Location:
Approximately 44 miles west and north of Wendover, Nevada along active railroad tracks.
Type OF Site:
Old Railroad Stop with foundations
Map:
1:100,000-Scale Geological Survey Topographic Map of Wells, Nevada-Utah
Directions:
Take exit 378/Oasis from I80 and turn north at the stop sign onto highway 233. At 6.2 miles along highway 233 there is a road on the left with a stop sign. This road goes to the Cobre site. (See Cobre.) Just past this road and just beyond the guard rail on the left is another dirt road. This road will take you to the Toano site, but it is best to continue on to another dirt road on the left at 8.3 miles. This road is easy to miss so watch closely for it. The Toano site is 3.6 miles, (posted mile sign says 3 miles) along this dirt road.
Turn onto to the dirt road and at .7 miles turn right to cross over active railroad tracks. Watch closely for trains. (If you were to stay straight rather than turning right to cross over the tracks, you would eventually end up back at the main road at the guard rail mentioned above.) At 1.1 miles from the main road, a road branches to the right. Stay straight. From here on, there are several other roads that branch off. Always stay straight. At 3.6 miles from the main road, a small road branches off to the left towards the tracks. This is the Toano site. There is at least one old foundations in area.
Access:
The dirt road leading to the site is terrible rutty with several washes and drop-offs of about 2 feet on both sides in places. You may be tipped at an uncomfortable angle trying to get around some of the worst ruts, and once you get into the bad areas, there are few places to turn around. With caution, a 2WD vehicle should be OK in good weather. Pulling a trailer or camper is not recommended. I saw a fellow with only a little light from a partial moon, try to pull a trailer into the worst section. He take over an hour backing it out because he couldnt go forward and couldnt turn around.
Comments:
Use caution along the tracks since they are active.
How productive has this site been in the past?
History:
(From nvghosttowns.com)
Toano was established as a stop on the Central Pacific Railroad during late 1868. The new camp quickly achieved prominents of being the place that Central Pacific Railroad president Leland Stanford put together the special train, headed by the engine Jupiter, to attend the golden spike ceremony at Promontory, Utah, in May, 1869. Toano was made the western terminus of the Salt Lake Division of the Central Pacific. A town quickly formed and became the major freighting and staging center in Elko County, even outdoing Elko for a while. The name Toano was Shoshone for black topped or black coated, which the nearby mountains appeared to be. By 1870, Toano had a population of 117. While Toano had a population of 123 in 1880, the bottom was already beginning to drop out of the stage and freight market. The completion of the Oregon Shortline in the Snake River area in 1884 ended all of the stage traffic heading to Idaho. The town was forced to rely on the dwindling business heading south for survival. However, the future of Toano was doomed. The Lucin cutoff was completed in 1904 and Toano was abandoned as a terminal point. The few left in 1906 all moved to the new town of Cobre, a mile to the east, on the newly completed Nevada Northern Railway. The town of Toano was dead by the summer of 1906. Many of the town's buildings were moved, with the businesses, to Cobre. What structures that remained in Toano were razed when the Southern Pacific rebuilt the tracks around Toano and added a second set of rails. Today, while no buildings are left, there is plenty of evidence of the town. Huge stone foundations of the Marx store and the hotel are located in the center of many other foundations. Broken glass from the mutlitude of saloons is everywhere. A cemetery of more than 30 graves is located on the hill above town although vandalism and occasional couldbursts have left only a few with legible markers. All of those are of young children.
