Central Pacific stations Halleck to Carlin
Your Guide Book to the Pacific Railroad, 1879
Stations in Nevada
Halleck to Carlin
HALLECK
(630 miles from San Francisco, elevation 5,230 feet)
It is named from Camp Halleck, which is located at the
base of the mountains, 13 miles from the station, and across the river. A few
troops are usually kept here, two or three companies, and all the freighting and
business of the post is done from this station.
The town itself has a post-office, hotel, small store and
the usual saloons where "lingering death,' or "blue ruin," the
common terms for whiskey, is doled out to the soldiers, and others who patronize
them.
ELKO
(606 miles from San Francisco, elevation 5,063 feet)
It is the regular breakfast and supper station of the
road, and passengers get an excellent meal in a neat house, kept by Mr. Clark,
the most genial and accommodating landlord on the road. The table is usually
well supplied with fruits, fish and game.
Elko is the county-seat of Elko County and has a population
of about 1,200. It is destined to become one of the important commercial and educational
centers of the state.
It has a large brick court-house and jail, one church, an
excellent public school, and is the seat of the State University. This
institution has 40 acres of ground on a bench of land overlooking the city.
Water taken from the Humboldt River some 17 miles distant,
and brought here in pipes, supplies the city.
Elko is destined to become famous as a watering place. About
one and a half miles north of the river, and west of the town, are a group of
mineral springs that are already attracting the attention of invalids.
There are six springs in this group, three hot and three
cold. The springs show 185 degrees Fahrenheit, and one of them is called the
"Chicken Soup Spring." It has water which, with a little salt and
pepper for seasoning tastes very much like chicken broth.
CARLIN
(585 miles from San Francisco, elevation 4,897 feet)
It is a railroad town, the terminus of a freight division
of the road and the location of the roundhouse, machine, car and repair shops of
the Humboldt Division of the Central Pacific Railroad. It
is the headquarters of Mr. G. W. Coddington, the Division Superintendent.
The town has no business outside of the railroad shops and employees
and numbers about 200 people.
In the vicinity of Carlin four little creeks come in from the
north. In the order in which they are crossed, they are called Susie, Maggie,
Mary and Amelia.
Tradition says that an emigrant was crossing the plains with
his family at an early day, and in that family were his four daughters. As they
came to the streams he named each stream for a daughter.