The Road to Nowhere

The Road to Nowhere. Dayton's History. , The Carson and Colorado Railroad (C&C) , The Carson and Colorado Railroad (C&C), completed in 1881, operated on a 3-foot narrow-gauge track. Nicknamed the "Slim Princess," it provided transportation from Mound House, Nevada to Keeler, California through western Nevada. A trip on the C&C across desolate, desert territory was hot, dusty, and slow. Rarely on time, the train covered 300 miles a day delivering supplies, mining equipment, and food products, including fresh milk, to small towns. The train also provided water for Paiute Indians who filled vessels at selected sites along the track., "It was called ‘the road that began nowhere, went nowhere, ran 300 miles through the desert to get there, and was built 100 years too soon,’" wrote Fannie Hazlett, Dayton pioneer historian., When mining drastically declined circa 1900, operating the C&C was no longer profitable. The Southern Pacific bought the line from D.O. Mills and provided a mail route between Mound House and Fort Churchill. One day a week the mail train carried passengers. The narrow-gauge track was converted to broad-gauge in 1905 to connect Goldfield and Tonopah., The Dayton Station closed its doors in 1934. The station, originally located on Railroad Street near the Carson River, was moved to its current site at Main Street and U.S. Highway 50 E. after Chester Barton purchased it in 1954 to remodel it as a private residence., Plans for the station, owned today by the Historical Society of Dayton Valley, include rehabilitating the structure to its original appearance. The renovated building will house a visitor's center and a railroad museum., Before the C&C served Dayton, Wells Fargo stagecoaches and thousands of emigrants traveling by wagon train crossed Main and Pike streets during the mid-to-late-1800s mining boom that began with the California Gold Rush. Pony Express riders also galloped along this route during the short time the Pony Express operated (1860-1861)., Nevada's first Chinatown once flourished at the corner of U.S. Highway 50 E. and the bridge, with 200 Chinese living in stone, mud, and tule houses along the Carson River. In 1859, U.S. Army explorer James H. Simpson noted in his journal: "Chinatown has two stores, one recently kept by E. Sam who was drowned the other day attempting to ford the Carson River on horseback...", In 1861, Chinatown was officially named Dayton , after John Day, the man who surveyed the town site., [sidebar] Dayton's History, Welcome to Dayton's Historic Sector. , In 1849, a pack train of Mormons traveling to California's goldfields camped near what is today the town of Dayton while waiting for the Sierra snow to melt. Their guide, Abner Blackburn, discovered Nevada's first gold at the mouth of the canyon. News spread to California. By 1851, hundreds of gold-seekers had swarmed into Gold Canon, where a tent city grew and ultimately became the town that was formally named Dayton in 1861., Blackburn's gold find led to the discovery of the Comstock Lode in Virginia City in 1859, then to the creation of the Nevada Territory in 1861, and finally to statehood for Nevada in 1864., Take a trip back in time: Close your eyes. Imagine it is 1853. Dayton's Pike and Main Streets are dusty overland emigrant trails teeming with pioneers, some on horseback, others on foot or riding atop oxen-drawn covered wagons; many of them had traveled nearly 2,000 miles on their trek toward California., Dayton's rousing history is revealed through photographs and narrative on five historical kiosks located around town and in the Dayton Museum. (See their locations below.), Dayton’s Historical Highlights: , . Home to Native Americans for thousands of years prior to Euro-American emigration. , . Site of Nevada's first documented gold discovery in 1849 at the mouth of Gold Cañon, where Dayton began. , . Site of Nevada's first cemetery, established in the 1850s in what was then lower Carson Valley, Utah Territory. , . Nevada's earliest permanent Euro-American settlement, inhabited since at least 1851. , . Site of first Chinese settlement in Nevada, 1857. , . Site of Pony Express stop called Nevada, 1860-1861. , (See original rock wall and monument, Pike and Main Streets.) , . Lyon County's first county seat, 1861. , . America's first transcontinental interstate, the Lincoln Highway, passed through Old Town Dayton.