(The Associated Press circulated the following article on October 26.)
ELY, Nev. — The Nevada Northern Railway’s East Ely Yards have been declared a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. National Park Service, only the seventh such site in the state.
“The Nevada Northern Railway complex is the last remaining complete standard gauge railroad in the United States,” said Ron James, Nevada’s state Historic Preservation Officer.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne formalized the declaration on Sept. 27, James said.
William L. Withuhn, the curator of the history of technology and transportation for the Smithsonian Institution, said the site is “a living American treasure and a stand-out one.”
“Among all railroad historic sites anywhere in North America, the Nevada Northern Railway complex at East Ely is — no question in my view — the most complete, most authentic, and best cared-for, bar none,” he said.
It is “a precious piece of Nevada’s heritage and, just as important, a step back in time into an all-important era in American history and our nation’s cultural heritage,” Withuhn said.
The railway joins six other sites that have received such status in Nevada: the Hoover Dam, Leonard Rockshelter, Fort Churchill, Fort Ruby, Newlands Mansion and the Comstock Historic District in Virginia City.
More than 70,000 sites nationally are listed on the National Register of Historic Places but fewer than 3,000 have the Historic Landmark designation, James said.
Initial construction on the Nevada Northern Railway began in 1905 to transport ore from the Nevada Consolidated Copper Company mines west of Ely at Ruth, Nevada, to the Central Pacific Railroad line east of Wells.The rail line was officially abandoned in 1987, nearly a decade after most copper mines in White Pine County had closed. The Nevada Northern Railway Museum took over ownership of the complex in 2000 and now offers public tours of the facility as well as train rides.