Tate’s Stage Station

Even after the railroads reached Nevada, the last miles to the mining towns belonged to horse-drawn stages — and to the people who fed and watered them. Thomas Tate subcontracted central Nevada's mail routes for more than thirty years, and in 1868 he and his wife, Esther, set up a station here as the overnight stop between the county seats of Austin and Belmont. Stages met to swap passengers, mail, and horses; Esther cooked and lodged the travelers, ran the place as a social hub, and started the area's first school.

What the plaque says

Long after the railroads came to Nevada and branch lines were extended towards the heartland of the state, horse-drawn stages transported people and mail from railhead to the hinterlands. The principal routes were covered by such well-known lines as Overland Mail and Stage Co., William Hill Beachey Railroad Stage Lines, Butterfield;s, Wells, Fargo and Co., Pioneer Stageline, Carson and Columbus Stage Line, plus other lesser-known lines. Thomas Tate sub-contracted mail routes in Central Nevada for over thirty years. In 1868, he and his wife established a station due east as an overnight stop between the county seats of Austin and Belmont. Stages met here and exchanged passengers and mail and obtained fresh horses. Tommy's wife fed and lodged the passengers, in what became a local social center. Ester Tate organized the first school in the area. The Tates maintained this station until 1901. Belmont lost the county seat in 1905.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park — 21 mi
  A gold camp frozen in "arrested decay" since 1911, beside a quarry of fifty-foot ichthyosaurs left in the rock where they died — the Silver Trails' long exhale into deep time.

More markers nearby

• Ophir — 2.7 mi
• Big Smoky Valley — 14 mi
• Round Mountain — 18 mi
• Ione — 21 mi