Vermont resident J. W. Long came to White Pine County in 1878 and soon set up a camp known as “Ely,” after discovering gold. Ely was founded as a stagecoach station along the Pony Express and Central Overland Route. The community expanded after 1907 with large-scale copper mining, and like other towns, underwent a major decline in the 1970s and early ’80s, with modest recovery in the mid-1990s when new gold, silver, and copper operations opened.
Ely
Today there are several colorful murals, a pretty impressive White Pine County Museum, Nevada Northern Railway Museum, and plenty of other historical sites to visit. We took a day to wander around and see a lot!
Nevada Northern Railway Complex
The Nevada Northern Railway Complex is the best-preserved, least altered, and most complete main yard complex remaining from the steam railroad era. It was established in 1905 to support the area’s booming copper mining industry. The museum collection includes three of the railroad’s original steam locomotives, an electric locomotive and several diesel-electric locomotives, as well as a collection of maintenance equipment and numerous historic freight and passenger rail cars. There are several train rides you can take around the area.
Cave Bear & Museum
Have you heard of the cave bear? The most complete fossilized skeleton ever found of a giant short-faced bear, the largest North American meat-eater of the Ice Age and also referred to as the cave bear was found a short distance from Ely. This thing was bigger than a modern-day polar bear. It roamed the whole continent during the Pleistocene Era from about 2.5 million to 12,000 years ago when America was covered in glaciers. Fossil samples have been found from Alaska to Florida, but the most complete fossil from a single animal was found in White Pine County and a giant model of it is in the museum.
Leave a Reply