Metropolis

A farming town planned in the desert

Metropolis lies in Elko County, about 15 miles north of Wells. It was not a mining camp. One Nevada Magazine article says the Pacific Reclamation Company of New York founded it in 1910 as a farming community laid out for 7,500 people growing wheat, in a region the article calls grossly unsuitable for it. A second Nevada Magazine article says East Coast investors chose the site in 1909 and built the town in advance, with sidewalks, streetlamps, fire hydrants, parks and a railroad connection. The Southern Pacific built a spur from Wells.

Water came from Bishop Creek, a tributary of the Humboldt River. The first article describes an earthen rockfill dam about seven miles east of town, with a diversion canal. It says the dam was built from bricks salvaged from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and still holds a small reservoir, though it has not been maintained since the mid-1980s.

Destination4x4 lists the town’s amenities: graded streets, fire hydrants, street lights, a four-block commercial district, a brick hotel, saloons, a wagon factory, and a newspaper, the Metropolis Chronicle, begun in 1911. It says a post office opened in 1912.

Why it declined

The sources agree that water rights hurt the town, but they differ on the details. Destination4x4 says Lovelock Valley interests sued in 1912 and that a court limited the company to enough water for 4,000 of its 40,000 planned acres, after which the company went into receivership. The second Nevada Magazine article dates a downstream lawsuit to 1914 and says Metropolis received only 10 percent of the water it expected. The first article describes a long water-rights dispute with Lovelock, more than 200 miles away, and gives no year.

Other setbacks are listed in different places. The second article names drought, fire and a cricket invasion. Destination4x4 says a fire destroyed the hotel in 1936, that the railroad had abandoned its line by 1925, and that the post office closed in 1942 and the school in 1947. The first article also dates the hotel fire to 1936.

Population figures disagree. Destination4x4 gives more than 700 residents. Nevada Magazine says census records are unreliable and estimates about 2,000 in the 1920s. A marker erected in 1989 by descendants of the settlers says the first settlers arrived in 1910 and others followed until 1935, according to the Historical Marker Database.

What remains

The most visible structure is the Lincoln School, built in 1919 and visible for miles. Nevada Magazine says its tall entrance arch still stands. Concrete stairs lead to the basement, which has colorful graffiti. The first article warns that the ground floor is pockmarked with holes large enough for an adult to fall through. Of the three-story Hotel Metropolis, only a foundation and a block remain, one block east of the school, and the second article mentions a historic marker nearby.

Valley View Cemetery lies a few hundred feet southwest of the schoolhouse, behind a cattle gate. The first article says the gate is closed with a carabiner but not locked. The second says it holds early residents and modern graves from nearby ranching families.

Visiting today

The Nevada Magazine articles describe a ruin where care is needed. Watch your step around the school, and keep out of any area where the floor looks unsound. The first article advises parking and walking the last few hundred feet toward the cemetery, because the drive past the gate can be treacherous. Road conditions change, so check with the land manager before going. Close any gate you open, and leave all artifacts in place.