Dennis Cassinelli: The Eagle Valley Railway, Nevada’s first

Abraham Curry was the kind of man who actually deliberate forward. When he arrived in Western Utah Territory in 1858, he tried to buy some property in Genoa. He quickly discovered the value was a lot too excessive, so he resolved to construct a city of his personal elsewhere.
A short while later, along with F.M. Proctor, B.F. Inexperienced and L.J Musser, Curry bought the Eagle Valley Ranch about 20 miles north. The three males might need been completely unaware that the property was destined to turn into the location of Nevada Territory’s Capitol inside three years.
On the jap boundary of the ranch the acquisition included a pure hot-spring space often called Heat Springs. That is the current web site of the Nevada State penitentiary. On this spot, Curry constructed stone constructing often called Curry’s Heat Springs Resort.
In the meantime, Main William Ormsby had constructed a hostelry in close by Carson Metropolis named the Ormsby Home. These two males, together with many different far looking for people, had been already planning that Carson Metropolis would turn into the headquarters of the Nevada Territory.
William Ormsby, previous to his loss of life within the Pyramid Lake Indian struggle of 1860, was heard to comment that his Ormsby Home can be a high quality place to deal with the legislators when the territory was organized. Such was the case when Territorial Governor, James Nye, arrange his headquarters there. When the primary territorial legislature assembled, it grew to become evident that there was inadequate room on the Ormsby Home Resort for the group’s legislative periods. It was then that Abraham Curry’s planning confirmed actual foresight. Abe Curry supplied the vacant third ground of his Heat Springs Resort to the legislators, Hire Free. His provide was seized upon instantly, however the main drawback, transportation to and from the location remained to be solved.
Undaunted by this obvious minor issue, Abe Curry made the extra provide of free transportation for the legislators from Carson Metropolis to Heat Springs, a distance of about two miles. To be able to make good on his provide, Curry instantly set about constructing Nevada’s first streetcar system. The sandy roadway between Carson Metropolis and Heat Springs was graded and strengthened to assist the monitor for the railway. When this was accomplished, Curry positioned his rolling inventory in service. It consisted of a flatcar and a windowless passenger automobile with benches for seats. The route adopted up what’s now East Fifth Avenue in Carson Metropolis.
When the session began, the legislators had been hauled every morning from the Ormsby Home in Carson Metropolis to Curry’s Heat Springs Resort. Every night, when the session recessed, the legislators had been transported over the tough railway. Motive energy for the primary streetcar consisted of a pair of ragged-looking mules.
Though the Eagle Valley Railway gave the impression to be born of benevolence, it was nonetheless in a position to make a revenue for Curry. The legislators rode on free passes, however Curry had added a flatcar for freight functions. Sandstone blocks from his Heat Springs quarry quickly grew to become in demand for constructing in Carson Metropolis. It was seldom {that a} horsecar began the journey to the capital with out a payload of the precious constructing materials.
It was Abraham Curry who satisfied Congress years later to ascertain a department of the Mint in Carson Metropolis to coin the silver and gold from the Comstock mines. It was sandstone blocks quarried from Curry’s Heat Springs supply that had been used to assemble the mint constructing, the state Capitol, the state penitentiary and lots of different substantial buildings nonetheless standing in Carson Metropolis and Virginia Metropolis.
I used to be prompted to jot down this text by my earlier job as an inspector on the Carson Metropolis Freeway Bypass, which passes over the route of the Eagle Valley Railway on the Fifth Avenue overpass construction and alongside the location of Curry’s Heat Springs Resort, the place the Nevada Territorial Legislature met. Plainly wherever I occur to be working, I’m surrounded by Nevada and Comstock historical past. One simply has to know the place to look.
This edited article is from Chronicles of the Comstock by Dennis Cassinelli, out there from Amazon as an e-book.