Day Three
20/05/25 10:17
The scenery on my drive to Ely was spectacular. I lost track of how many mountain passes over 7,000 feet in elevation I encountered. Fortunately, there was no snow on the road on those high passes. On the way down, there were also multiple opportunities to see vast stretches of open valleys with beautiful snow-capped mountains towering above them.
The main industry in Ely is its still-active copper mine. When approaching the town from the west on Highway 50, this is one of the first things that is strikingly different from the typical basin and range topography:
The residue from all of that strip mining is piled hundreds of feet high and stretches for miles. And here is what is in the center (The image is not my own. I found it online. They obviously don't want looky lous like me to see what is "happening behind the curtain"):
And when I saw this promotional brochure in the White Pine County Museum in Ely, and the real deal in the Locomotive Shop at the Northern Nevada Railroad Museum there, it became clear that big players have been involved in extracting the mineral wealth of the Silver State:
Speaking of the railroad museum, my self-guided tour of that (right after my visit to the county museum) was well worth the $8 price of admission. They let you wander into this enormous shop where they are repairing old locomotives and rail cars. The company offers rail tourist tours on the same tracks that used to support freight and passenger rail to Ely. In fact, the car barn is a carryover from that by-gone rail service which apparently was a big deal for both the mine and people coming to the area.
Here is some of what I saw inside:
A coal car to feed the above historic steam locomotive—both now being repaired…
I watched several workers using these hydraulic jacks to raise the lovely passenger car seen below this photo. Shortly thereafter, I saw them install the repaired train wheels and front grill:
Tonight, I am in Tonopah. Tomorrow, I will share my photos and stories about my visit to Hickison Petroglyph BLM recreation area. Thanks for reading!
The main industry in Ely is its still-active copper mine. When approaching the town from the west on Highway 50, this is one of the first things that is strikingly different from the typical basin and range topography:
The residue from all of that strip mining is piled hundreds of feet high and stretches for miles. And here is what is in the center (The image is not my own. I found it online. They obviously don't want looky lous like me to see what is "happening behind the curtain"):
And when I saw this promotional brochure in the White Pine County Museum in Ely, and the real deal in the Locomotive Shop at the Northern Nevada Railroad Museum there, it became clear that big players have been involved in extracting the mineral wealth of the Silver State:
Speaking of the railroad museum, my self-guided tour of that (right after my visit to the county museum) was well worth the $8 price of admission. They let you wander into this enormous shop where they are repairing old locomotives and rail cars. The company offers rail tourist tours on the same tracks that used to support freight and passenger rail to Ely. In fact, the car barn is a carryover from that by-gone rail service which apparently was a big deal for both the mine and people coming to the area.
Here is some of what I saw inside:
A coal car to feed the above historic steam locomotive—both now being repaired…
I watched several workers using these hydraulic jacks to raise the lovely passenger car seen below this photo. Shortly thereafter, I saw them install the repaired train wheels and front grill:
Tonight, I am in Tonopah. Tomorrow, I will share my photos and stories about my visit to Hickison Petroglyph BLM recreation area. Thanks for reading!
