De Ek Wadapush (Cave Rock). A sacred place to the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, cave rock is the subject of many legends. Named for a cave, a remnant of which can be seen some 200 feet above the waterline. This formation was a landmark on the Lake Bigler Toll Road in the early days. Quarried granite blocks, which support the toll road, can still be seen on the west face of cave rock. The rock was first tunneled for the construction of a highway in 1931 and the second tunnel was put through in 1957. The Washoe name for Cave Rock is De-ek Wadapush which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Traditional Cultural Property. It is important now as it has been for thousands of years for the Washoe." Medicine men meditated and prayed here" and many distinct features help make up our culture, gifted basket makers, the wisdom of long-preserved legends, and our traditional way of life. Cave Rock was one of our prominent sacred sites reflecting our traditional values of respect for the land and "da ow" (Lake Tahoe) the life-sustaining water, the center of the Washoe world (Washoe elder)
, Glenbrook, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #1
Empire And The Carson River Mills. When the Comstock Lode was discovered in 1859, the problem of reducing the ore from the fabulously rich Virginia City mines had to be solved. Mills were built in Gold Canyon and Six Mile Canyon, in Washoe Valley, at Dayton, and on the Carson River which offered the most abundant source of water to operate the mills.On the east shore of the river near the town of Empire the first small mill, built in 1860, was later enlarged to become the Mexican. The site of this mill lies to the southwest. Other large mills were then constructed farther downstream, spurring the growth of the town of Empire. Ore was hauled to the mills at first by wagon and later by the famous Virginia and Truckee Railroad built in 1869. Fortunes in gold and silver were produced in over 40 years of operation by the Carson River mills including the Mexican, Yellow Jacket, Brunswick, Merrimac, Vivian, and Santiago. Traces of Empire and its mills can still be seen today.
, Carson City, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #10
Sand Mountain. Sand Mountain dominates the Salt Wells Basin and is visible from Mt. Rose peak in the Carson Range 82 miles to the west. The dune is important to off highway vehicle enthusiasts, biologists, Native Americans, and geologists. Sand Mountain is a sinuous transverse dune derived from Ice Age Lake Lahontan beach sands piled here by southwesterly-trending winds. The dune is the Stillwater Northern Paiutes’ Panitogogwa, a giant rattlesnake traveling to the northeast with the wind to its back. The snake can be heard as it moves toward its hole, a phenomenon geologists associate with “singing” sand dunes. The Sand Mountain blue butterfly is only found here where it is depends on the Kearney buckwheat plant. The dunes clearly marked the location of nearby Sand Springs, improved and mapped in 1859 as a potential emigrant stop by Army Lieutenant James H. Simpson. Sand Springs later served as the location of the Sand Springs Pony Express Station in 1860 and the terminus of the 1866 Fort Churchill and Sand Springs Toll Road.
, Fallon, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #100
Nevada Northern Railway. Mark Requa’s Nevada Consolidated Copper Company laid 150-mile of track from Cobre, on the Southern Pacific line, to Ely in 1905-06 to haul ore from the Copper Flat mines west of Ely.Ore was loaded into railroad gondolas at Copper Flat for the trip to the smelter at McGill, over a double-track trestle that was 1720 feet long. The trestle burned in 1922 and was replaced with an earth-fill span.Passenger service and the “school train” carrying McGill youth to Ely High School ended in 1941. With the closing of local copper mines in 1983, the railroad ceased operations. Currently, part of the line serves the Nevada Northern Railway Museum for live steam rides. The East Ely shop complex for the Railway was listed as a National Historic Landmark District in 2006.
Aultman St, Ely, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #101
Millers. As a result of mining excitement at Tonopah in 1901 and subsequent construction of the Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad, Millers was first founded in 1904 as a station and watering stop on that line. The name honored Charles R. Miller, a director of the railroad and former governor of Delaware. He was also vice-president of the Tonopah Mining Company and was instrumental in having its 100-stamp cyanide mill built here in 1906. In 1907, the town boomed with the construction of the T. & G. R.R.’s repair shops and another large mill. The population grew to 274 in 1910, when the town boasted a business district and post office. By 1911, the railroad shops and a mill had been moved away, and Millers began to decline. It was abandoned in 1947 when the railroad went out of business.
Veterans Memorial Highway, Miller's, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #102
Goodsprings Mining District 1856 1957. Ore deposits readily recognized in the faulted and folded limestone deposits of this district remained unworked until 1856, when Mormons began work at Potosí, establishing perhaps the oldest underground mine in Nevada.Named for cattleman Joseph Good, the open springs area was developed into the mining-ranching community of Goodsprings by A.G. Campbell.With completion of the Los Angeles-Salt Lake Railroad in 1905 and the narrow-gauge Yellow Pine Railroad from Jean to Goodsprings in 1911, transportation costs of the local oxidized zinc minerals were reduced. The peak year of operations was reached in 1916 when Goodsprings had 800 residents.This district, with the greatest variety of minerals in Nevada, produced a total of $25 million, primarily in lead and zinc, with lesser amounts of gold, silver, copper, molybdenum, vanadium, nickel, cobalt, platinum, palladium, and uranium.
West Spring St, Goodsprings, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #104
The Camel Corps. In 1855, Congress authorized $30,000.00 for camels as frontier military beasts of burden because of their adaptability to desert heat, drought, and food.Lt. Edward F. Beale surveyed the wagon route from Fort Defiance, New Mexico, to the Colorado River near the tip of present-day Nevada, testing the fitness of these camels. They crossed the Colorado River into what is today Nevada, north to Fort Mohave, October 18, 1857.The experiment was not practical, but several of Beale’s camels hauled commercial freight from Sacramento to the Nevada territory. Others carried salt, ore, and supplies through central Nevada.Careless treatment, domestic stock incompatibility and new transportation methods ended use of camels. Some were reportedly seen years later wandering in southwest deserts, making them a fixture of western folklore.
Laughlin Highway, Laughlin, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #105
Golconda. Golconda, a one-time Utah territory mining town and a landmark on the California Emigrant Trail, was famous for its hot springs. The Hot Springs Hotel was a swanky resort with doctors on staff.n 1868, Golconda became an ore shipping station on the new Central Pacific Railroad. Renewed mining activity in 1897 resulted in the building of the narrow gauge Golconda and Adelaide Railroad south to the Adelaide mine. Golconda grew to 500 inhabitants by 1899, but the next year the mine and mill closed and railroad service ceased.
Old Highway 40, Golconda, NV, United States
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 #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 #109
Lamoille Valley. Because heavy grazing and traffic denuded the grass from the main Fort Hall route of the California Emigrant Trail along the Humboldt River, many emigrants left the river near Starr Valley. They skirted the east Humboldt Range and the Ruby Mountains along a Shoshone Indian path, rested their livestock in Lamoille Valley, and returned to the Humboldt River.John Walker and Thomas Waterman first settled the area in 1865. Waterman named the valley after a place in his native Vermont. In 1968, Walker erected the Cottonwood Hotel Store and Blacksmith Shop in the valley, and the settlement became known as the “The Crossroads.” Here wagons were repaired and food and supplies could be obtained. The original buildings, and the most recent 20-bedroom Lamoille Hotel, creamery, flour mill, and dance hall are gone.
Lamoille Highway, Lamoille, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #11
Eureka. “Eureka!” a miner is said to have exclaimed in September 1864 when he discovered rich ore here – and thus the town was named. Eureka soon developed the first important lead-silver deposits in the nation, and during the furious boom of the 1880s, it had 16 smelters, over 100 saloons, a population of 10,000 and a railroad – the colorful Eureka and Palisade – that connected with the transcontinental line 90 miles to the north.Production began to fall off in 1883, and by 1891, the smelters closed, their sites marked by the huge slag piles at both ends of Main Street.
Lincoln Highway, Eureka, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #110
Wagon Jack Shelter. The base of this cliff is the site of Wagon Jack Shelter, excavated in 1958 by Robert F. Heizer and Martin A. Baumhoff through the University of California, Berkeley. The archaeologists named the shelter in honor of Wagon Jack, a Western Shoshone Indian who may have camped here while working at the Eastgate Ranch around 1900. Wagon Jack was purportedly a rabbit boss, leader of communal jackrabbit drives, in neighboring Smith Creek Valley.A curved wall formerly extended from the cliff face and probably represented the perimeter of a prehistoric brush-covered shelter. A variety of chipped stone projectile point styles were recovered from this site reflecting a succession of prehistoric cultures. Eastgate Series arrow points were first described from these Eastgate archaeological sites. Bones of bighorn sheep dominated the animal remains accompanied by a few deer and pronghorn bones. Four stone tools or fragments of tools were associated with grinding seeds, pinenuts, and other dried foods. A radiocarbon date from the bottom of this site indicates occupation beginning around 3,150 years ago.
, Eastgate, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #111
Edwards Creek Valley. Abundant grass and brush found near springs and intermittent streams in Edwards Creek Valley were important ecological areas for Native Americans. Shoshone Indians wandered seasonally to gather wild seeds and small game and settled here in winter camps. Later, Northern Paiutes also lived in the valley.In 1854, Col. John Reese discovered a route through Edwards Creek Valley that was shorter than the Humboldt trail. Established by surveyor James Simpson in 1859, it was followed by the Pony Express, the Overland Telegraph, and the overland mail stages. An 1862 Austin gold rush passageway too, the route remained as the region’s principal commercial artery until 1880.
, Eastgate, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #112
Carlin. Carlin, the oldest town in Elko County, was established as a railroad division point in December 1868 by the Central Pacific Railroad. When the railroad tracks reached the Carlin meadows, always a favorite stopping place for wagon trains along the California Emigrant Trail, construction crews laid out a townsite and built a large roundhouse and shops Central Pacific officials named the town after William Passmore Carlin, a Union general who served his country with distinction during and after the Civil War.During the 1870s and early 1880s, Carlin competed with Elko, Palisade, and Winnemucca for the staging and freighting business of the many mining camps north and south of the railroad. In 1965, the town became the principle shipping point for the nearby Carlin Gold Mine, the second largest gold-producer in the U.S.Carlin is still a principle division point on the Union Pacific Railroad line. During the period from 1906 until the early 1950s, Carlin was an important icing station in Nevada for refrigerator cars on both the Southern and Western Pacific Railroads (Western Pacific reached Carlin from the east in 1908, but freight and passenger service was not inaugurated over this transcontinental line until 1910).
West Hamilton St, Carlin, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #113
Wabuska. Wabuska (perhaps a Washoe Indian term, for white grass) was first established in the early 1870s as a station on the stage and freight road from Wadsworth on the Central Pacific to the roaring mining camps of Aurora, Bodie, Candaleria, Columbus, and Bellville.In 1881, the town served as the principal Mason Valley supply and distribution center on the newly constructed narrow gauge Carson and Colorado Railroad. Southern Pacific purchased the railroad and converted it to standard gauge at the beginning of the twentieth century. Tonopah and Goldfield mining booms greatly increased freight and passenger traffic.When copper was discovered in Mason Valley, the town became the northern terminus of the new Nevada Copper Belt Railroad, built 1909-1911. Wabuska waned with declining mining activity in the 1920s.
, Wabuska, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #114
Franktown. Orson Hyde, probate judge of Carson County, Utah Territory, founded Franktown in the Wassau (Washoe) Valley in 1855.A sawmill became an important enterprise in furnishing timber to the Comstock mines after 1859. The Dall Mill, a quartz mill of sixty stamps, employed hundreds of workers. Fertile farms surrounded the town.With the completion of the railroad from Carson City to Virginia City in 1869, the milling business rapidly lost its importance and the once prosperous town declined.
Bowers Mansion Rd, Washoe Valley, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #115
Potosi. The desire of local Mormon settlers for economic self-sufficiency led to mining by missionaries for lead at Potosí. In 1858, Nathaniel V. Jones was sent to recover ore from the “mountain of lead” 30 miles southwest of the mission at Las Vegas Springs. About 9,000 lbs. were recovered before smelting difficulties forced the remote mine to be abandoned in 1857. Potosi became the first abandoned mine in Nevada.In 1861, California mining interests reopened the mine, and a smelter and rock cabins for 100 miners made up the camp of Potosi. Even more extensive operations resulted after the transcontinental Salt Lake and San Pedro R.R. (now the union pacific) was built through the county in 1905.During World War I, Potosi was an important source of zinc.
, Potosi, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #116
Searchlight. Initial discoveries of predominately gold ore were first made at this location on May 6, 1897. G.F. Colton filed the first claim, later to become the Duplex Mine. The Quartette Mining Company, formed in 1900, became the mainstay of the Searchlight district, producing almost half of the area’s total output. In May 1902, a 16 mile narrow-gauge railroad was built down the hill to the company’s mill on the Colorado River.On March 31, 1907, the 23.22 mile Barnwell and Searchlight Railroad connected the town with the then main Santa Fe line from Needles to Mojave. By 1919 trains travelled over the B. and S. Railroad only twice a week. A severe washout on September 23, 1923, halted traffic completely. Train service was never restored.Searchlight is the birthplace of U.S. Senator Harry Reid (b.1939) who became the first Nevadan to serve as the Senate Majority Leader, a position he assumed in 2007.
Veterans Memorial Highway, Searchlight, NV, United States