This page has photographs of Palisade Canyon and the Humboldt River just east of Palisade, NV, as well as some nearby sights of interest.
During the 19th Century, the canyon was one of the scenic highlights for travellers on the American transcontinental railroad, along with places like Feather Canyon, Devils Slide and Great Salt Lake, and often featured in guide books. Crofutt's New Overland Tour, published in 1879, for example, claimed that "its bleak, bare, brown walls possess a majestic and gloomy grandeur" (p.155).
I've included several engravings from the period so that you can see how they compare with what exists today.
Left, "Entering the Palisades of the Humboldt", from Crofutt's 1879 New Overland Tour, p.137. You can browse this book from the books and manuals page of this website, as well as downloading a word searchable PDF version.
The Central Pacific built the railroad line pictured here in 1868 as the company pushed east to join the Union Pacific at Promontory, UT. You can see more photos of the old grade from Lucin to Rozel, UT, on the Historic Central Pacific grade page of this website. There is also a page on Golden Spike NHS, where the two railroads met.
Above, looking south west from the road side of Highway 278, a panoramic view of the railway lines entering the eastern head of the Palisades canyon. The eastern canyon entrance is about five miles south west of Carlin, NV.
The Western Pacific completed a line through the canyon in 1907 as part of its Salt Lake City, UT-Shafter, NV, section. The old Western Pacific line is on the left in this view. What was once the Central Pacific line, now Union Pacific, is on the right.
In 1885, the Southern Pacific took over operation of the Central Pacific line when the two companies combined. Then, in 1901, The Union Pacific took control of the Southern Pacific, although the old company continued to operate as a separate entity, and final merger did not occur until 1996.
In 1983, the Union Pacific also acquired the Western Pacific, so both lines now carry Union Pacific traffic. Trains usually run east bound on the old Western Pacific line and westbound on the old Central Pacific line, but Amtrak and BNSF also have trackage rights, so you may see all three operators on both lines.
You cannot drive through the canyon, but there is a dirt road off Palisade Ranch Road that criss crosses what were once the Central Pacific tracks up the west side of the river.
Above, looking east about a mile up the dirt road. The canyon head shown in the previous view is about a mile further east of here. As far as I can ascertain, the ruins on the hill and track side are buildings once belonging to an old rock quarry established at this location in the late 19th Century.
A view of the Humboldt River just to the right of the view above.
The old Western Pacific line is on the right in this photograph.
Rail traffic is quite frequent through the canyon but, despite waiting for some time, I did not manage to get a photograph of a train passing through the tunnel.
Above and left, two views looking west from the same location as the previous two photographs. This is at the very end of the dirt road off Palisade Ranch Road.
As the Central Pacific had already laid its track on the wider, western floor of the canyon, the Western Pacific was forced to lay on the narrower, more difficult terrain of the eastern side. This meant tunnelling through the roughly sixty foot high "Red Cliff" outcrop.
The line side structure on the right in the top view appears to be the remains of a loading platform used by the old rock quarry. You can see the loose sleepers of what must have been a spur line to this structure in one of the next photographs.
The red-brown rocks are rhyolite, a light weight volcanic rock formed from slow moving viscous lava flows. It has been used in building since the late 1800s, usually as a surface veneer.
Above, "Palisades of the Humboldt River, C.P.R.R.", from Crofutt's 1879 New Overland Tour, p.91. This engraving, probably taken from a photograph, suggests how much of the rhyolite has been quarried out. You can browse this book from the books and manuals page of this website, as well as downloading a word searchable PDF version.
Crofutt described, somewhat hyperbolically: "In passing down this canyon, we seem to pass between two walls which threaten to close together ere we shall gain the outlet. ... The walls in places have crumbled, and large masses of crushed rocks slope down to the river brink. Seams of iron ore and copper bearing rock break the monotony of the color, showing the existence of large deposits of these minerals among these brown old mountains. Now we pass "Red Cliff" which rears its battered frontlet 800 feet above the water".
Above, looking south about a half mile further from the old rock quarry. On the right are the remains of a spur line that appears to have once served the quarry.
The challenge of stringing a line along the narrower parts of the western side of the canyon is evident in this view.
Above, a view looking north east from the same location. The dressed stone western portal of the old Western Pacific tunnel through "Red Cliff" is in the centre of this view.
The somewhat exaggerated scale of "The Palisades on the Humboldt by Thomas Moran" above seems to owe more to the engravers, Philip Meeder and F. Y. Chubb, than to Thomas Moran. In fact, I have not been able to identify a Thomas Moran to match this view, although he sketched throughout the Old West, and there are references to his drawing in the Palisades.
The engraving is from James Williams' 1879 Pacific Tourist, p.183. Despite the extreme scale of the cliffs, apparently delineated by one of America's then most celebrated monumental landscape artists, Williams is rather lukewarm in his description. After giving much of his attention to the settlement as "a growing little place", he adds: "The town is located about half the distance down the canon (sic), and the rocky, perpendicular walls give it a picturesque appearance. The lower half of the canon is not as wild and rugged, however, as the upper half". You can browse this book from the books and manuals page of this website, and download a word searchable PDF version.
Above, two separate views, each a little further west show the sheer walls of the canyon that earned it the name "Palisade".
The canyon itself is not particularly extensive, only about two miles long and running roughly north east to south west, although there are rhyolite outcrops at other places east and west further along the line.
Above, "San Francisco Overland Limited, Palisade Canyon, Nevada", is from Southern Pacific's early 20th Century set of coloured promotional views published as The Overland Trail. Compared to the previous two views, this is all in all, not an overly exaggerated representation. You can browse this book from the books and manuals page of this website, as well as downloading a word searchable PDF version.
The Overland Trail reports, "[t]he road penetrates the range of mountains by way of this canyon. The walls rise on each side in rugged grandeur attaining in places a height of a thousand feet. The peculiar stratification of the rocks resembling that of the Hudson has lead to the term, Palisades of the Humboldt".
Originally named the Overland Flyer, the Overland Limited was jointly run by the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads. It ran between San Francisco, CA, and Council Bluffs, IA, with a connection to Chicago, IL, provided by the Chicago & North Western. It is not to be confused with AT&SF's Overland Limited which ran a different route between Los Angeles, CA, and Chicago, IL.
It is not at all clear where the "Palisade Cañon" view above has been staged (Picturesque America, vol.2, 1872, p.189), although the wide foreground river bank suggests it is probably from a cleft in the west wall.
The text describes the "refreshing grandeur of scenery of the Palisades--though the finest is not seen without leaving the established route ... It is here that you come upon such glimpses and vistas as the ones Mr. Moran has drawn--breaks in the rocky wall, through which one looks out on really perfect mountain-pictures" (p.193).
Above, looking west along the old Southern Pacific line. The Palisades are directly behind the location of this photo. The original Central Pacific line curved off to the left of the clump of trees in this photograph but the SP later rebuilt the line along its current orientation. Immediately to the left of the current line was the site of the Eureka & Palisade Railroad yard.
Palisade was the headquarters of the E&P, a narrow gauge line running eight-five miles south to Eureka, NV. The railroad was built in 1875 to carry silver-lead ore from Eureka to transfer to the Southern Pacific at Palisade, and shipped freight back. The E&P passenger depot also served the Central Pacific, while the Western Pacific had its own depot and freight station across the river.
To the right of the view above, just behind the stop sign, are the remains of the foot of an incline that led to a large ore transfer trestle. Eureka & Palisade narrow gauge cars were hauled up to the trestle to drop their ore loads into standard gauge Southern Pacific cars.
Above, another view west along the old Southern Pacific line.
The original Central Pacific line roughly followed the slightly overgrown track cutting across from the left.
Above, looking east across the old yard.
The site has ruins of an ice house, car shop, store room, turntable, machine shop and engine house used by the E&P for its four locomotives. The railroad also rostered fifty-eight freight cars and three bright yellow passenger coaches.
Above, a view looking west.
The road running through the middle of this photograph is the old route of the E&P. It is now a Union Pacific service road that connects to Palisade Ranch Road.
Above, a view looking down from the site of John Swan's Hotel, which was once part of the township of Palisade.
The road that cuts from the lower left of this photograph once crossed the Humboldt close to the left hand tunnel entrance. The old bridge embankment is still visible there.
Above, a double-stacked east bound intermodal freight is hauled by UP GE C45ACCTE #5470 and EMD SD70M #4405.
The panorama is from photographs taken at the gate to the old cemetery at Palisade.
The cemetery is on the west side of the hill overlooking what was once the township.
Palisade township took its name from the canyon to the east. It was a term used in various parts of the US for similar geologic features, e.g. the New Jersey Palisades on the Hudson River.
Most employment in the township was provided by the Eureka & Palisade. The railroad supported ancillary businesses, such as shops and a small hotel, and there was also a school, as well as Odd Fellows and Masonic lodges.
The settlement may have had as many as six hundred inhabitants when the Eureka mines were at the height of operation in the early 1880s, but settled down to c.250 by the turn of the 20th Century. As mining declined further in Eureka, E&P runs became less frequent, and Palisade also declined. Heavy floods struck the town in 1910, destroying many businesses and damaging the rail beds and, within a few years, the population was less than one hundred and fifty.
Finally, when the E&P pulled up its rails in 1938, the township's end was just a matter of time. Although the post office hung on until 1962, there are only farm houses and a few ruins now.
Above, three views of various ruins at Palisade.
The last of these three photographs shows the concrete steps of what was once the township's courthouse and jail. It overlooked the old Southern Pacific line.
When I visited in 2008, a trestle bridge carried the old Southern Pacific line over the Humboldt River. But, as you can see from other photographs on this page, a year later it was gone. The old township nestled on the flat land and low hills on the left of the rail line. The CP/E&P station yard was on the right.
The gravel road in the upper view is the old road west. The remains of a road bridge embankment are visible to the left of the bridge in both these photographs.
Today, the roads are used by local farmers and Union Pacific track crews.
Above, UP GE Dash 9-44CW #5494 hauls a double-stack intermodal freight west across the Humboldt River.
The metal diamond between two cross beams at the top of the bridge is dated 1903, so it must have survived the devastating floods of 1910.
Above, the double-stack enters the old Southern Pacific tunnel under an outcrop of the Pinion Range.
The tunnel is 879' long.
Like the old Western Pacific tunnel, it appears to have been redressed.
The 1,060' long WP tunnel was built in 1907.
The old Southern Pacific tunnel exits on the right in the two photos above. The old Western Pacific line exits on the left. The ex Southern Pacific bridge is dated 1906, probably another survivor of the 1910 floods.
The Eureka & Palisade line originally skirted around the Pinion Range outcrop and continued along the bank of the Humboldt River, crossing both lines between the tunnels and bridges but there is no trace of the grade at this point now.
The road cutting from the right on the far side of the river is the old Central Pacific grade. It was realigned in the early 1900s.
Above, looking south west along the old Central Pacific grade.
It's mid morning on a day in late summer. The couple are fishing.
Above, a view looking south from across the river valley.
Palisade Ranch Road climbs over the tunnel exits. The original Central Pacific grade ran along the embankment just this side of the bridges.
The panorama above encompasses the curve of the Humboldt River and the alluvial wash where it is joined on the left by Pine Creek running from the south.
The shallow cut in the lower foreground is all that remains of the Eureka & Palisade grade. Both the old Western Pacific and Southern Pacific lines run from the right across the middle of this view.
The river and both lines enter a canyon defile at the far end of the alluvial wash.
The first recorded encounter with the river by a European was in 1828. It then went by various names until the American explorer John C. Frémont named it after the famous 19th Century German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt in 1848.
The river rises in a spring called Humboldt Wells just outside the city of Wells and passes roughly east to west draining various tributaries along its course. At c.330 miles, it is the fourth largest river in the US, yet it never leaves the state of Nevada, instead emptying into the Humboldt Sink, an intermittent dry lake bed about eleven miles long and four miles across in north western Nevada.
Above and below, two views just west of Barth in Two Hill Canyon.
The top view looking east shows a characteristic rhyolite outcrop. The bottom view looks west.
Above, the back road in this part of the canyon is quite rough. It is really four wheel drive terrain.
The lines cross at Barth and traverse a wide plain from Harney to Beowawe.
In the lower photo above, facing east, the old Western Pacific line is on the left at Beowawe.
Above, the view facing west at Beowawe with the old Western Pacific line in the foreground.