Ely Nevada History and Photos

ELY - (1878)
At junction of US Highways 50, 6, and 93. Ely is 320 miles east of Reno, 190 miles southeast of Elko and 245 miles north of Las Vegas.  Ely was first called Murray Creek Station where a stage stop was established at the mouth of Robinson Canyon .  Large color map of Ely and surrounding areas.

Joseph Featherstone operated a stage station and post office in the Henry Riepe Building located on the corner of Aultman Street and Murry Street.  The Riepe building was the first structure to be erected on land now within the Ely townsite.   Henry Riepe's cousin, Richard A. Riepe, was the third Ely Postmaster.   Infamous Riepetown was named for Henry Riepe.  The second building in Ely was built by Albert Heusser and was being used as a blacksmith shop in 1907.

Ely celebrates its birthday on November 29, 1878 when the new Post Office of  Ely, Nevada was established. The Post Masters to 1949 were:

A. D. Campton owned the property that became the Ely townsite, locating the land as a placer mine site but later abandoned the project.  The large deposits of copper in the Robinson Mining District made it too difficult to extract gold and silver ore in the mining processes that were in use in the early days.

Ely became the second White Pine County seat in 1887 when the courthouse burned in Hamilton for the second time.  Legislation during 1887 moved the county seat to Ely and the town became a permanent one.  The Fall of 1887 saw the first term of court in the new frame courthouse before it was finished. A canvas served as a roof and as protection from the elements. A. L. Fitzgerald (later Chief Justice of the Nevada Supreme Court) was the first presiding judge.  Ely was chosen as the county seat because three major roads converged at that site. The roads became Highway 50, 6 and 93.   Ely's population stayed at about 400 people until the copper boom and the arrival of the Nevada Northern Railroad in the early 1900's. 

In 1907 the population was estimated over 2,000 and the town had electricity, two banks, several general stores, two daily newspapers, schools and churches.

Ely grew in residences in the Murry Canyon area and elsewhere during the middle 1950's when the Kennecott mine company sold their company owned houses and buildings in McGill, Ruth, Kimberly, and elsewhere to its employees. The buildings at all of the towns but McGill had to be moved and many were moved to Ely or New Ruth.