nevada
We walk a little ways from the service road until the trampled grass beneath us turns to a fawn-yellow hardpack dirt trail. Ahead of us lies the railroad. I look westward down its line, mistaking heat shimmers for diesel-electrics. I’m almost sure we beat it out here, but I didn’t think we’d beat it by this much. It’s been at least five minutes already since we got here.
Read MoreI think as we drive we go back in time. That’s the idea kicking around in my head when Elko first starts appearing on the interstate signs. The Transcontinental Railroad was built from two ends by two competing companies—the Union Pacific, building west from Omaha, and the Central Pacific, building east from Sacramento. And so the youngest rails on the line would have been those laid near the center of the route, at Promontory Summit in Utah: May 1869. The months rewind as we drive.
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