Wadsworth

Wadsworth was the railroad town the Big Bend of the Truckee made—and unmade. The Central Pacific built a construction camp here at the river's great northward bend in 1868, then made it headquarters of its Truckee Division, with a roundhouse and shops to rebuild engines; it became the most important rail point east of Reno. Fire and outdated facilities led the Southern Pacific to move everything to Sparks in 1904, and Wadsworth all but emptied as residents followed their jobs west. The town survives within the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation, the river still bending past it toward the lake.

What the plaque says

From 1868 until 1884, the Central Pacific's Truckee Wadsworth Division was located on this site. In 1882, work was started on a new site across the river, and by 1883, a new round house, shop, etc. were completed there. A fire on April 15, 1884, fanned by heavy wind, destroyed the remaining railroad buildings at this location, as well as the town. Damage exceeded $100,000. Lack of an adequate water supply contributed to the extensive damage. In 1904, division facilities in the town were moved to an entirely new location, which became Sparks, Nevada.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Pyramid Lake / Koqyoqe Panunadu — 28 mi
  The Numu's sacred lake at the end of the Truckee—homeland of the cui-ui eaters, site of the 1860 war, and a century-long fight to keep the river that the silver towns dammed from draining it dry
• Virginia City — 30 mi
  The boomtown that sits on top of the richest silver strike in America—fewer than a thousand people now, on streets built for twenty-five thousand
• Chollar Mine — 30 mi
  A real Comstock silver mine you can still walk into—four hundred feet of original timbered tunnel under C Street, where the work that built a state was done by hand, in the dark

More markers nearby

• Olinghouse — 2.6 mi
• The Two Battles of Pyramid Lake — 8.6 mi
• Derby Diversion Dam — 9.4 mi
• Hazen — 13 mi