20 Thursday, July 31, 1997 Pahrump Valley Gazette
Nevada-then and now
Hazen: Truckee Canal Boomtown
by Phillip I. Earl
Nevada Historical Society
A recent two-part series on the history of Derby Dam and the community of held to await a hearing before Constable Judd the next morning. Wood was never to
Derby would not be complete without a feature on Hazen, the third historic site see the sun come up, however. About 2:00 a.m., a lynch mob broke him out and strung
associated with the Truckee Ca- him up to a telegraph pole. The body was
nal and the Newlands Project. left dangling until mid-morning, lest
Named in honor of Brigadier General those similarly inclined somehow miss
William Babcock Hazen, an aide to Gen- the lesson to be learned there alongside
eral William Tecumsa Sherman of Civil the tracks that morning, but little changed
War fame, the community had its origins in Hazen.
as a southern Pacific Railroad siding dur- Governor John Sparks vetoed a legis-
ing the realignment of the right-of-way | lative bill closing down saloons along
across the state, 1901-02. By the time ser- " the canal and Churchill County officials
vice openedthroughthissectionofNevada refused to act on a petition. Hazen
in October 1902, plans were afoot for a saloonmen were soon facing a decline
thirty-one mile canal from Derby Dam to in their business, however, when the
Lahontan Reservoir. Hazen became the canal was completed in April and la-
headquarters for the U.S. Reclamation Ser- • =: borers moved further east to work on
vice in August 1904. Some 300 canal la- :,.:.. ,; ° ".. .:/ laterals, ditches and smaller canals in
borers were living in tents on the site by .v_€.. ' *,, •/ the Fallon area. In June 1905, they were
that time and the community was gaining a 1.:-... -. replaced by railroad laborers and track
reputation for lawlessness second only to " ...... : . gangs working on the twenty-mile
Derby's. . Hazen Cut-Off between Hazen and
Churchill County officials appointed Churchill Station. Assaults, murderand
Judd Allen, alocalhotelman, as Constable, all manner of petty crimes resumed,
but otherwise ignored the burglaries, as- William "Red" Wood, hanged at Hazen, March 1, 1905. continuing until the line was opened in
saults, occasional murders and lesser crimes late August. Hazen boomed thereafter,
which plagued the area. On August 11, photo by Nevada Historical Soc&ty becoming the principal railhead for all
1904, Reclamation Service officials re- traffic moving to and from Tonopah.
quested county officials to deny new saloon licenses and close down the four operating Goldfield and other mining camps in central Nevada. The community thus generated
in Hazen, but to no avail. On September 3, four men attacked Percy McDonald and Elbert its own crime.
Howe, civil engineers on the project, near the Hazen depot. Other men on the scene came In February 1905, Southern Pacific officials sent out a survey crew for a branch
to their rescue, but only one man was captured. There was talk of organizing a "vigilance line to Fallon. Grading began in April 1906 and the first train from Hazen arrived
committee" at that time and county officials ordered the construction ofajail three weeks over the line on January 10, 1907. Many of the men who had worked on the new
later. J.D. Ellis got the contract with a bid of $224 and the small wooden facility was branch had previously labored on the canal and the Hazen Cut-off. Those who made
completed and ready for occupancy by November 1. Dan Bums and E.J.Wade indicted a living selling rotgut whiskey and drugs, assaulting and robbing laborers, passing
for robbery and held in Fallon, were the first inmates, but the level of criminal activity counterfeit money, forging checks and engaging in assorted troublemaking were
in Hazen remained about the same. still on the scene as well.
On February 28, 1905, several citizens apprehended William "Red" Wood as he and The Newlands Project was not quite the "Wild West," but those who settled there
a partner, "Kid" Wilson, were waylaying a canal laborer. Wilson escaped, but Wood was in the early days did their level best to uphold the standard.
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