Beatty
Nye County, Nye County, Nevada
Marker Inscription
Beatty. Beatty was the center of three short-lived, so-called “gold” railroads that were spawned by early 1900s strikes in Tonopah, Goldfield and Rhyolite. The town was referred to as the “Chicago of the West”.Between 1906 and 1907, railroad companies constructed the Las Vegas and Tonopah from Las Vegas through Beatty and Rhyolite to Goldfield, the Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad from Goldfield to Beatty and Rhyolite, and the Tonopah and Tidewater from Ludlow, California to Tonopah. The last of these used the Bullfrog Goldfield tracks to Beatty and Rhyolite until 1914. The rails were torn up at Beatty beginning on July18, 1942.
Erected by Beatty Lions Club For Frank Brockman
The Story
Beatty grew into the hub of three short-lived "gold" railroads spawned by the early-1900s strikes at Tonopah, Goldfield, and Rhyolite—boosters even dubbed it the "Chicago of the West." Between 1906 and 1907 the Las Vegas and Tonopah, the Bullfrog Goldfield, and the Tonopah and Tidewater railroads all reached through the area, converging on the boom camps. The rush proved fleeting, and the rails at Beatty were finally torn up beginning in July 1942.
Why it matters
Beatty shows how railroads raced to serve fast-rising mining boomtowns—and how quickly that infrastructure was abandoned once the ore and the excitement ran out.
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Themes & tags
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