Nevada Rock Art Geocaching Historical Markers

Historical Marker #61

Located on U.S. Highway 50 six miles east of Carson City, Nevada.

Mound House

Mound House was located one-half mile north of this point. Originally constructed in 1871 as a station and siding on the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, it served for some time simply as a wood and water stop. In 1877, a post office was established. Mound House came into its own in 1880, when the V & T began construction of a narrow gauge railroad from here to the mining camps of western Nevada and the Owens Valley region of California. Named the Carson & Colorado, it turned Mound House into a booming shipping point.

The Southern Pacific Railroad purchased the C&C from the V & T in 1900, just prior to the Tonopah silver strike. In 1905, the S.P. built a short line from its new station at Hazen, on the main line, to intersect the C&C at Fort Churchill. The Hazen cutoff took most of the booming Tonopah-Goldfield business away from the V & T.

During the period 1900-1920, extensive gypsum mining and milling operations, to produce plaster, were carried on immediately northwest of Mound House.

The narrow gauge line was abandoned from Mound House to Churchill in 1934, and the V & T track from Carson City to Virginia City in 1939. Within a few years Mound House had disappeared.

Notes on this marker:

The marker is on the north side of the road. Keep an eye on the speedometer as it's 45 MPH through here.

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