Park, railroad depot renovation planned in Dayton

Dayton's Carson & Colorado Railroad depot, now a residence on Main Street, could get a new lease on life.

Members of Save the Historic Dayton Station want to renovate the old depot and add a park, picnic area, narrow-gauge rail line and bed and breakfast hotel.

The total cost of the project is estimated at well over $1.6 million and the work should start in October, said Roxie Paine, executive director of the Dayton Chamber of Commerce.

"Our goal is to remove the extra rooms tacked onto the depot after it was made into a residence, restoring it to its original size and shape," Paine said.

"We also want to build a replica of an early Dayton hotel known as the Station Hotel, in addition to some shops. Dayton doesn't have any hotels. A bed and breakfast would be nice on Main Street, near the depot."

The depot is on an acre of prime real estate, at the corner of Main Street and Highway 50. The property is being sold by Texas resident Boyd Mitchell, a retired fireman.

Dayton officials hope to raise the money to purchase the property and renovate the depot with a $597,000 federal ISTEA grant, which stands for Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act grant.

"This is a matching grant," Paine said. "So we have to come up with funds in kind and cash before the money can be released. It won't be all fun and games."

Paine said officials will know about that funding in June. The group has other promising options should that funding fall through, but would not divulge those sources.

Plans include reconstruction of the rail line and purchase of an engine and four cars. The group located a train in Texas, for $250,000. The line will extend to Mound House, the origination point for the C&C line, Paine said.

"The Dayton master plan preserved the area along Carson River where the original line ran," Paine said. "It hasn't been touched by development."

She said Lyon County supports the project and will sponsor the property until all requirements for the grant are met. When the depot is moved and restored, ownership will revert to the Dayton Historical Society, which will be responsible for maintenance.

She hopes to move the Dayton Chamber of Commerce, the primary resident, to the building by the summer of 2004.

Designed to extend the V&T into southern Nevada and California, the C&C was built by V&T owner and operator Henry Marvin Yerington and others.

Nevada State Archivist Guy Rocha said the project was a dream venture and the timing was bad.

"The planning started as late as the 1870s and I know the railroad was completed to Hawthorne by 1883," Rocha said. "They wanted to extend the line, but the economic climate in Nevada and California was so bad they didn't take it any further."

The line stopped at Keeler, Calif., near Bishop and the Southern Pacific Railroad purchased the property in 1905.

Only three C&C depots are in Nevada. One was moved from Wabuska to the Nevada State Railroad Museum, where it's used for ticket sales. The second is in Hawthorne and the third, Dayton depot, was moved a short distance in the early 1950s, to make way for Highway 50.