SULPHUR, Nev. - In modern America there has been a constant pressure to consolidate the postal system. Not so much a few decades ago. At that time, when people lived in out of the way places, the post office followed close behind them.
Every little hamlet and village had its post office. Even Sulphur! Sulphur never ran to elegant buildings - mostly tarpaper shacks. This post office building is a good example. The roof is covered with it, and the structure is wrapped in it. It's not beautiful, but it kept out the constant dust from the sulphur plant.
The post office was the heart of each community. People went there not only to pick up their mail but to visit with each other. Sulphur's people were the same. Every day the local train delivered mail to the little towns along the right of way. Every day people went to the post office to see if they'd been blessed with communication from the greater world. It was the high point of their day and a chance to visit with each other and the postmaster.
What you see here was not primarily the government's imprint on the Black Rock, it was Sulphur's social center!
- Compiled by Barbara Powell
nevadasdesertlegends.com.
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