Carson & Colorado Railroad Company.

Brief Company History

The Carson & Colorado Railroad Company was incorporated in Nevada on May 10, 1880 as a narrow gauge extension of the parent Virginia & Truckee Railroad. Rails were laid south from Mound House, Nevada on the Virginia & Truckee during 1880-1883 through the communities of Wabuska, Hawthorne, Belleville, Candelaria, Laws, and Owenyo to Hawley, later renamed Keeler, California--some 300 miles south of Mound House. Consolidation of three separate operating divisions and reorganization as the Carson & Colorado Railway Company occurred on February 27, 1892. With general offices and shops at Carson City, Nevada, the Carson & Colorado was operated by joint V. & T. and C. & C. officers as a feeder or branch of the V. & T.; its sole President and General Superintendent was Henry Marvin Yerington. Control of the C. & C. was negotiated by major stockholder Darius Ogden Mills with sale on March 1, 1900 to the Southern Pacific Railroad which subsequently operated the line under the name of the Nevada & California Railway Company beginning in May 1905. In February of 1912 the Nevada & California was absorbed into the Southern Pacific System and portions of the original 1880 right-of-way continue in present operation.