Hazen

Hazen sprang up in 1903 to house the men digging the canals of the Newlands reclamation project, and took its name from a Civil War general who marched with Sherman. When the railroad pushed a branch toward Tonopah, the Southern Pacific built a roundhouse and a handsome depot here, and the place earned a reputation as tough as any in the state—saloons, brothels, even Nevada's last lynching in 1905. Fire nearly leveled it in 1908. The old Hazen store outlived the trains, serving travelers on the highway.

What the plaque says

Hazen was named for William Babcock Hazen, who served under General Sherman in his "March to the Sea." The town, established in 1903 to house laborers working on the Newlands Irrigation Project south of here, included hotels, saloons, brothels, churches, and schools. In 1905 the first train came through on the new routing to Tonopah. In 1906 the Southern Pacific Railroad built a large roundhouse here as well as a fine depot. In 1908 Hazen was nearly destroyed by fire. As a tough town, it had no peer in the state. Nevada's last lynching occurred in Hazen when "Red" Wood was taken from the wooden jail and hanged on February 28, 1905.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Grimes Point — 25 mi
  Hundreds of desert-varnished boulders carved over eight thousand years — the Great Basin's most accessible rock art

More markers nearby

• Lahontan Dam — 6.8 mi
• Ragtown — 7.9 mi
• Wadsworth — 13 mi
• Churchill County Courthouse — 16 mi