The E&P was completed in 1875 serving the booming mining camps of Mineral Hill, Eureka and Hamilton. Millions of dollars in ore were shipped north to Palisade and transferred to the mainline, returning with machinery and supplies for the town and mines, declining mining addend Eureka in the late 1800’s started the fall of the E&P in the first three decades of the 1900s. The E&P survived floods, fire & economic decline both in Palisades and Eureka. In 1938, with Palisade already a ghost town, the E&P made it’s last run.
During the 1870s Palisade rivaled Elko and Carlin as a departure point on the Central Pacific for wagon, freight and stage lines to Mineral Hill, Eureka and Hamilton.
In October, 1875, with completion of Eureka and Palisade Railroad, Palisade became the Northern Terminus and operating headquarters for this little ninety-mile narrow gage line stretching southward to Eureka between 1875 and 1930. The town was the principal transfer and shipping point on the central pacific.
At its peak, the town boasted a population of 300. It was a self-contained community, and railroading was it’s main business. There were passenger and freight station, and siding on both the southern pacific and western pacific railroads, and a large ore transfer sock between the narrow gage and standard gage lines, all “Eureka and Palisade” (Eureka-Nevada after 1912) railroad headquarters facilities were situated here.
After the little narrow gage line ran its last train in September, 1938 Palisade went into a long decline, the post office was finally closed in 1962.
When the Eureka mines began to play out after 1885, the town began to decline.
The town of Palisade came into being in 1868 and served as a stop on the new transcontinental railroad, the Central Pacific. The station quickly became prominent as the shipping point for supplies to mining districts in the eastern portion of Nevada. The town grew in importance in 1874 when the Eureka and Palisade Railroad was begun. The town became the headquarters for the railroad and its 4 locomotives, 58 freight cars, and 3 gaudy yellow passenger coaches. By 1878, more than 31 million pounds of base bullion had been shipped by the railroad.
Cattle Drives from Pine Valley would gather cattle at stockyards in Palisade to be loaded onto cattle cars of the Southern Pacific. Sheep drives in the winter would send them to California for winter feeding.
Several fraternal organizations made their homes in Palisade. The International Order of Odd Fellows and Masons constructed beautiful lodges in the town. Churches and a schoolhouse were built. The railroad built a large shop where freight cars were manufactured employing many of Palisade’s residents. By 1882, the town had settled down to a consistent population of 250. When Eureka declined, Palisade declined. As Eureka’s mines slowed down, the Eureka and Palisade Railroad runs became more and more infrequent. A series of disastrous floods struck the town in 1910, wiping out many businesses and damaging the railroads. In 1915, the town still had a population of 242, but within a few years the figure had dropped to less than 150. When the Eureka-Nevada Railroad pulled up its rails in 1938, the end of Palisades was in sight. The post office closed in 1961 and Palisade became a ghost town for good.