Links to Nevada Southern Railway History
The first Nevada Southern Railway
Nevada State Library and Archives, Archives and Records Management, Secretary of State, Corporation Files
Nevada Southern Railway Co.
Date: 1884/06/05 in box # SECSTATE-0316 File # 32
Nevada Southern Railway First Division
Date: 1880/03/08 in box # SECSTATE-0316 File # 38
History of Nevada 1881 by Thompson and West Submitted by Joy Fisher, December 28, 2002.
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/nv/nye/nye1881.txt
"Nye County, at present, is classed among the undeveloped counties ..."
"The work of construction has already begun for the extension of the Nevada Central from Ledlie in Lander County, under the name of the Nevada Southern Railway ..."
The second Nevada Southern Railway
Mojave National Preserve
http://www.nps.gov/moja/mojahtrr.htm
"Soon branch railroads began spinning from the mainline. The most important for what is now the Mojave National Preserve was the Nevada Southern Railway."
Ghost Towns of The Mojave, Part 3 page 1, Text and Photos by David A. Wright
http://www.desertusa.com/mag00/jan/stories/nevada3.html
"... and in 1893, an extension of the [Nevada Southern Railway] line into the Goodsprings region was considered."
[1/30/05 The link below may not be active, but the text appears archieved by Google.]
Mojave Desert, Here We Come! Miners, Homesteaders, and Route 66
http://www.blm.gov/education/00_resources/articles/mojave/mojaveposterback1a.html
"A Mojave Desert homesteader poses at California's Lanfair Valley Railroad Station,which was served by the Nevada Southern Railway..."
Barnwell Siding, (Manvel) California!
http://www.robertwynn.com/Barnwell.htm
"The town of Manvel ( Barnwell) California was founded in 1893 in great hopes of being the northern terminus of the Nevada Southern Railway ..."
Goffs School, Near Mojave National Preserve
http://www.desertusa.com/mnp/mnp_goff.html
"In 1893 a short line, originally called the Nevada Southern Railway, but later the California Eastern Railway, and still later the Searchlight branch of the Santa Fe, was constructed north from Goffs."
http://www.nps.gov/moja/adminhist/adhi2a.htm
"In 1893, the Nevada Southern Railway was constructed north from Goffs to Manvel, later known as Barnwell ..."
Original Nevada Southern Railway(s)
The first Nevada Southern Railway
The second Nevada Southern Railway
On March 8, 1880, the “Nevada Southern Railway, First Division” was incorporated in Nevada. According to History of Nevada 1881 by Thompson and West, there was to be “... an extension of the Nevada Central from Ledlie in Lander County, under the name of the Nevada Southern Railway, which will pass through the rich mining region of Grantsville, and extending to a junction with the road from California and from the East”. This construction was not completed.
The next “Nevada Southern Railway” was incorporated on December 15, 1892 in Colorado. Despite it’s name, the Nevada Southern Railway never entered Nevada. It left the Santa Fe at Goffs (Blake) California, went north through the Lanfair Valley and ended at Barnwell (Manvel) California. January 1893 began the three months of grading the right of way from Goffs to Barnwell (Manvel) California. By approximately mid-May 1893, the railroad was opened from Goffs 19 miles north to Lanfair. In June 1893, the line had progressed the 25 miles to Purdy. And by July 1893, the last five miles to Barnwell were completed. The grade of ore at the mines to be served by the Nevada Southern was lower than expected, causing financial difficulty. The business (consisting of both mining interests and the Railway) was reorganization in 1895 as the California Eastern Railway (although many texts continued to refer to it as the Nevada Southern Railway) , which was subsequently purchased by the Santa Fe in 1902 and remained in operation until 1923.