Palisade

Palisade existed for one reason: the railroad. The Central Pacific surveyed it in 1870 at the mouth of a twelve-mile canyon, and through that decade it rivaled Elko and Carlin as the jumping-off point for freight and stage lines bound for Eureka, Mineral Hill, and Hamilton. When the Eureka & Palisade narrow gauge was finished in 1875, the town became its northern terminus and headquarters — an ore-transfer point where the little line met the standard-gauge giants, never more than three hundred people, railroading and nothing else. The last narrow-gauge train ran in 1930. It is a ghost now.

What the plaque says

Located in the tank-like depths of Palisade (12-mile) Canyon, Palisade first named Palisades - surveyed and laid out by the Central Pacific Railroad in February, 1870. During the 1870's it rivaled Elko and Carlin as a departure point on the C.P. for wagon, freight and stage lines to Mineral Hill, Eureka and Hamilton. In October, 1875, with completion of Eureka and Palisade Railroad, Palisade became the northern terminus and operating headquarters for the little ninety-mile narrow gage line stretching southward to Eureka between 1875 and 1930. The town was the principal transfer and shipping point on the Central Pacific (Southern Pacific), and on the Western Pacific Railroad after its 1919 completion. At its peak, the town boasted a population of 300. It was a self-contained community and railroading was its business. There were passenger and freight station, and sidings on both the Southern Pacific and Western Pacific Railroads, and a large ore transfer dock between the narrow gage and standard gage lines. All Eureka and Palisade (Eureka Nevada after 1912) headquarters facilites were situated here. After the little narrow gage line ran its last train in September, 1936, Palisade went into a long decline. The post office was finally closed in 1962.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Carlin & the Carlin Trend — 8.6 mi
  The small railroad town west of Elko that sits beside the largest gold complex on earth — and, because the gold is invisible, shows you almost none of it.
• California Trail Interpretive Center — 18 mi
  A free, surprisingly ambitious BLM museum of the overland crossing — eight miles west of Elko, on the trail itself, where the California Trail met the Hastings Cutoff that doomed the Donner Party.
• Elko — 27 mi
  The railroad built it, cattle made it, and gold keeps it — the working capital of northeast Nevada, a frontier cow town that never got around to becoming a relic.

More markers nearby

• Carlin — 8.2 mi
• Carlin Canyon — 12 mi
• The Cattle Industry — 16 mi
• West End of Hastings Cutoff — 18 mi