OREANA, Nev. - Not every boom camp had a railroad. Rochester was one of the lucky ones. Well, sort of. When the railroad ran.
The Nevada Short Line Railroad had an uneasy birth - not enough money or equipment purchased. But Joseph Nenzel was a stubborn man. He pushed along, selling out his own gold lease at Rochester for enough money to keep building the railroad.
By 1914 it was running, at least most of the time. Mr. Nenzel had a few months of profitable good luck before a series of disasters struck his railroad. By 1916 his Nevada Short Line Railroad was in receivership. It struggled along until I.A. Friedman decided to build Rochester's famous tram line. The tram line was cheaper to run and more efficient than the railroad.
The June 1918 Rochester flood damaged the town but it finally destroyed the Nevada Short Line. Scrap dealers picked its bones, selling serviceable equipment to other railroads and smelting the rest.
All we have left are a few amazing pictures of when a railroad, with those beautiful steam engines, ran across the flats from Oreana to Rochester.
- Compiled by Barbara Powell
nevadasdesertlegends.com.
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