Antelope Station

Elko County

This station was located in the Huntington Valley. When Elko was completed as a rail town in the late 1860's, it would eventually serve as a major supply hub for the mining districts located to the south. To include Hamilton and the White Pine District. Many stage roads were built through the Huntington Valley to connect Elko to these southern locations. These stage and freighting roads included the Hill-Beachey and the Denver-Sheperd. Antelope Station sat about a 1 1/2 miles south of Crawford's (later the Sadler Ranch). Prior to belonging to the Sadler family, the Crawford's owned this ranch. Two major roads that came from the north, merged together at the Crawford (Sadler) Ranch. Just beyond Antelope Station, they split again and branched out mainly south. One of those major roads led to the Newark Valley. The other major road led to Hamilton and the White Pine District. Other splits from these roads also led to other ranching and mining areas. To include a route over Railroad Pass into the Diamond Valley to the west, and a route over Overland Pass into the Ruby Valley to the east. An 1872 Survey Map shows this place listed as "Antelope Station". The same map also lists what you may know as the Sadler Ranch, as "Crawford's House". This map shows four different roads meeting up and merging at the Crawford Ranch. The major road was labeled "Hamilton and Elko Road." The only newspaper article that I found was from the Elko Independent on January 22, 1870. This issue actually contained two different articles. One was a written letter from Geo. H. Sheperd on his intent to build the "Diamond Valley and Eureka Toll Road". The other article spoke about current and future routes through this area. The article spoke about creating a route through Railroad Canyon which was ten miles south of Antelope Station. The intent of this road was to create another route from Elko to the mines at Eureka. Antelope Station was to serve as the exact halfway point between Eureka and Elko on this route. The article stated that the accommodations in Huntington Valley using Antelope Station were already "amply sufficient".

See the pages for the Sadler Ranch and other Huntington Valley locations.

The main roads through the Huntington Valley are dirt, but they are wide and maintained for the most-part. With that said, there are countless spur roads out here. All of these spur roads are completely different. Some are good, some are okay, and some are almost non-existent. You will have to evaluate the spurs for yourself. The site of Antelope Station sits about 300 yards from the main road, down a decent spur. There is no sign that the station ever existed. Today, this area is a large cattle and alfalfa operation.

Sources: U.S. Surveyor General's Office- 1872 Survey Map (Surveyors: C.C. Tracy, A.J. Halet, J.C. Smyles); Elko Independent (Newspaper).