Copyright © 2001 - 2018  All Photos, text, materials on this site are copyrighted to Rocky Mountain Profiles for the exclusive use of Rocky Mountain Profiles and  Michael J. Sinnwell.  

Photos courtesy of Mike Sinnwell March 2005

Caliente  Nevada Townsite - Ghost town

Not planning to stop. Just passing through and needed some gas. Saw the train depot so I knew it had to be a Railroad town. took a couple photos of the Caliente train Depot. I decided to investigate. The town has an interesting background.

Originally this area was settled by two escaped Negro slaves from Arkansas in the 1860s. In the 1870s it was called Dutch Flat and later named Culverwelll after a local rancher. Two rail roads were competing for the right to go through the narrow canyon as there was only room for one set of tracks. After some heated incidents and a final word from Culverwell’s shotgun he declared the two sides work it out as only one would be allowed through his land.  

So in 1901 the Town was surveyed, plotted and a post office built. The town was called Calientes, the Spanish word for hot based on the fact that they had discovered a hot spring in a cave nearby.

The first depot was destroyed by fire so the current structure was built in 1923. It served the trains and its passengers until the 1940s when desiel engines came into favor and the major division point was moved from Caliente to Las Vegas.