Ely

Simpson’s Map and the County Seat

At Ely the Lincoln Highway meets two other national roadways: the Midland Trail, designated Route 6 in 1937, and U.S. 93, which passes north-south through the town.² James H. Simpson put the future town site on the map during his 1859 exploration through the Great Basin.² A county economic development strategy traces Ely’s founding to the stagecoach, and a report on the city hall notes that the early settlement had an abundance of spring water.^3,5 In the 1860s silver and gold turned up nearby in what became the Robinson Mining District, and in 1873 Selby Copper tried a little experimental smelting, without success.^2,6 The legislature created White Pine County in 1869 out of the boom at Hamilton, which kept the seat of government until its courthouse burned, and Ely became the county seat in 1887.¹

The state’s Federal Writers’ Project guide follows the White Pine News from Treasure City, where it started in 1868, through Hamilton, Cherry Creek, and Taylor to Ely in 1890, when Denver S. Dickerson became its publisher.⁷ In 1923, the guide records, the News and the Expositor merged into the Ely Daily Times, edited and published in 1940 by Vail Pittman.⁷

Requa’s Copper Railroad

The state marker dates major copper discoveries to the early 1890s, while the railroad’s National Register nomination starts the copper story in 1900, when two young miners, Edwin Gray and David Bartley, arrived from California.^2,6 Their work drew Mark Requa, manager of the Eureka-Palisades Railroad since 1897, who organized the White Pine Copper Company in 1903 with $300,000 in capital.⁶ For Requa’s Nevada Consolidated Copper Company, the Utah Construction Company began work at Cobre, on the Southern Pacific, on September 9, 1905, and the line was complete to Ely by September 29, 1906.^6,8 The line from Ely to the mines at Ruth took two more years, and on April 16, 1908, the Nevada Northern became a fully operational railroad of 183.27 miles, carrying ore from Ruth to the McGill smelter.^2,6

Not everyone welcomed it; some despaired that the railroad would end Ely’s isolation.⁶ Right-of-way disputes with the city fathers sent the yards and shops to Ely City, as East Ely was then known, a mile east of the town center.⁶ The nomination says the railroad brought thousands of men and thousands of dollars to Ely, which incorporated as a city in 1907.^4,6 From 1906 until 1941 the trains also carried passengers, among them McGill youth riding the “school train” to Ely High School.^6,8

The Lincoln Highway and the Mill Street City Hall

In 1913 the road through Ely became part of the transcontinental Lincoln Highway, though it went unpaved until 1922.² The marker says Ely had over 2,000 residents and offered many services, and that when copper declined after World War I the struggling town turned to travelers for income.² The two-story masonry City Hall and Fire Station on Mill Street dates to 1928 in a consultant’s report for the city and to 1929 in its National Register listing, and it housed the fire department until 1999.^4,5,9 City records credit the design to the city’s engineer at the time; the report adds that Frank Millard, who came to Ely at 22 with his father in 1902 to evaluate tailings, joined the city and became its city engineer.⁵ In 1933 Kennecott Copper took over the holdings of Nevada Consolidated Copper, and Online Nevada calls White Pine the most productive mining and smelting region in the state for a half-century.^1,6 The Lincoln Highway became U.S. 50 in 1926, and by mid-century the popularity of the Victory Highway, now Interstate 80, had reduced it to what the marker calls “The Loneliest Road in America.”²

Kennecott’s Closing and the East Ely Yards

Accounts of the shutdown differ: Online Nevada counts more than $1.0 billion in ore mined and smelted between 1902 and 1981, when the operation closed, while the county strategy says Kennecott closed the mine in 1978 and that the smelter and railroad were closed by 1983.^1,3 The community lost 1,600 primary jobs, and in 1989 the State of Nevada opened the maximum-security Ely State Prison between Ely and McGill.³ In 1995 Magma Copper of Arizona bought and reopened the copper mine at Ruth.³ Kennecott gave the railroad’s facilities to the City of Ely and the Nevada Northern Railway Foundation, established in 1984, and the city oversees the depot and shops as a working historical railroad museum.^6,10 Frederick Hale’s Mission Revival East Ely Depot was listed in the National Register in 1984, and the East Ely shop complex became a National Historic Landmark District in 2006.^6,8