Rhyolite Railroad Depot – Las Vegas and Tonopah RR

Rhyolite RR Depot Las Vegas and Tonopah RR

1906 Rhyolite, Nevada was founded in 1904 after Shorty Harris and Ed Cross discovered Gold in the Rhyolite Quartz at the Bullfrog mine. By 1906 the town had two railroad lines and a population of 10,000. The mines, however, did not produce as expected and by the early 1910s Rhyolite was abandoned. By 1914 only 25 residents lived there. Charles M. Schwab the Financier and father of present day investment company President and present day namesake. By 1906, Schwab had very seriously invested in what was happening in Rhyolite by purchasing the Montgomery Shoshone Mine. By 1906, Schwab had very seriously invested in what was happening in Rhyolite by purchasing the Bullfrog Mining District.

Thanks to Schwab, people living in Rhyolite lived life in grandeur by 1907, with concrete sidewalks, electric lights, paid to have an electric line run 100 miles from a hydroelectric plant built to provide power to Bodie Califormia near Lee Vining to Rhyolite, water mains, telephone and telegraph lines, daily and weekly newspapers, a monthly magazine, police and fire departments, a hospital, school, train station and railway depot, three banks, a stock exchange, an opera house, a public swimming pool, and two churches which elevated the operation from good to grand.

Soon, he had a contract with the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad to run a spur line to the area. Before long, three railroads were serving Rhyolite. The first was the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad (LVTR), which began running regular trains to the city on December 14, 1906. Its depot, built in California-mission style, cost about $130,000,equivalent to about $3,740,000 in 2020. About a half-year later, the Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad (BGR) began regular service from the north. By December 1907, the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad (TTR) began service to Rhyolite on tracks leased from the BGR. The TTR was built to reach the borax-bearing colemanite beds in Death Valley as well as the gold fields.

Thanks to Schwab, people living in Rhyolite lived life in grandeur by 1907, with concrete sidewalks, electric lights, paid to have an electric line run 100 miles from a hydroelectric plant built to provide power to Bodie Califormia near Lee Vining to Rhyolite, water mains, telephone and telegraph lines, daily and weekly newspapers, a monthly magazine, police and fire departments, a hospital, school, train station and railway depot, three banks, a stock exchange, an opera house, a public swimming pool, and two churches which elevated the operation from good to grand.In the 1930s, the old depot became a casino and bar, and later it became a small museum and souvenir shop that stayed open into the 1970s.

The Union Pacific wooden caboose 3803 / Los Angeles & Salt Lake RR which was absorbed by the UP in 1921 is located across the road & former right-of-way from the depot was used as a gas station during Rhyolite’s tourism boom in the 1920s.The Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad was a 197.9-mile railroad built by William A. Clark that ran northwest from a connection with the mainline of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad at Las Vegas, Nevada to the gold mines at Goldfield. The SPLA&SL railroad later became part of the Union Pacific Railroad and serves as their mainline between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City.

Credits: Wikipedia -Utah State University -Trip Savvy -Pomona Public Library Travel