Railroad car added to Nevada historic register

[dldance]

An old railroad car has been added to the State Register of Historic Places. The McKeen Motor Car No. 70, is housed at the State Railroad Museum in Carson City.

Built in 1910, the car designed by William Riley McKeen Junior carried passengers, mail and freight between Virginia City, Carson City and Minden. It served as a diner in the 1940s and was donated to the railroad museum in 1995.

[chad thomas]

From Altamont Press:

Town, rail car deemed officially 'historic'

A gold mining town in northwestern Nevada that once was the state's largest city and an old railroad car have been added to the State Register of Historic Places.

The historic district of Goldfield and the McKeen Motor Car No. 70 made the state's list of cultural resources worthy of preservation, Terri McBride of the State Historic Preservation Office said Tuesday.

At its peak in 1906, Goldfield produced about $11 million in gold, making it the largest gold producer in the nation and the second largest in the world.

Nevada's largest city

Although it now is home to about 300 residents, it had a population of 15,000 in 1906 and jumped to 20,000 people in 1907, making it Nevada's largest city, McBride said.

"It was one of dozens of mining campuses and towns throughout central Nevada that recharged this state's mining activity, comparable only to the great Comstock era," she said of the silver lode mining boom in Virginia City in the 1850s.

The boomtown also gained national attention when it became the site of a famous boxing match between light heavyweight "Baby" Joe Gans, who fought and won a 42-round bout with contender Oscar Nelson on Sept. 3, 1906. Inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990, Gans won his heavyweight title in 1909 and is considered the first African American champion of the sport, preceding heavyweight champ Jack Johnson.

McBride said the state's listing for the Goldfield Historic District encompasses the same area as the National Register, which listed it in 1982. The district straddles U.S. 95 as it goes through Goldfield and continues on for a couple of blocks on each side of the highway.

"We felt it was time to update the district because some of the structures have been moved out of it since 1982, and others have since become old enough to be considered for the historic list, so we added them on," McBride said. A flash flood in 1913 wiped out many smaller structures within Goldfield, and a fire in 1923 that destroyed about 30 blocks of the town included much of the commercial area. McBride said the most representative architecture of historic Goldfield before the fire remains today within the historic district.

Listing in the State Register is an honorary designation and does not place any restrictions on owners of such property or require that the property be open to the public.

The McKeen Motor Car No. 70, now being restored at the State Railroad Museum in Carson City, listed in September 2005 in the National Register of Historic Places, was added to the State Register.

It was a railroad car built in 1910 that carried passengers and later mail and freight between Virginia City, Carson City and Minden, McBride said.

Commercial viability

The car is the best remaining example of a rail motorcar designed by railroad engineer and innovator William Riley McKeen Jr., (1869-1946), who produced the first commercially viable application of internal combustion power to American rail transportation, she said.

In 1946, the car was turned into a restaurant called Denny's Diner in Carson City, and in 1995, Al's Plumbing donated it to the State Railroad Museum. - Lenita Powers, The Reno Gazette-Journal, courtesy Larry W. Grant