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Helen Stewart: First Lady of Las Vegas
On a quiet day in March 1926, businesses in Las Vegas shuttered their doors. Local schools closed for the day and the federal post office was deserted, for most of the city’s residents were attending the funeral of Helen Jane Wiser Stewart. The homage paid to Stewart by the city she helped create would have surprised the unassuming and frail woman. But the legacy of her strength, character, intelligence, and spirit was evident to all who knew her, and it continues to inspire today.
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Transitory Train Towns
Transitory Train Towns NEW RAIL ROUTES OFTEN LEFT OLD TOWNS OUT TO DRY. BY ERIC CACHINERO It is generally well known that train-sized holes were drilled through hundreds of yards of solid rock to lay railroad tracks during the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad. In fact, throughout Donner Pass, countless tons of rock were […]
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Iron Horses, Steel Stallions, & Concrete Colts
If you were to take all of the concrete used to build the Hoover (Boulder) Dam, there would be enough to create a 4-foot-wide sidewalk around the equator, or enough to build a two lane road from Seattle to Miami, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior. The Department also estimates that the dam weighs 6.6 million tons (13,200,000,000 pounds). So how did 1930s-era civil and industrial engineers figure out how to transport approximately 13.2 billion pounds of concrete, along with millions more tons of metal and other materials? They teamed up with another type of engineer—the railroad engineer.
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Railroad Collections
Nevada State Railroad Museum staff and volunteers Rolling Through the Years How the Nevada State Railroad Museum Cares for its Collections. BY CHRISTOPHER DE WITT The Nevada State Railroad Museum (NSRM) in Carson City has a significant collection of Nevada-related restored and unrestored rolling stock—a term that refers to any vehicle used on a […]
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Railroading Sisters
Two women run the U.S. Gypsum short line north of Reno STORY BY LINDA NIEMANN PHOTOS BY SHIRLY BURMAN (This story originally appeared in our March/April 1992 issue) Just how rare is it for two petite grandmothers to be running a train? It’s about as common as hen’s teeth, talking pigs, or shy politicians. Shutterbugs […]
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Laying the Tracks for Nevada’s Future
The Great Seal of the State of Nevada dates from Nevada’s constitutional convention of 1863-1864. Among symbols representing agriculture, mining and other industries, is a train. In December 1863, the convention committee responsible for the seal described the train on the seal as “approaching, very slowly.” This was an understatement to say the least, and the statement may even have been a joke. At the time, the Central Pacific—the railroad closest to Nevada and the one that would eventually connect Nevada with the world—had barely 10 miles of track on the ground.
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Carson City State Museums
Tucked into the capital, two distinct venues bring history to life. BY GUY CLIFTON At its best, history tickles our senses. To see history up close—to touch it, to smell it, to hear it, to stand in the footsteps of those who made it—is what ties generations together. It can spark wonder in the young […]
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Nevada State Railroad Museum, Boulder City
Locomotion Commotion History is on track with growth at Boulder City’s Nevada State Railroad Museum. BY CAROLINE HORWITZ “There’s a romance to trains, a kind of magic,” says Peter Barton, administrator for the Nevada Division of Museums and History. “Riding one never seems to lose its charm.” Indeed, this charm is felt by all […]
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A Museum In Motion
East Ely Railroad Depot chronicals decades of locomotive history. BY LINDA FINE CONABOY Railroad and history buffs, beware. The East Ely Railroad Depot Museum has designs on you, and if you visit, you’ll be back—again and again. The museum offers a trove of history, memories, and lore from days gone by, unaltered, carefully maintained, […]