An
Overview of Nevada's Eureka &
Palisade Railroad, along with its successor, the Eureka Nevada Railway.
At
a bend of the Humboldt River sits Palisade, Nevada.
The northern terminal of the E.&P. Two story station is
E.&P. Large, low station is Central Pacific. Narrow gauge
enginehouse is east of (behind) the standard gauge depot. At its
zenith, 600 people were said to live here.
The
Albertype Co., Brooklyn, N.Y.
The Eureka & Palisade
Railroad
would be built in an area of Nevada that would become known as "Basin
and Range." Traveling across this northern region of the state soon
proves the vericity of this geologic moniker. Moving either to the east
or west the traveler is confronted by range after range of mountains.
It is a plateau ribboned with mountains laid out in a north-south
orientation, separated by wide valleys running parallel to the ranges.
The valleys tend to be nearly at the 5,000 foot elevation, while the
mountain ranges may have summits anywhere from 8,000 to 11,000 feet
above sea level. To pioneers, and later, prospectors and miners, these
repeating patterns must have seemed endless. The entire region we are
dealing with is drained by the Humboldt River. Many tributaries flow
into this river that was the path of many pioneers. Amazingly, this
river comes to virtually nothing, finally draining into the Carson
Sink. As the name implies, the river just disappears in a huge marsh
sink.
The weather can
be harsh.
Dry, hot
summers, broken by occasional showers are the norm. Even more
occasionally cloudbursts can break the summer heat. In the fall, early
white snowcaps wait while the huge northern sky fills with banks of
clouds, signaling another dose of moisture for this essentially barren
region. During the winter, precipitation is dominated by snowfall that
accumulates high in the mountains and often lasts into summer at the
highest points. Sagebrush grows in the valleys, while varieties of pine
and mountain mahogany exist in the higher elevations. John Muir,
writing about the forests of Nevada while sojourning in the Eureka area
during October, 1878, noted that "The height of the timberline in
Eastern Nevada near the middle of the Great Basin, is 11,000 feet;
consequently the forests, in a dwarfed, storm-beaten condition, pass
over the summits of nearly every range in the state, broken here and
there only by mechanical conditions of the surface rocks." Where there
is adequate water, farming can be sucessful. Cattle and sheep can be
ranched in the area. Sheep, however, tend to overgraze the sparse
vegetation.
With
Nevada and the
West a center of
mining excitement, it would not be long before men came to try and make
their fortunes out of some of these mountains. As in other areas of the
West, they came to find gold or silver, but soon realized that the
returns were inadequate or their capital was inadequate. Mining in this
part of the country would prove to be industrial in nature as the first
prospectors would eventually learn. Large plants spewing smoke would
prove to be the requirements for the mining and processing this bounty
of ore. All this was, at this point, in the future and the railroad
would prove to be an integral part of this future. And so, the story of
this little railroad begins.
Five
Reese
River prospectors,
reaching out and exploring for new ore bodies, first discovered silver
at Eureka in 1864. The discovery was in limestone rock in New York
Canyon on the side of Prospect Mountain. These men from Austin, seventy
miles to the West, found the silver to be mingled with lead. This was
to prove to be a large problem. Being one the first discoveries of
lead-silver in the United States, the ability to separate the silver
from the lead in the smelters of the time was still not advanced far
enough for the successful completion of this task.
As
a result, the mining at Eureka did
not result in a sufficient return from labor or investment and failed
to expand. Therefore, the mining remained at a relatively low level of
activity for a few years. However, in 1869, the Eureka Consolidated
Mining Company hired W. S. Keyes to build new smelters to work the ore.
Keyes, an engineer and metallurgist, was sucessful in extracting the
silver from the stubborn ore. This crucial accomplishment ensured that
the mining would continue for as long as the ore held out.
Meanwhile,
ninety miles to the North,
the Central Pacific was pushing through northern Nevada on its way to a
meeting at Promontory, Utah with the Union Pacific Railroad. As the
railroad moved East, communities had risen up in the Great Basin to take
advantage of the new and cheaper mode of transportation. One of these
was Palisade, in a canyon of the same name on the Humboldt River.
In 1871 the mines were
starting to
boom in Eureka, Nevada. Ore was coming out of the ground and the mills
and smelters were working. The fumes and smoke lay over the town like a
blanket. The sky was dark and the air was thick with the acrid waste.
It was called by some, "Pittsburg of the West." Some of the local
operators were still only capable of performing the initial processing,
producing base "pigs". To complete the refining the pigs were being
sent to Salt Lake City, four hundred miles to the east. The lead ores
were valuable for shipment to distant smelting centers, on account of
their iron gangue. Some of the Eureka ores contained as much as sixty
percent iron. The mighty Central Pacific lay ninety miles to the north.
Teamsters charged about twenty dollars per ton to take the ore to the
connection with the outside world. Despite the value of the ores, the
local mining leaders and newspaper editors saw that this would choke
off any promise of real boom times for Eureka.
A
local man, Major McCoy, of the
water works, first proposed a railroad for the ore shipping. It was
promoted by the local newspaper, but languished without financial
support. It would be another two years until the plan saw light again.
In January, 1873, William Ralston and his Bank of California was riding
high with the Virginia & Truckee Railroad in western Nevada.
Mining and transportation were filling the coffers of the bank. This
heady atmosphere was causing the usual banker's caution to be thrown to
the wind. If the Bank of California could make huge profits in one area
of Nevada mining operations, why not here in Eureka? Ralston sent
agents of the bank to investigate the possibilities and got a glowing
report returned to his offices in San Francisco. Of course there was
money to be made! The West was churning with activity and here was
another bonanza.
Local
interests
pushed for a
franchise in the Nevada legislature and the Palisade, Eureka &
Pioche Railroad was born. But the proposal did not go through because
the Governor noted that he had just signed a franchise for a parallel
line from Elko to Hamilton. This was only fifteen miles east of the
location of Ralston's proposed railroad. The people in Eureka smelled a
rat and investigated this railroad. Sure enough, it was financed by
Salt Lake City interests. They had their own ideas about rail
transportation and it did not include the group from Eureka. The Eureka
faction thought that this was all a charade and time proved them to be
correct. The proposed line east of them proved to be a ruse, but it did
succeed in thwarting their plans for the time being.
In
November, 1873, local interests
formed the Eureka & Palisade Railroad. Erastus Woodruff,
William H. Ennor, Monroe Salisbury, John T. Gilmer, C. H. Hempstead,
and J. R. Withington were the six local men sitting as directors of the
road. The threat from the east had evaporated and the railroad would be
built. To be sure, it would be a narrow gauge, to save costs, but it
would be a railroad. In Eureka and along Pine Valley, the citizens now
knew they were going to get a railroad. And a railroad, any railroad,
meant there would be a bright future for this area. A crew of one
hundred fifty men, some of them veterans of the Central Pacific, were
put to work in the winter of 1873-74. The line started at Palisade and
immediately needed a bridge to cross the Humboldt River just south of
the town. This was accomplished in January of 1874. It was none too
soon, because the first locomotive had arrived from the builder before
there was any track to operate it upon.(see
Note below)
Later in the
year 1874, Darius
Ogden
Mills and his brother Edgar Mills, became financially involved. Mills
had been the president of the Bank of California, which gave him
considerable financial influence. The year 1873 marked the pinnacle of
William Ralston's Bank of California and its power over West Coast
financial markets. As cashier of the bank, Ralston was spreading bank
money far and wide in speculative adventures. Mining, timber, railroads
were all in the grasp of the mighty Bank of California. Mills was more
conservative, and as it will be seen, the bank had been exposed to
financial peril by Ralston's exploits. Mills joined forces with a local
freighter, W. L. Pritchard. Known as "Nick of the Woods", Pritchard had
many wagons and over two thousand draft animals surving the area. Why
he entered this venture was somewhat confusing.
April
1874 showed ten miles of track
laid and a fairly easy grade along Pine Valley straight ahead. Mines at
Mineral Hill, about 5 miles southeast of E.& P. R.R. station at
Mineral, were successfully operating. Two mills were in operation and
one of the stopes being mined was 50 feet in diameter. Prospects were
looking quite good for the railroad. Hay Ranch, Lodi and finally Alpha
were reached before the end of 1874. Storage barns were built railside
at Hay Ranch and a hotel for travelers was constructed at Alpha. An
advertisement running in the Eureka Daily Sentinel during August, 1875,
claimed that this hotel was "commodious" with "first class
accommodations." Alpha was just over half the distance to Eureka and
construction would halt there until spring of 1875. It turned out that
Pritchard was planning a community at this "End of Track". He would
then use his drovers to go any direction to the South. Mills was not in
accord with this situation. Since he, no doubt, had invested the most
heavily in this venture, he convinced Pritchard to sell out his
portion. It can be noted that during the heyday of the railroad this
"town" boasted approximately twenty-five residents.
All
was not be a simple endeavor,
however. On August 26, after over $2,000,000 had been paid out over the
two preceding days, a check for approximately $300,000 was presented to
the Bank of California in San Francisco near closing time. The Bank of
California could not meet its obligations. This caused a wide spread
financial crisis on the Pacific Coast. William Ralston turned over all
of his assets to William Sharon, a close associate, instructing him to
pay out all the money owed. Ralston was pulled from San Francisco Bay
soon after, a victim of apoplexy during his usual swim from a bath
house. At the time of the collapse, Mills claimed to have severed his
official connections to the Bank of California three years earlier.
Banks, other financial institutions, stock brokerages were all in
disarray. Nevertheless, work progressed on the Eureka &
Palisade. Enough rail had been purchased to complete the line and was
soon to arrive at Palisade. Fears of cessation of work were discounted
by the railroad managers. The most arduous grading over Garden Pass had
been finished, it was claimed. The Eureka Daily Sentinel reported that
work would proceed "as though nothing had happened." At this time the
Superintendent, George W. Norton stated that the road would be
completed to Eureka by the first of November.
---------
Note:
While most
histories of the E.& P. claim the first locomotive was a Mogul
originally ordered for the rival S.L.,S.V.&P. , this is not so.
In an article in the Western Railroader, Garrie
Tufford has shown that the first engine was a Mason "bogie". Not only
that, but it was the first narrow gauge Mason "bogie" built.
CONTINUE 
(Left) W. L. Pritchard Ad for stages
connecting with the railroad at Alpha.
(Right) E.& P. R.R. ad, both from Eureka Daily
Sentinel, August 17, 1875.
Narrow
Gauge on the Net Collection
