The Ely—Goldfield Railroad & Other Vapor Routes

Rhyolite Herald

Sacramento. -- While explaining to the state board of equalization the annual report made by the Tonopah & Tidewater railway company, on which the board bases its tax rate for the ensuing year, General Manager John Ryan said the road was built for the purpose of transporting product of "Borax" Smith’s mines and to open up a new mining district from which it is expected that considerable revenue would come. The money panic had stopped the development of mines and the traffic was not coming their way.

"How far would your road have to be built to connect with the Western pacific railway, and would

such a connection open up a route for the Western pacific into Southern California?" asked Jeff McIlvaine, one of the members of the board.

"We would have to build about 207 miles to Ely, Nevada, where we would make connections with the Western Pacific," replied Ryan.

"Wasn’t the road built for this purpose?" followed McIlvaine.

"I don’t know about that, but I will say that if the connection was made and the route used by the Western Pacific it would be the salvation of the road," answered Ryan.

Rhyolite Herald

While Ely is furnishing an immense tonnage of smelting ores, the vast reduction works located there are in need of quantities of lead ores, for fluxing purposes, and the management of the Ely works is also anxious to obtain the high grade silicious [sic] ores of the Goldfield region.

To bring them with the least expense to Ely, the Ely-Goldfield railroad has been projected and work on same would have been started with energy last fall had not the panic intervened. Recently, the promoters of the project have been at work quietly, and have established a permanent survey. Three weeks ago, the survey was completed past Silver Bow and its stakes set. While the surveyors are still in the field, they have not as yet reached the vicinity of Cuprite, as stated in a Goldfield paper. They have not even arrived in the vicinity of Goldfield. It seems that they are now having some difficulty in getting thru [sic] the Cactus range of mountains and into Goldfield, and it may be necessary to locate the line for the road around the southern extremity of the Cactus range. If such should be the case, the road might pass near Cuprite to go into Goldfield.

From that locality it would be easy and expeditious to make the survey southwesterly down the valley between the Magruder and Slate ranges of mountains, and then swinging around Tin Mountain, the northern extremity of the Panamint range, pass on down its western slope into Butte valley, the midst of the Ubehebe region.

In following the route indicated, the road would pass very close to Hornsilver, but would not come anywhere near Gold Mountain.

The Ubehebe district, and the many large deposits of smelting ores in the Magruder range, as well as the ores of Hornsilver, are much desired by the Ely smelters. There is no way of accuring [sic] these ores except by putting in a railroad, therefore a railroad is coming surely.

A trail shipment of 100 tons of ore was made from the Ubehebe district from what is known as the Smith properties, and the ore averaged $40 a ton. That is not pay ore at the present time, as the wagon haul to Cuprite is sixty-two miles and freighting by this method is expensive.

John Salsberry, of Tonopah, is engaged actively in working for a railroad for Ubehebe. He and his associates are largely interested in that section and are anxious for its development. The route form [sic] Cuprite is the easiest, practically the shortest and the only logical one.

Where such vast interests are to be served and an immense production of wealth effected, the building of 60 or 70 miles of railway will be accomplished easily. Hence this great area filled with varied mineral deposits is likely soon to be opened up by the advent of the indispensable railway.

Inyo Register

The newest variation of railroad stories comes to us as a statement reported to have been made by Superintendent Manson. He is quoted as saying that the standardized Nevada & California will swing easterly from Basalt through a low pass in the range and run to some eastern Nevada point, probably Ely. The copper center is connected with the main road by a 140 mile narrow gauge to Cobre, and standardizing that branch would be included in the plan. This would give the S.P. a route to Ogden almost as short as that of the Salt Lake & Los Angeles line. A survey has been underway for some time between Ely and Tonopah or vicinity, ostensibly as an independent proposition. The same source is credited with saying that Mina will be off the map as a railroad town.

Between there and Basalt is a distance of about 33 miles with no engineering difficulties to over come in standardizing the present narrow gauge. The talk quoted indicates an intention of abandoning that strip of line. This sounds more improbable than the rest of the story, because by maintaining it as a broad gauge track there is a north-and-south link in a Los Angeles and Portland line, with the prospective extensions in northeastern California. The head of the syndicate which has been having surveys made between Ely and Goldfield is C.B. Zabriskie. The backing of the enterprise gives no color to any supposition that the Southern Pacific is interested in it in any way. If that company has in view a road eastward to Ely its preliminaries have been kept very quiet.

Inyo Register

Long ago there was some mention of a railroad proposed to run from Springer, N.M., through western Utah counties, into Nevada, and across the Sierras to San Francisco. The projectors are now going over the country to be traversed. The name of the road is the Taos, Sierra Nevada & San Francisco. Where the Sierra crossing is proposed is not stated, but from the paper talk it is likely to be either at or south of the Bridgeport-Sonora road. The company has made some inquiry as to the feasibility of crossing through Inyo county. Its reported placing of Goldfield on the line indicates a decision in favor of a route a little further north.