Exploring the Remains of Historic Candelaria

  Wandering the handful of ruins in the old mining town of Candelaria, it’s hard to believe the town once boasted some 1,500 residents and its mines produced more than $1 million per year in ore.

  Only a few stone walls and arches, piles of wooden and metal debris and a cemetery mark the spot of what was once one of the most successful mining communities in Esmeralda County (the county was later split into two counties, Esmeralda and Mineral, with Candelaria becoming part of Mineral County).

  Candelaria traces its beginnings to 1864, when Mexican prospectors discovered silver in the hills about 12 miles northwest of the Columbia salt marshes (some 120 miles south of Fallon). They established a mine they named Candelaria in honor of Candle Mass, a Roman Catholic holiday.

  While the ore was promising, the camp really begin to grow until the late 1870s, when German and Slovenian miners arrived and staked the Northern Belle Mine, which proved extremely profitable. Within a few years, large stamp mills were erected at nearby Belleville (eight miles northwest) and the boom was under way.

  In 1876, a visitor to Candelaria could find a post office, hotels, restaurants, stables and a budding business district. Water, however, was virtually nonexistent.

  Residents paid as much as $1 per gallon—it cost $2 to bathe—for water that had to be transported from a spring nine miles away. In fact, some historians claim that whiskey and other alcoholic beverages were much cheaper to drink than water.

  The lack of water is said to have been particularly difficult because it meant the stamp mills operated without water, generating clouds of silica-laden dust that caused the miners to suffer and die from lung-related diseases. A water pipeline was built in 1882 from nearby Trail Canyon and the price of the precious commodity dropped to five cents per gallon.

  The town also reportedly had three doctors, two lawyers, a school, bank, telegraph office, two breweries, a newspaper and two dozen saloons—but, despite its Christian name, no churches (in fact, the town never had a church).

  Perhaps the most important event for the town happened in 1882 with completion of a spur of the Carson & Colorado Railroad. The route connected Candelaria to shipping points at Mina and Keeler, a town near Owens Lake, California.

  A fire destroyed a substantial part of the budding metropolis in 1883. The next year, a strike at the mines affected the area's output. That was followed by a gradual decline of the mines’ output.

  By 1890, the town was in a serious slump that was only exacerbated by the national financial panic of 1893, which cut off new sources of capital and caused many of the mines to close.

  The district revived briefly just after the turn of the 20th century with new mining discoveries but that flurry of activity was short-lived.

  The Carson & Colorado Railroad abandoned the area in 1932 (after having been consolidated with other railroad lines in 1905 to become the Nevada & California Railway). It had provided only intermittent service during the previous three decades.

  Open pit gold mining operations were initiated in the 1970s, which obliterated much of the area around the historic mining district, including the site of an adjacent mining town called Metallic City. Today, large chain-link fences surround the open pit mine that border the old town.

  As a result, the desert is slowly reclaiming Candelaria, which hasn’t had a resident in more than 90 years. Photos of Candelaria taken twenty-five years ago show many of the same buildings, but in much better shape and in greater number.

  The best remains include the former bank building, which, according to records, later served as a saloon and general store as well as a fairly intact stone building across the street. All aaround are a handful of stone foundations, wooden walls, fences and collapsed ruins.

  The two stone structures, in fact, are the most substantial survivors of a main street that once stretched for a half-mile or so through this small, dry valley surrounded by rough, black lava-rock hills. A few miles miles north of the townsite is the cemetery, which is definitely worth checking out.

  Candelaria sits 14 miles south of Mina, off U.S. Highway 95 via a marked, paved road (which leads to the modern mining operation). Mina is located about 35 miles south of Hawthorne in central western Nevada.

  For more information about Candelaria, check out Stanley Paher’s “Nevada Ghost Towns and Mining Camps” and Shawn Hall’s “Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of Southern Nevada,” which has a chapter on Candelaria. Both are available from online booksellers.

  You can also find a nice selection of contemporary photos at https://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nv/candelaria.html.

The Vastness of Nevada Becomes Very Real in Railroad Valley

One of the oil-pumping stations found in Railroad Valley. (Photo courtesy of Farmartin)

   There are no trains in Railroad Valley. In fact, the long, narrow valley located northeast of Tonopah via U.S. 6, has never had a train.

   The name is believed to have derived either from a proposed narrow-gauge railroad line that would have passed through the valley (stretching from Elko down to Lincoln County) or from a large gravel bar, a remnant from an ancient lake, at the northwest end of the valley that resembled a railroad grade.

   Whatever the origins, the valley has been inhabited for nearly 12,000 years, according to archaeologists, with the earliest residents being the Clovis people and, in more recent times, by members of the Western Shoshone people.

   The first non-Native Americans to pass through the valley included the explorer Jedediah Smith, who, in 1826-27, led a small expedition searching for a mythical waterway (Buenaventura River) that allegedly flowed through the unexplored western territories to the Pacific Ocean.

   In mid-June 1827, Smith wrote of crossing the then-unnamed valley, which had little water or grass. He said game was scarce, although he was able to kill a rabbit for food.

   The next non-Native to enter the valley was the Great Pathfinder, John C. Fremont, who lead an expedition through the region in 1854. Again, he noted the lack of vegetation and game, and pretty much passed through as quickly as he could.

   Prospectors were the next to explore the valley, following the discovery of silver and gold ore in Austin (1862), Hamilton (1867), Troy (1867) and Grant (1868). Soon, smaller but promising discoveries were made in the mountains surrounding the Railroad Valley, in the Grant, Quinn Canyon, and Reveille ranges.

   With the arrival of the mining camps, came the need for services, and ranching operations began to crop up in the valley.

   According to Robert D. McCracken and Jeanne Sharp Howerton, authors of “A History of Railroad Valley, Nevada,” within two decades, from the mid-1860s to the mid-1880s, “the Native Americans living in the area quickly lost their best food-producing sites,” including foraging and hunting lands at Duckwater, Currant Creek, Blue Eagle, and Lockes as large sections of the valley were fenced.

   By the 1890s, portions of the valley had been developed with various ranches producing hay or being used for grazing cattle as well as for salt mining, and other agricultural uses. McCracken and Howerton note that the valley became known as “good stock-raising country with large springs and abundant forage for cattle.”

   Additionally, starting in the late 1860s, the mountains around the valley were harvested for their timber, particularly white pine and fir. Logging apparently continued in the mountains to the east until the 1920s.

   The presence of geothermal springs also contributed to the valley’s development, particularly to the north end, where Big Warm Springs is located. This portion of the valley is now part of the Duckwater Indian Reservation, which was established in the 1940s.

   Perhaps the most important development in Railroad Valley in the mid-20th century was the commercial drilling and pumping of oil. Starting in 1954, Shell Oil began pumping oil in the Eagle Springs area of the valley.

   By the 1990s, Railroad Valley wells had produced nearly 38 million barrels of oil from a handful of wells. Even today, the first thing travelers on U.S. 6, which traverses Railroad Valley, notice are the handful of oil well pumps rising up and down methodically.

   Additionally, ranching still hangs on in the valley and mining companies periodically explore for new discoveries in the surrounding ranges.

   As one of the largest valleys in Nevada—Railroad Valley measures some 120 miles long and between 9 and 12 miles wide—the valley remains a vast and wide-open landscape that truly defines the state’s basin and range areas.

   For more information about the valley, check out Robert D. McCracken and Jeanne Sharp Howerton’s excellent “A History of Railroad Valley, Nevada,” published by the Central Nevada Historical Society and available at online book sellers.

Hit Hard By Earthquake, Wells Survives

 In 2008, the historic railroad town of Wells, located on Interstate 80 about 45 miles east of Elko, was changed forever. That day a devastating earthquake struck the community of about 1,200 people, damaging many of the town’s most historic buildings.

  While several remain standing, the loss was major as Wells is one of the oldest settlements in northeastern Nevada, with historic ties to the Emigrant Trail, the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad line, and the development of the Interstate Highway system.

  Wells, originally known as Humboldt Wells, traces its beginnings to the first travelers across Nevada (or the Great Unknown as it was then called). In the late 1840s to early 1870s, travelers on the California Trail found lush meadows and clear natural springs in the Wells area, which was an important rest stop for the pioneers.

  Despite the good grass and water, Humboldt Wells didn’t amount to much until the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad line in 1869.

  The railroad selected Humboldt Wells for the location of a water tower and parked a boxcar adjacent to the tracks to serve as a freight and passenger depot. A little later, the site became a division point for the railroad and a small settlement began to develop.

  Within a few years, Humboldt Wells (the name was shortened to Wells in the 1870s) had a business district parallel to the railroad tracks, a school, and a population of about 300 people.

  In the late 19th century, the development of mines in the region, particularly at Cherry Creek (about 95 miles south), spurred moderate development and growth in Wells, which served as a freight point for shipping the ore.

  The construction of the Western Pacific Railroad and the Oregon Short Line, which passed through Wells, provided longer term economic stability to the town, which incorporated as a city in 1927.

  In recent years, as railroads either closed down or bypassed the community, Wells has evolved into a crossroads community because of its location at the intersection of Interstate 80 and U.S. 93.

  Today, Wells has about 1,000 residents. As a result of changes in transportation modes, from the railroad to automobiles, the commercial center of Wells has shifted from along the tracks to adjacent to the highways.

  The result is that the historic downtown was slowly abandoned—this is where much of the earthquake damage occurred—and the town’s newer development has occurred adjacent to the interstate.

  One of the survivors of the earthquake was the historic El Rancho Casino, built in 1949 and once one of the finest hotels in the state. While the building was damaged during the quake, the city and historic preservationists have embarked on a plan to renovate the structure into a community center with commercial businesses.

  About 14 miles northwest of Wells is the site of Metropolis, a ghost town that owed its existence to farming rather than mining.

  Foundations, sidewalks, a cemetery and an impressive arch that was once part of a two-story schoolhouse are all that remain.

  For more information about Wells, contact the Wells Chamber of Commerce, www.wellsnevada.com.