Nevada Historical Marker #191
Verdi. Modern Verdi came into being with the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad through Nevada between 1867 and 1869. Verdi became a major mill town and terminal for the shipment of ties and construction timbers, with a network of logging railways reaching into the forests north and west of here.In 1860, a log bridge was built across the Truckee River near where Verdi is now located. Known as O’Nell’s Crossing, the site served as a stage stop during the 1860s on the heavily traveled Henness Pass Turnpike and Toll Road and the Dutch Flat and Donner Lake Road.In 1864, the Crystal Peak Company laid out a town on the site some two miles from Verdi’s present location. The company owned mining and lumbering interests near the settlement then called Crystal Peak.Verdi remained an active lumbering center into the twentieth century due to the exertion of men like Oliver Lonkey of the Verdi Lumber Company. A fire in 1926, plus depletion of timber reserves, resulted in Verdi’s decline.
3rd St, Verdi, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #128
The Great Train Robbery. The West’s first train robbery occurred near this site on the night of November 4, 1870. A gang of men concocted an elaborate scheme to rob the Central Pacific Railroad as the train passed through Verdi. John Chapman traveled to Oakland, California to learn when the train left for Verdi. He telegraphed a coded message to “Sal” Jones in Reno, who alerted five men waiting near Verdi. Two men rode to an area just south of Mogul today, and they placed rocks across the train tracks.When the train stopped in Verdi for the night, the soon-to-be-robbers boarded the train, decoupled the passenger coaches and commandeered the engine, mail and express cars. The gang forced Engineer Henry Small to drive to the blockage, there they tricked the guard to opening the locked express car door. The robbers broke open the strong boxes and divided the $41,600. The men rode off in different directions. All were eventually caught and all but about $3,000 was recovered.
South Verdi Rd, Verdi, NV, United States