Nevada Historical Marker #106
Elko. On December 29, 1868, representatives of the Central Pacific Railroad started laying out lots for the future town of Elko. By 1870, the thriving town had 5,000 people. There was an immense volume of freight and passenger traffic over the stage line roads north and south from the Railhead at Elko to mining areas.The University of Nevada was located in Elko in 1874, and remained here until 1885, when it moved to Reno.By the early 1870s, Elko became the marketing and economic center for northeastern Nevada’s range livestock empire. In the 1870s and I 880s, great ranching principalities were built on Elko county’s vast rangelands. These ranches were ruled over by such powerful and colorful cattle kings as L.R. “Broadhorns” Bradley, Nevada’s second governor and its first ‘cowboy” governor; the French Garat family; the Spanish Altubes; and John Sparks, governor of Nevada in the early years of the twentieth century.Elko remains the economic hub of Nevada’s greatest range area. At the same time, it has also become a recreation tourism center in northeast Nevada and home to the internationally famous Cowboy Poetry Festival.
Idaho Street, Elko, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #3
West End Of Hastings Cutoff. Across the Humboldt Valley southward from this point a deeply incised canyon opens into a valley. Through that canyon along the South Fork of the Humboldt River ran the disaster-laden route called the Hastings Cutoff. It joined the regular Fort Hall route running on both sides of the Humboldt here. The canyon was first traversed in 1841 by the Bartleson-Bidwell Party, the earliest organized California emigrant group. In 1846, Lansford Hastings guided a party through this defile of the South Fork and out along the Humboldt. The ill-fated Reed Donner Party followed later the same year.By 1850, the dangers of the cutoff route were recognized and it was abandoned.
Dwight D Eisenhower Highway, Elko, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #47
Fort Halleck Site 1867 1886. On July 26, 1867, Captain Samuel Smith established what became Fort Halleck twelve miles to the south near Soldier Creek. In concert with Fort Ruby fifty miles further south, the Army intended the Fort to protect the California Emigrant Trail, the Overland mail route and construction work on the Central Pacific Railroad during conflicts with Goshute and Western Shoshone in that decade.The camp was named for Major General Henry Wager Halleck, a prominent general who served as general-in-chief to the Army from 1862 to 1865. In May 1868, Camp Halleck became a two-company post and the headquarters for the Nevada Military District when Fort Churchill, near Yerington, was abandoned. By 1877, the Fort contained about 20 buildings of wood, adobe, and stone arranged around a rectangular parade ground.Troops from the Fort participated in action against the Modoc Indians in Northern California in 1873; against the Nez Perce uprising in Idaho in 1877; against the Bannocks in Oregon in 1878; and against the Apaches in Arizona in 1885. However, by the 1880s, the need for military stations throughout the American West was much diminished and the Army closed the Fort in December 1886.
NV-229, Elko, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #107
Elko Airport. On April 6, 1926, Varney Air Lines pilot Leon Cuddeback carried one bag of mail and landed his tiny Curtiss Swallow biplane at Elko, Nevada, completing the first scheduled Air Mail run in the United States.The single-engine 90 horsepower aircraft had taken off from Pasco, Washington, stopped in Boise, Idaho for fuel and mail, and then completed the 460-mile flight to Elko. The Varney contract was awarded October 27, 1925, at a rate of B cents an ounce. Varney sold to Boeing, which merged with United Airlines in 1931.
Murray Way, Elko, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #108
Ruby Valley Pony Express Station. This small building was originally located 60 miles to the south, where it served the Pony Express from April 1860 to 1861. It was moved to this location in 1960.
Idaho Street, Elko, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #229
Oil From Shale. Directly south of this point and across the valley floor are the remains of a short-lived extraction plant, which reached the peak of its productive capacity in the early twenties. Driving of the main shaft began in 1916. Of several tries at extracting oil from shale, this was the only successful operation in Nevada.Robert M. Catlin, Sr. spent many years experimenting on the extraction of crude oil from these beds before beginning the commercial production of oil. After a production period of less than two years, the plant was closed in the fall of 1924. Hi-Power Catlin Oil was too expensive to complete with the fossil oils of that day.Easily 50 years ahead of his time, Catlin gave Elkoans and Nevadans a dream and the community an oil boom in the Roaring Twenties.
West Idaho Street, Elko, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #244
Dinner Station. Dinner Station stands as a reminder of Nevada’s stagecoach era. Established in the early 1870s by William C. (Hill) Beachey as a meal stop for the Tuscarora and Mountain City Stage Lines, it was originally known as Weilands. The name later changed to Oldham’s Station when a change of ownership took place. A frame structure accommodated the traffic, but a fine two-story stone house, outbuildings, and a corral were built following a fire in the 1880s. Early in the twentieth century, both automobiles and horse-drawn stages stopped at Dinner Station and it became one of the most popular county inns of the time. After 1910, when automobiles became more common, the station ceased to be used.
Mountain City Highway, Elko, NV, United States