Montello, Nevada

This area is loaded with history. Located on SR 30 at a point 24 miles northeast of its junction with US 40 (I-80)

Our thanks to ghost town editor Stanley W. Paher for this excerpt of history from his book.

"Completion of the Southern Pacific's Lucin Cutoff across western Utah in 1904 bypassed its division point a t Terrace, Utah. The new engine terminal was located at Bauvard (or Banvard), about ten miles into Nevada, and a post office opened there in June 1904. Houses were shipped on flatcars from Terrace to help start the new town, and some of the water came from springs to the south at a watering place and campground long used by the Indians and called by them Montello, meaning "rest" in their language.

In 1905 the Southern Pacific created the town of Montello, three miles northeast of Bauvard, as a new division point and soon built shops and a seven-stall rectangular roundhouse. Here freight trains changed crews and helper engines were added for the haul over Pequop summit. The new town acquired stores, saloons, rooming house, hotel, restaurants and the Bauvard post office which officially retained that name until early in 1912). Besides housing railroad personnel and their families, this town of 800 bustled as a shipping point for big cattle outfits and for the Utah Construction Co. which maintained a headquarters here.The community built a substantial high school.

In the 1920s Montello also served as supply point for the Delano mines, 36 miles north. Since the population has steadily decreased, through the town continued to thrive until the advent of Diesel engines on the Southern Pacific early in the 1950's. Thereafter helper crews were no longer required, and personnel were transferred to Ogden and Carlin. Roundhouses and shops were removed a few years later and now Montello is a sleepy town of about 150 to 200 people"

 

Today Montello has a new school, and many of the old original railroad tie buildings are still around.

This area is home to some of the best deer hunting area around. Be sure to check your boundaries. The Utah/Idaho boarders can be hard to find in the mountains.

This Elk was taken by Randy Blackwell of Sparks, Nevada. It was taken with a Muzzeloader in Sept. 1999. It scored 404 4/8 in Boone & Crockett.

The photo was submitted by the Cowboy Bar in Montello. Our thanks to them for sharing this picture.

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