Pahrump Valley Gazette,Thursday, November 13, 1997 17
Gazette on the street...
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If you could travel back in time, what era
• el • 9
would yolt like to vls# and why:
Li00gston, TX England Sweden Las Vegas
JERRY HEESACKER --
RetiredAir Force -- "I don't think
I want to go back. I would want to
go the other way, forward. I would
rather go forward 100 or 200 years
to see what this world will be like
then."
JEREMY GRIGGS -- Telephone
technician -- "Medieval times, it
just seems like a good time to go
back to, To see the knights in shining
armor."
ANNA NORDEN -- Lawyer--
"I would like to go back to the time
when white people first came to
the Grand Canyon, Just to suddenly
find yourself on the rim."
LEO SCHAFER -- Engineer--
!'About 100 years ago. I think
that's where I belonged."
CLARA jACKSON --
Housewife-- "I would like to visit
the prehistoric time. i would like
to see how they lived. It must
have been really hard for them.
Even the first people who visited
this area, must have had a hard
time."
Compiled by PVG staff photographers
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482-3016 No to Abuse 751-1118
Tonopah 24 Hr. Crisis Line Pahrump
Neva00!tt
- then a now
Hazen-Fallon Railroad last remnant of an era
by Phillip L Earl
Nevada Historical Society
. Interest in a rail connec-
tion between Fallon and the
Southern Pacific line to the west sur-
faced in the spring of 1903, and local
ranchers and businessmen commis-
sioned a preliminary survey between
Massie and Fallon in April of that year.
Promotional and planning meetings were
held over the next year and $60,000 was
pledged in May 1904. Southern Pacific
officials were discussing an extension
east from Hazen by that timepand a
group of Californians were promoting
the construction of an electric interur-
ban line.
Southern Pacific Superintendent
John Shaughnessy sent out survey crews
in February and March 1905, but grad-
ing and construction were to be delayed
for another year pending completion of
the Hazen Cut-Off to the south. The
Nevada Legislature granted a fight-of-
way over public lands under state con-
trol in 1905, as did officials of the U.S.
Reclamation Service. Much of the right-
of-way was already under Southern Pa-
cific control and State Senator W. W.
Williams of Fallon donated a 10 acre
tract for a Fallon depot in June 1905.
A real estate boom had meanwhile
gotten underway. A.A. Hibbard, a
Reno broker, predicted that Lahontan
llthough the Nevada Northern Railway in White Pine County is the last of the state's
shortlines, the 16 mile line operating between Hazen and Fallon is an important remnant
of the railroad era that began in the first decade of this century.
First day of service on the Hazen-Fallon railroad, January 10, 1907.
Photo courtesy of Churchill County Museum, Fallon
later, January 10, 1907. There had been talk of celebrating "Railroad Day" upon completion
of the line, but several dates came and went and the Hazen-Fallon line was never officially
christened. Both Fallon and Hazen were plagued with crime during the construction phase,
but life returned to normal within
weeks of completion. Southern
Pacific officials were promoting
Lahontan Valley and Fallon's busi-
nessmen were doing their part to
ensure their future prosperity, or-
ganizing the community's first
chamber of commerce on October
1, 1906.
Passenger service began within
a month and was coordinated with
the Southern Pacific schedule from
Hazen to Reno. There was talk of
extending the line on east to min-
ing operations at Sand Springs and
to the camps of Fairview, Wonder
and Rawhide, but the economics
of such a proposition did not jus-
tify the expense and the line ended
in Fallon. A gasoline motorcar ser-
vice between Reno and Fallon was
established in March 1911, but sub-
sequent competition with buses and
private automobiles forced a cut-
back to a single run a day in Sep-
tember 1920. In May 1924, with
only one or two passengers a day
taking the trip, the service ended.
By the early 1920s, the Lincoln
Highway had been improved to the
point that motor tracks were im-
pacting freight service and the line
had begun to go into the red by the late 1920s. It remained in operation only because the
citizens of Fallon and Lahontan Valley protested when company officials applied to the
Nevada Public Service Commission for abandonment. This situation continues today.
Southern Pacific officials; mining companies, naval authorities and Fallon shippers have
been able to work out a plan to make proper use of the line. A nominal once-a-week service
is maintained by law and the future is up in the air.
Valley would be "a second Sacramento Valley" within two years. Fifty to seventy-five ten-
horse teams were operating between Hazen and Fallon by midsummer 1905 and there was
every prospect that a railroad would be a financial success from the outset. Hazen had become
a cailhead for traffic to the mining camps of central Nevada via the Hazen Cut-Off and the
former Carson & Colorado was also prospering.
Construction got underway in August 1906 and the first train rolled into Fallon five months
