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Industrialization of North America occurred at a rapid pace early in the 20th century. The invention of the telephone and the light bulb created a huge need for copper wire. Eastern Nevada had copper ore in abundance. The Nevada Northern Railway was built in 1906 as a means to move ore from the mines in Ruth to the smelter in McGill. The processed ore was then transported back through Ely and then north to the Transcontinental Railroad. Eastern Nevada became the principle supplier of copper to industrialize America.

Copper and freight were carried until the railroad closed in 1983. By then copper prices had dropped below profitability and it was no longer feasible to offer rail service.

At the request of a number of people, the Kennecot mining company, then the owners of the railroad, donated the entire complex, the rolling stock, buildings; the entire track, everything to the city of Ely. The city created a non-profit entity to run the yards and the White Pine Historical Railroad was founded.

Because of the enormity of restoring the buildings and grounds, the state was asked to join in the operation. In 1992, the state of Nevada acquired 2 buildings on the complex and began restoration work. The depot building and the freight building received new roofs and some cosmetic restoration making them useable today. Eventually, the site will be a world class transportation museum and community use center.

More about the Nevada Northern Railway:

• The museum has 3 locomotives, 2 of which still operate.
• Locomotive number 40 was built in 1910 by the Baldwin locomotive company. It was built to make that 140-mile run straight north of Ely to tie into the mainline railroad. It generally hauled passengers and freight. It's the lighter of the 2 locomotives.
• Locomotive number 93 was built in 1909 by the American locomotive company. Locomotive number 93 was the workhorse of the Nevada Northern Railway. It's the larger of the 2, the gear ratio is lower, the wheel configuration is different, it was made to pull a very heavy load and was used primarily to haul ore.
• In 1952 they started changing out steam locomotives for diesel and electric locomotives. Alco Diesel Engine number 109 is also operated by the museum.
• Today, you can walk around the grounds and see everything just the way it was left when the railroad closed in 1983. There's a blacksmith shop, the machine shop, the freight barn and of course, the rolling stock.
• In 1906 it was possible to order a house from Sears and Roebuck, they'd ship it in kit form and the new owner would unload it off the railroad and put it together.
• In addition to shipping the copper ore, the railroad also carried freight, cattle, and passengers from Ely.
• Passenger service from Ely carried over four and a half million people in the 35 years it operated.
• The Nevada Northern Railway runs straight up the StepToe valley from Ely, 104 miles north to the Trans-Continental Railroad and from Ely to Ruth and to McGill another 21 miles that includes mountain passes and two tunnels.
• Prior to the completion of the Railroad in 1906 it took 12 days to freight something in by wagon from Salt Lake City. Once the rails were laid down, it was a reduced to a 10-hour smooth, fast, and efficient trip.
• There is a calendar in the carpenter's shop that has not been turned since June of 1983.
  

Sean Pitts:
"The amazing thing about this RR complex is that as you walk around you can still see the last days work schedule on the wall from 1983, the calendar in the carpenter shop has not been turned since June of 1983, there's kind of a ghostly as you walk around and you think "they expected to come back to work" and that's true, they did.

They expected to come back to work, they expected the price of copper to come back, to bring the mining back and the railroading back and the smelter back but that didn't happen. . . . you can come and I can tell you about almost a century of RR in Eastern Nevada and then I can point you out the door and I can say 'if you go down there you can see that, you can see the machine shop, you can see how we maintaining trains here, if you step out there, you can actually take that train ride, you can ride on the exact locomotive that pulled passengers here in 1910.

You can ride behind vintage rail cars; you can take a look in those. It's probably one of the best glimpses in America about what it was like to ride by rail. What it was like to mine and to pour copper, smelt copper, turn it into the product that made America the industrialized nation that it would become.'"

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