wounding another 29 at what came to be known as the first Battle of Pyramid Lake.

Ormsby's family later arranged transfer of his body and reinterment in Carson City's Pioneer Cemetery.