Carlin
Carlin, Elko County, Nevada
Marker Inscription
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).
Erected by Austin Chamber Of Commerce
The Story
Carlin, the oldest town in Elko County, was laid out by the Central Pacific in December 1868 at a meadow long favored as a stopping place by emigrant wagon trains, where crews built a roundhouse and shops and named the town for Union general William Passmore Carlin. Through the 1870s and 1880s it vied with neighboring towns for the freighting business of the surrounding mining camps, and for decades it served as an important icing station for refrigerator cars. In 1965 it became the shipping point for the nearby Carlin gold mine, one of the largest in the country, and remains a working railroad division point.
Why it matters
Carlin traces the long life of a railroad division point, from emigrant campground to freight hub to gateway for one of America's great modern gold discoveries.
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Related people
- · William Passmore Carlin
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Palisade
Eureka County, NV
Tucked into the steep walls of Palisade Canyon, Palisade was surveyed by the Central Pacific in 1870 and quickly became a departure point for freight and stage lines to Eureka, Hamilton, and beyond. With the Eureka and Palisade Railroad completed in 1875, it grew into the operating headquarters of a ninety-mile narrow-gauge line and a key transfer point among the Central Pacific, Southern Pacific, and Western Pacific railroads. A self-contained community of about 300 that lived and breathed railroading, Palisade declined after the last narrow-gauge train ran in 1938, and its post office closed in 1962.
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