Adelaide
Golconda railroad Nevada Humboldt
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RECONNOITERING
IN THE EASTERN SIERRA NEVADA & GREAT BASIN
BY
4-WHEEL-DRIVE
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Out
and About Near Winnemucca, Nevada:
What's
in a Name?
The
Ghost Towns of Gold Run / Adelaide and a Railroad that Ran To
Them
Graham
C. and I Reconnoiter Along the Railroad
February 18, 2009
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Adelaide.
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February
18th, 2009 was a day of mixed weather. Clouds, snow
squalls, sunshine and cabin fever. My friend Graham C., of Big
Pine, California was in town visiting my wife and I. Our Toyota
Tacomas and ourselves have reconnoitered over many miles of
two-track trails together and now Graham was in my neck of
north-central Nevada for a reconnoiter deeper in the Great Basin.
The previous day,
Graham and I had done a quick appetizer run of a few short hours
in the late afternoon hours, both of us going in our separate
Tacomas. However, today I decided to ride with Graham in his
truck. Our destination wasn't far – the ghost town of
Adelaide, south of Golconda and nearly due east of my home but
over the Sonoma Range. Since moving to Winnemucca, I have wanted
to explore Adelaide and to attempt to search for the abandoned
railroad that once served it. Having been by it now twice in the
dark, I wanted to see it in the light of day, and to spend a day
simply walking the ruins of a once living town.
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Graham and I started the
day with a visit to Winnemucca's own Humboldt County Museum, located
on the northern side of town and on the north side of the Humboldt
River. It was noon when Graham and I pulled off Interstate 80 at the
Golconda exit. Turning north at the end of the offramp, instead of
south into Golconda, the road turns immediately to dirt. At promptly
12:11 PM, Graham aired down his B.F. Goodrich All Terrain T/A tires
that shod his 2000 Toyota Tacoma TRD 4WD pickup to his favored 15 psi
for dirt running. And then we sped off south on the Pumpernickel
Valley road for Adelaide. History awaited us.
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A
SHORT HISTORY LESSON ON ADELAIDE AND THE GOLCONDA & ADELAIDE
RAILROAD
In
the autumn of 1866, a few prospectors probed the eastern slopes
of the Sonoma Range and found that they contained values in gold
and silver. The town of Golconda, down on the Humboldt River near
the northern terminus of the range, was getting its start at the
same time, and it would be another two years before the pioneer
Central Pacific Railroad would be spiking down shiny rails that
would snake along with the Humboldt River. Winnemucca, also going
through it's formative years, did have a newspaper that glowed
about the riches of the region, thus a townsite was platted in a
broad valley that indented the range and collected the waters of
several small and seasonal creeks. One of those creeks was
christened Gold Run and the townsite that was surveyed took on
that same name. Another creek, in the southern end of the sloping
valley, was named Cumberland and some felt that name was better
suited to the new center of population that most felt would grow
to fill the valley. The town of Gold Run did have some amenities
of the good life – a plaza with a goodly hotel advertising
the finest in liquors and cigars. The populace came and went, but
those who set down some semblance of roots numbered around 60
souls. By the time the railroad came to Golconda, a milling plant
– fueled by sagebrush collected by the local natives –
was built south of town to work the ores of the various mines in
the region.
And
then the bottom fell out of the area. And it languished for about
20 years.
In
1897, Scottish interests took over the bowl carved into the east
side of the Sonoma Range, and the Adelaide Mine and townsite was
born. Mining and the town was down near the mouth of the canyon
on the broad, flat, high country between the eastern slopes of
the Sonoma Range and Edna Mountain. In addition, a large mill was
built a short distance east of Golconda. In 1898, the Glasgow &
Western Exploration Company surveyed a route to run a narrow
gauge railroad for 11¾ miles between the company mill at
Golconda and the mines at Adelaide. Starting at an elevation at
Golconda at approximately 4,373, it would have to climb about 800
feet in elevation to approximately 5,200 feet. Though never
formally titled nor even incorporated, work began on building the
railroad in October and by the middle of the next month a
locomotive was running along the first four miles of the line.
The line was completed by January, 1899.
The
ores proved difficult to mill and operations slowed and the
railroad sat idle for a few years. New mills were built, talks of
extending the railroad occurred, the railroad operated
sporadically. But in the end, by 1914 the railroad was scrapped,
and everything sent to nearby Rochester and was resurrected into
what became the Nevada Short Line Railroad.
Development
at Adelaide and nearby increased during WW1, but too late to save
the railroad. In the 1930s, a big new mill was built higher up in
the valley and the town of Adelaide was moved up there with it.
As
for later history of Adelaide / Gold Run, the books at my
disposal are mute. NEVADA POST OFFICES: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY
is mute about any post office for Adelaide or Gold Run or even
Cumberland, so a firm period in which the demise of human
habitation in enough quantity to keep a post office open cannot
be ascertained by me presently. However, knowing that WW2 put the
kibosh on mining in general in the United States except for
mining of strategic metals in aid of the war effort could be a
likely period of time to fix the time of death to Adelaide.
References
Nevada
Ghost Towns & Mining Camps; Paher, Stanley, 1970
Railroads
of Nevada & Eastern California Vol 1; Myrick, David, 1961
Nevada
Post Offices: An Illustrated History; Gamett, James & Paher,
Stanley, 1983
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As Graham sped south
along the way, I watched closely the terrain for any sign of the
Golconda & Adelaide Railroad. Most abandoned railroads are shown
on topographic maps, and marked as such. Yet no markings indicate the
route of the Golconda & Adelaide. I had little hope of finding
it, especially after reading the words from David Myrick's RAILROADS
OF NEVADA & EASTERN CALIFORNIA (1961):
“Of
the Golconda & Adelaide there is little trace. The Nevada desert
has reclaimed it's own.”
And yet, as it turns
out, the railroad was always on the map – but mistakenly shown
as a road. As we neared the turnoff to Adelaide, in the flat
highlands between the Sonoma Range and Edna Mountain, I spied the
telltale sign of an abandoned railroad – an unbroken tangent
cutting across the hill at the base of the Sonoma Range about a third
of a mile from the current main road. As Graham and I turned onto the
road that would take us to Adelaide, it was obvious that we would
intersect the grade of the Golconda & Adelaide.
The “road”
that Graham and I found was obviously the remains of the Golconda &
Adelaide Railroad. Overgrown with sagebrush, it was certainly no
usable road for wheeled vehicles for much of its length. But Myrick
wasn't entirely correct in his statement above, either. The Nevada
desert has reclaimed the road somewhat, but there is still ample
evidence that the grade still exists.
The road to Adelaide
swings off just as the main road starts to drop into Pumpernickel
Valley via the bottom of the Gold Run Creek canyon bottom. The
railroad grade ties in with the road into Adelaide a short distance
from the junction at coordinates as given on my Garmin eTrex as N40°
48.596’ W117° 28.989’ and an elevation of
approximately 5,150 feet as given by the topographic quadrant.
Graham and I walked a
section of the grade about a quarter mile in length. A short distance
south of where the railroad bed ties in with the Adelaide road, at
coordinates N40° 48.691’, W117° 28.973’ ,
a shallow cut was entered. It's north end exit was at coordinates
N40° 48.753’, W117° 28.986’. With my GPS laying
on the grade, it was reading an elevation at the north end of the cut
at 5,151 feet.
Graham continued to walk
out on an obvious fill. I scrambled up to the top of the cut for a
panoramic photo of the gorgeous sky and the railroad grade –
and promptly started to step right into a deep mine shaft! Stepping
back in alarm, I tripped over a sagebrush and fell down the cut and
back onto the railroad grade headfirst and on my back down the greasy
snowmelt slickened embankment. Walking back to Graham's Tacoma, it
began to snow.
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General
overview map of our route.
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Map
of Golconda, Nevada. What I think might be the route of the
Golconda & Adelaide Railroad leaving Golconda is marked. The
ruins of the millsite that served the mines at Adelaide are
marked.
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The
Golconda & Adelaide Railroad where it merges with the road
into Adelaide / Gold Run.
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The
ruins of the Glasgow & Western millsite, the northern
terminus of the Golconda & Adelaide Railroad. This photo was
shot in October, 2008. Historical photos in both Stan Paher's and
David Myrick's books showed that this complex was quite large,
but little is left to show for it today.
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East
of Winnemucca on Interstate 80. My Garmin eTrex is showing us the
way. Graham also has the same unit, his eTrex was on his side of
the dashboard, recording our path to download to topographical
maps later.
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Graham
letting the air out of his tires at Golconda.
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The
view southeast into Pumpernickel Valley from the point where the
road into Adelaide breaks off the main north-south road.
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The
Golconda & Adelaide Railroad grade where it merges with the
road into Adelaide and disappears for good.
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View
north along the railroad. Graham's dog, Toby, trots along the
grade.
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South
along the grade.
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Sighting
north along the railroad grade where it enters a cut.
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Toby
in the railroad cut. View north.
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The
Golconda & Adelaide Railroad grade as it heads north toward
Golconda.
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Graham
standing on the railroad grade.
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View
south back through the railroad cut.
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From the railroad grade,
the road swings up into the wide and long sloping bowl that holds
Adelaide. Rounding a 5,601 foot high knoll, immediately you can see
that modern mining has scarred the landscape, especially in the
southern half of the bowl. Large tailings piles in the vicinity of
what is marked the Adelaide Mine on the topo map has covered several
of what roads were shown on the topographic maps.
The bowl that is carved
out of the eastern slope of the Sonoma Range is drained by a
confluence of several creeks – Gold Run, Layson, Cumberland,
Bill Majors. Graham and I made our way toward the southern part of
the valley and parked atop a terraced level midway up the valley. It
was obvious that mining had not stopped here that long ago, but as
yet we had not seen any open pit mines or signs of activity. Just
leveled terraces created out of what appeared to be tailings.
Stopping at a point that
looked to afford a good view of the landscape, we parked Graham's
Tacoma. A pile of several large earthmover wheels and tires lay by
Graham's truck. I went to the edge of the level, standing at a
location of N40° 48.772’, W117° 31.276’ –
while snow flurries fell and yet the sun shone upon the nearby
mountains, mottled with purple shadows – which didn't
correspond to any of the roads that the topographic map showed. It
was obvious that they were now buried under megatons of rock and dirt
and new roads that are in the bowl are yet to be mapped at some point
in the future if the U.S.G.S ever decides to revise current
topographic maps.
Looking around the basin
that hides Adelaide / Gold Run ghost towns, I scanned for any sign of
old time mining. The southern basin seemed to be dominated by modern
mining – a heap leach pond still wrapped with environmental
control tarps; a silo, large diameter PVC piping running hither and
yon. But looking at the northern side of the valley, I noticed among
the winter bare cottonwood trees what appeared to be a collapsed
cabin and what appeared to be large concrete mill foundations. So
Graham and I went that-a-way.
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Map
of our travels within Adelaide / Gold Run region. The red line is
the track that Graham's GPS put down on the topo map. Map
courtesy of Graham with annotations by myself.
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Entering
the Adelaide / Gold Run region at the point marked on the topo
map as the Adelaide Mine. It is likely within this vicinity that
the Golconda & Adelaide terminated.
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Our
first stopping point, atop the modern mining scars at the
southern portion of the bowl that holds Adelaide and Gold Run.
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From
our vantage, looking nearly due south. A containment pond, still
with environmental tarps, is below, with what appears to be some
sort of silo and a foundation.
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Looking
north and a bit west at the old mill ruins and I could spot some
wooden debris.
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Graham and I drove a
short distance and parked where the greatest concentration of the
original ruins of Adelaide / Gold Run were; parking at N40°
48.933’, W117° 31.567’. Wooden ruins lay immediately
in front of us, beside us; along with some sort of oddity: what
appeared to be some sort of old wooden dog house propped up on metal
stilts. And from there, Graham, Toby and I started to roam. And the
more we walked, the more we found.
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The
main area of Adelaide/Gold Run ruins. Markings are based upon my
notation of coordinates and entered into Delorme Street Atlas
USA.
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The
main area of ruins in the old part of Adelaide / Gold Run.
Including the odd item shown down near Layson Creek.
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A
structure that once sat along the course of Layson Creek. View
westerly into the Sonoma Range.
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The
same ruin viewing easterly.
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A
partially caved mine adit along Layson Creek now feeds the creek,
with a heavy growth of aquatic plants. The forward supports no
longer support anything except heavy willow growth. The adit is
farther back and a fairly good flow of water now feeds Layson
Creek.
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Graham
inspects a cellar portion of one of the Adelaide / Gold Run
homes.
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Plenty
of scattered lumber indicates a cluster of structures here.
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A
close up of the cellar area of the home Graham was looking at a
couple of images back.
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The
strange object appears to have been a birdhouse. One of
Adelaide's / Gold Run's former residents a fancier of pigeons or
doves?
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The
Sagebrush Reconnoiterer noting the coordinates of the birdhouse
into his microcassette recorder. Later, an individual who used to
raise birds told me that he used to raise his coops well above
ground on metal pipes to keep the cats, mice, rats and other
predators from crawling up to get to the birds and eggs. This
might explain the size and construction of this bird house.
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A
former home with a nice view of 7,997 foot high Buffalo Mountain
to the east.
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Ruins
of the mill built in the 1930s.
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Graham
stands atop the mill ruins, giving some scale as to the height of
the concrete walls.
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Mill
ruins with Buffalo Mountian in the distance.
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The
rear portion of the mill, likely the feed end where rock was fed
into the mill for reduction.
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Graham
and I were unsure of what this item was. That sits just north of
the mill ruins A large hanging door that was on rollers? A
railroad flat car? Myrick's book on Nevada railroads alludes to
an extension of the railroad, complete with a switchback, but is
vague as to if the extension was built or not. At any rate, this
mill was built long after the Golconda & Adelaide Railroad
was torn up from the land.
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Graham and I made a
circuit of the ruins of the town and mill for a while. I made
notations of the coordinates and elevations of the various ruins, all
slightly above or below the 5,700 foot mark. After exploring the mill
ruins we then returned to Graham's truck. It was time for a hot cup
of coffee and a light lunch. Peanut butter sandwich, coffee and some
cookies was relished while standing enjoying the views from Graham's
tailgate.
At 3:28 PM, we elected
to leave Adelaide. A road head straight down the slope, so Graham
pointed the nose of his Tacoma down it. However, when it reached the
crossing of Layson Creek, deep mud punctuated by large rocks looked
intimidating at first. A quick walk across showed it doable, but the
looks of the rest of the road – rock strewn – looked too
rough to be comfortably taken. So we retraced our path.
Before leaving Adelaide,
we took short turn into the canyon of Layson Creek, finding a open
cut penetrating deep into the hillside, and an old wooden ore chute.
Driving around on the modern mine roads, Graham kept climbing and we
found a hidden terrace in which faced a large open cut operation. No
evidence of current mining existed, yet a circa 1985 Ford F250 4WD
truck with a utility bed with lettering indicating it belonged to a
Lewiston, Montana drilling company and current Montana plates was
parked. Not a soul was present anywhere Graham and I looked all
through the period we visited Adelaide / Gold Run.
By 4:06 PM, we were
again northbound on the Pumpernickel Valley road heading northbound
to Golconda. Watching the bed of the Golconda & Adelaide, both
Graham and I simultaneously spied something in the distance to the
west that caused us to stop and spy it out through binoculars.
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Graham
and Toby prepare for lunch.
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Tailgate
lunch in a ghost town. Now that's superb dining!
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On
the road out of Adelaide – or so we thought ...
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A
wooden ore bin.
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A
small open cut just above the main part of the ghost town, but
out of sight from it.
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Overlooking
the entire Adelaide / Gold Run region and across to Buffalo
Mountain from the upper workings of the modern mining area.
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Pumpernickel
Valley as viewed exiting Adelaide.
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Northbound
on the main road to Golconda.
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What
is it? Graham spies out something intriguing off to the west.
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What we saw through the
binoculars wasn't identifiable, but yet appeared intriguing enough
that we took the first road west, crossing the grade of the Golconda
& Adelaide Railroad again. That road took us to another small
mining operation, abandoned but more modern. And we also examined the
old Golconda & Adelaide Railroad bed where we crossed it yet
again.
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Map
of the railroad grade and more recent mining operation north of
Adelaide.
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The
Golconda & Adelaide, northbound.
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An
old power shovel, Northwest Engineering Company, Chicago,
Illinois. Manufactured at Green Bay, Wisconsin.
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The
operator's compartment of the old shovel.
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Another
view of the operator's compartment of the shovel.
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Lots
of gears in that old shovel.
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The
shovel and Graham's Tacoma.
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The
back half of a Terex type dump truck. What it's doing in this
position, we hadn't a clue.
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Portable
milling equipment.
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The
drive north to Golconda.
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The
Golconda schoolhouse.
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Golconda.
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Winnemucca
bound on I-80.
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After viewing the
interesting equipment at the mining operation, we continued
southbound. Graham had not yet a chance to take a drive around
Golconda, so we did. And then we head back for my house, where my
wife had a nice hot Mexican dinner ready for us hungry
reconnoiterers!
Trip Factoids:
Top speed – 71.6
miles per hour.
Average speed
(including walking around ruins) – 13.6 miles per hour.
Total trip (including
walking around ruins) – 75.7 miles.
Trip elapsed time –
5 hours, 33 minutes and 5 seconds.
©2009
D.A. Wright
All Rights Reserved
Page
Revised: 04/06/2009
