TRACK COMPLETED JULY 2004

2004 was the final year of construction. The railroad was completed in early July.

The above photo was the last picture Stephen took of the track last fall. He spent his spare time in the winter looking for more rail.

Stephen found his first small batch of mining rail when he and his son Will attended an auction on an old homestead in the Nevada desert. If you look at the above photo, you can see some lengths of mining rail in the weeds on this side of the truck.

fiveThey were not expecting to find rail at the auction, but they lucked out. You can see five lengths of mining rail sticking out of the back end of the truck in the above photo. The total amount of rail bought at the auction was around 80′.

Then, in June, Stephen got lucky. His brother John reminded him that back in the 1970s, they had been exploring the old gold mines in the Warner Mountains near the mining town of High Grade. The property belonged to their step-father at the time. They had removed about 170′ of rail from a mine, hauled it to Davis Creek, and dumped it out in the field behind John’s house. He planned on using it sometime in the future, but soon forgot about it. As the years went by the sod grew up around it, and the rail disappeared under the surface.

When John found out Stephen just needed a little bit of rail, he remembered our adventure in the Warners 25 years earlier. He told Stephen that if he could find the rail he could have it.

Stephen and Will headed to Davis Creek and started probbing around in the grass behind John’s house. They soon located the rail. Some of it was so buried that a chain had to be tied around it, and Stephen’s truck pulled it out of the sod like a long snake.

As you can see in the photos above and below, all the rail that was buried was found, and it was still in good condition.

With enough rail on hand to finish the project, Stephen went back to work on the roadbed. He completed the short section on the north side of the property that connected the two ends of the track. In July the Golden Spike Ceremony was held. Check the drop down menu above under “Argo Gold Mine Train” and click on “Golden Spike Ceremony” for photos of the celebration. Five long years of work was completed, and the Argo Gold Mine train made its inaugural run.