Gerlach

Gerlach sits at the edge of the Black Rock Desert, as far from everywhere as Nevada gets. The Western Pacific Railroad created it in the early twentieth century as a stop on its line across the northern desert, a division point with railroad housing and a school in country otherwise nearly empty. For decades it was a railroad and ranching outpost, gateway to the geothermal flats and the playa beyond. Then the Burning Man festival made the Black Rock playa famous, and tiny Gerlach became its annual gateway—a last stop for tens of thousands before the desert.

What the plaque says

Situated between Black Rock Desert on the east and Smoke Creek Desert on the west, the townsite of Gerlach lies in country occupied for thousands of years. John C. Frémont traveled through these Northern Paiute Indian lands when he camped here in 1843 and named "Boiling Springs" ¼ mile north of town. This was also emigrant country; the Noble Road left the Applegate-Lassen Tail [sic] at Black Springs, went past this site, and proceeded southwest through Smoke Creek Desert toward Susanville. The town was established after the construction of the Western Pacific Railroad 1905-1909.

Where it stands