Mound House

[61]       

Mound House

Lyon County
  39.21409, -119.66963

"I am finally able to get out of the house after two days of non-stop snowfall here in Mound House. In a matter of eighteen hours, over two feet of snow has fallen here on the desert floor. Incredible! What better place that to finally conquer the marker closest to home ... #61, Mound House. Ah yes. Mound House ... sort of the butt of all jokes here in western Nevada ... and a lot of it isn't fair. Mound House is often known for three things: horses, brothels, and one of the nastiest speed traps in the entire state of Nevada. Upon first glance, Mound House isn't much to look at and it's hard for many people, especially transplants, to conceive the thought of a bustling railroad stop on a very important narrow-gauge railroad located right here. Now if only one ... that's right ... one, out of the thoussnds of commuters everyday from Dayton to Carson City, stop at this marker to read up on its past ... then I'd say my job is done." -- Journal Entry, December 2009

Along US 50, 6 miles east of Carson City

Original Date Visited: 12/5/09

Signed: Both lanes of US 50

  • Sundown on Marker 61
  • Deep winter snows at Marker 61. If you ever needed proof that it snowed in Nevada ...
  • Nothing remains of the old station at Mound House

Exact Description:
Mound House was located one-half mile north of this point. Originally constructed in 1871 as a station and siding on the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, it served for some time simply as a wood and water stop. In 1877, a post office was established. Mound House came its own in 1880 when the V&T began construction of a narrow-gauge railroad from here to the mining camps of western Nevada and the Owens Valley in California. Named the Carson & Colorado, it turned Mound House into a booming shipping point.

The Southern Pacific Railroad purchased the C&C from the V&T in 1900. Just prior to the Tonopah silver strike. In 1905, the S.P. built a short line from its new station at Hazen, on the main line to intersect the C&C with Fort Churchill. The Hazen cutoff took most of the booming Tonopah-Goldfield business away from the V&T.

During the period 1900-1920, extensive gypsum mining and milling operations to plaster, were carried on immediately northwest of Mound House.

The narrow-gauge line was abandoned from Mound House to Churchill in 1934, and the V&T track from Carson City to Virginia City in 1939. Within a few years, Mound House had disappeared.

Next Marker:

TRUCKEE RIVER - WEST

Related Links & Markers

 [178] -- Hazen   [237] -- Carson & Colorado Railroad Depot   Fort Churchill S.H.P.   Carson & Colorado Railway   V&T Railroad History 

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