Elko
Elko, Elko County, Nevada
Marker Inscription
Elko. On December 29, 1868, representatives of the Central Pacific Railroad started laying out lots for the future town of Elko. By 1870, the thriving town had 5,000 people. There was an immense volume of freight and passenger traffic over the stage line roads north and south from the Railhead at Elko to mining areas.The University of Nevada was located in Elko in 1874, and remained here until 1885, when it moved to Reno.By the early 1870s, Elko became the marketing and economic center for northeastern Nevada’s range livestock empire. In the 1870s and I 880s, great ranching principalities were built on Elko county’s vast rangelands. These ranches were ruled over by such powerful and colorful cattle kings as L.R. “Broadhorns” Bradley, Nevada’s second governor and its first ‘cowboy” governor; the French Garat family; the Spanish Altubes; and John Sparks, governor of Nevada in the early years of the twentieth century.Elko remains the economic hub of Nevada’s greatest range area. At the same time, it has also become a recreation tourism center in northeast Nevada and home to the internationally famous Cowboy Poetry Festival.
Erected by Northeastern Historical Society
The Story
Elko was born of the railroad at the very end of 1868, when Central Pacific crews staked out lots that filled almost overnight, and within two years thousands of people made it a bustling freight and passenger gateway to the mining country north and south. It even hosted the University of Nevada from 1874 until the school moved to Reno in 1885. By the 1870s Elko had become the marketing heart of northeastern Nevada's vast rangelands, home to cattle barons and governors alike, and it remains the region's economic hub and host of the celebrated Cowboy Poetry Gathering.
Why it matters
Elko embodies the railroad town that became a ranching capital, a place where the transcontinental line, the cattle frontier, and a living cowboy culture all converge in one Great Basin community.
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Related people
- · John Sparks
- · L.R. Bradley
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Carlin Canyon
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