Ely - railroad and prison cells

Saturday morning we left Elko and traveled east to the old railroad town of Wells to visit the teeny tiny little Trail of the 49ers Interpretive Center, where two locals, a cowboy and a Shoshone lady, were awaiting us for a tour. On to Ely, founded as a stagecoach station along the Pony Express route and prospering as a copper mining town in 1906. We got a fantastic tour at the East Ely Railroad Depot museum, home of the Nevada Northern Railway, also known as the "Ghost Train".

In 1990 the Depot Building and the Freight Barn were given to the State of Nevada and nowadays visitors can learn a lot about the historical industrial development of Nevada here, especially about mining and transportation. The old workshops with all its tools were implying that the workers have just left for a little break and the cars and engines are all in prestine condition and all from one railroad company. The flagship is Nevada’s Official State Locomotive Engine #40 from around 1910, which we were able to see in full operation thanks to a photo shooting taking place on that day. After the tour we had a short ride ourselves on a train with three old cars and a diesel engine (pics below), and thoroughly enjoyed it!


We got off the train at the Renaissance Village, a conglomeration of historic buildings, which are supposed to show the lifestyles of different immigrant groups, which mostly came for the railroad construction and for mining. Twelve shotgun houses and a barn are there, set up as an open-air village and dedicated to different immigrant groups in the area. It must be fun in summer, when living history presentations and markets are beeing held, but today it rained hard and the museum was still on winter operation.

The weather was not really pleasant on this day, sleet and pretty cool - no wonder on an elevation of about 6,500 ft. – and we were glad when we got into the warmth. After check-in in the La Quinta Hotel we drove to the Cell Block Steakhouse, Ely's only fine dining establishment. Dinner - great steaks! - is served in a really unique atmosphere: prison cells with bars, but tables and chairs instead of bunkbeds. The whole town of Ely (see pic showing main street below) seemed to have shown up and Ed, the Tourism Director, a real cowboy, quite a character and an excellent ambassador for tourism, did a great job in entertaining and feeding the group and show us the best his town has to offer. We had delicious steaks, great local beer from a little ranch brewery,Ruby Mountain Brewing, and enjoyed good conversation, also talking about politics, with the county commissioner.