37.979093800179044, -118.32176609204451

A mountain. A mountain pass. An obstacle for the Carson & Colorado Railway. One place with three names. A roadside casino, hotel, service station, store, bar, school, and maybe even a brothel. A roadside rest. A wellspring of mystery, intrigue, shady dealings, and fun. Mt. Montgomery was all these things.

Mt. Montgomery is one of the more interesting areas of the narrow gauge to explore. At an elevation of over 7000 feet at its summit, it was the most formidable natural obstacle on the entire route. In operation until 1938, the line twisted its way around and through the mountain. A 247 foot tunnel just below the summit is today the most interesting point on the route to explore.
http://carsoncolorado.com/historic-route/the-route/mt-montgomery-tunnel/

By February of 1883, C&C timetables began showing stations past Candelaria, indicating that the tunnel at the summit of Mt. Montgomery had been completed. Dug by Chinese laborers under dangerous contions, work was begun on the 247 foot tunnel sometime in 1880.

Between 1880 and 1883, crews, including large groups of Chinese laborers, constructed the railroad grade, track, and tunnel through Montgomery Pass. Chinese crews tediously dugout hills and filled divots with dirt, as they laid tracks imported from Sheffield, England, along a gradual grade of 3% in order to haul cargo over the mountain. Engineers made a concerted effort to avoid having to make tunnels through the mountains, which resulted in many sharp, 20-degree turns of the railroad track. However, a tunnel was necessary through Montgomery Pass, and Chinese crews used dangerous explosives to construct a 247-foot tunnel through the mountain. The mountain pass tunnel was the highest of its time at 7,138 feet, surpassing in elevation even the famed Southern Pacific Railroad summit tunnels through Donner Pass.
-Chinese Heritage Sites of the American West

Increased mining activity encouraged improvements to roads, railroads, and additional mine development.

RAILROAD BUSY
RENO, April 21.- A special dispatch to this city stales the Engineer Hobert J. Griffin, of the Southern Pacific Company, and a corps of surveyors are at a camp known Sunland in Southern Nevada, and that they are working on a survey for the widening of the narrow guage line from Mina to Keeler. This will give the Southern Pacific direct communication over a broad guage line into Southern Nevada, via Reno and Alturas, to Klamath Falls, Oregon. and thence to Portland.
-Daily Appeal. April 21, 1909


BUENA VISTA DISTRICT NOW BELIEVED TO BE FORGING AHEAD
Buena Vista .ining district in the White mountains,south of Mina, on the Nevada & California railroad, which created such a mining sensation about four years ago through numerous rich strikes made, is again attracting much attention and promises much activity before fall. Messrs. Thorndyke and Chaffey have taken an option on Tip Top group and have Men enaged in making an examination of the property and doing exploratory work.
-Nevada State Journal, June 28, 1911

This article speaks of Sunland and Buena Vista as seperate entities for some reason.

There is a mining revival at Queen, Buena Vista, and Sunland, south of Mina, in the White Mountains. Good strikes are reported at these points and the Tip Top at Sunland is making regular shipments to the smelter.
-Tonopah Daily Bonanza, April 17 1912

TAKING OUT MUCH ORE
Six Men Employed in Mine at Sunland Are Shipping 16 Tons of Ore Daily
Doubtless the most economically operated shipping property in the state Nevada is that of the Chafey Thorndyke & McMillan mine at Sunland in Esmeralda county. If It wen a corporation and had a number of shareholders the mine would be heralded, but it is simply a partnership and the owners have no interest in making public their operations, for they are working the hole in the ground merely for what they can make out of the ore.
-Reno Evening Gazette, Jun 27, 1912

A terrible accident near the summit.

HELPER ENGINES JUMP TRACK ON S. P. NEAR MINA
Accident Occurs at Mt. Montgomery Near California State Line
Fireman B. R. Zindors had both legs crushed and Engineer Earl R. Brannon and Student Engineer E. D, Ford wore scalded, when two Southern Pacific helper engines, running light, turned over near Mt. Montgomery, Nov., early this afternoon, according to reports received hero last night. The cause of the accident was unknown.
The two engines had returned from assisting a train over the grade on the line of the Southern Pacific which runs south out of Mina to Keeler, Nevada, when the accident occurred. The two engines, numbers five and eight, were manned by Brennen and Gimlet's and E. Wagner and E. Whitty.
One Goes to Hospital
Fireman Tinders was the only member of the crew requiring hospital attention. Ile was taken to Los Angeles, Tho others were also taken to Los Angeles with the exception of Ford, who went to his home In San Francisco. Zinders' injuries may necessitate amputation of both his loge, it is believed. Southern Pacific officials left shortly after receiving news of the accident for Mt. Montgomery where an investigation will be conducted.
-Nevada State Journal, July 4, 1923

As the automobile becomae more popular and useful, roads needed to be improved.

MONTGOMERY PASS NOW ON ROAD MAP
Each year Nevada is adding to the extensiveness of its improved highway system and today is excelled by few states in mileage of standardized roads that reach out into every section of the state. Announcement is made that paving of the Montgomery Pass route, an all-year interstate connecting link between southern Nevada and California will be completed within a few days. For western Nevada, it means a paved highway all the way between Reno and Bishop, Calif., by the southern route, that will be available both summer and winter. It is a most important accomplishment and one that has been advocated for years by good roads and civic organizations, both north and south, with Reno out in the forefront in support of the project. The completion of paving and formal opening of the improved route will be suitably celebrated next Sunday, October 6, under the sponsorship of the Southern Nevada Good Roads association, with headquarters at Tonopah, and the entire state is invited to participate in the event. Western Nevada should be largely represented at the fete. Modern travel facilities over Montgomery Pass mean much to this section. To those who have labored long in behalf of this road project, congratulations are due, as well as to the state highway departments of California and Nevada, which have cooperated in bringing this interstate highway to its present finished stage.
-Nevada State Journal, September 30, 1935
Even though passenger service for the area had waned, the railroad still hauled freight.

4 ENGINES BRING VARIED CARGO TO MINA
MINA, Nev., July 25.—(Special) Four engines roared into the canyons Wednesday as they started the long mountain climb, puffing and straining, ahead of the heaviest train hauled over the Mt. Montgomery Pass for many years. Ore, talc, pumice and concentrates constituted the bulk of the commodities which will be loaded into broad gauge cars at the Mina transfer platform before continuing on their way, destined to many points throughout the United States. Extra freight tuckers were hastily employed to meet the unusual emer-gency and the first of the loaded broad gauge cars started on their way on Thursday morning's train.
-Nevada State Journal, July 25, 1936

Eventually, though, railroad use was reduced to the point where it just became unprofitable.

OLD MINING ROAD TRACK SCRAPPED
A large crew of men has been placed to work tearing up the rails of the Mina-Benton link of the Southern Pacific narrow gauge railroad line which was abandoned early this year after more than fifty years of operation.
-Reno Evening Gazette, December 7, 1938

Was there a school here? Apparently so. It operated at least from the early 1940's. It was abolished in 1944.

Abolishment of the Mt. Montgomery school district in southern Mineral county was also announced today by the deputy superintendent.
-Reno Evening Gazette, January 5, 1944

Mt. Montgomery retained significance from being on U.S. 6, and services for travelers developed. The casino and hotel came into being and certain shady characters saw an opportunity.

Resorts Can Pay Jackpots Regardless of Shady Lady
Although the gaming control board is looking sharply at a slot machine license application for the Mt. Montgomery Service Station, bar and restaurant, owned by Nevada vice figure Joe Conforte, it probably won't recommend a denial strictly on the ground there are shady ladies about. Actually, several Nevada bordellos operate slot machines and have done so for 20 years or more. Among them is the Big Four in Ely, which obtained a renewal permit for three machines just last month. Board members indicated Tuesday they would probably be a bit reluctant to extend the practice of letting bawdy house operators keep one-armed bandits on the premises. However, the thing that kept them from acting on the application of Harry S. Nihei for 10 slot machines at Conforte's newest vice house—he has others at Wadsworth and Beatty—was the fact he wanted so many of them. Requests for anything less than eight slot machines are handled routinely and don't even come before the game board or the tax commission for approval. Anything more, though, is considered a step into major gambling and comes in for more severe scrutiny. Furthermore, game board members emphasized they look into each application on the merits of the individuals involved. And Conforte, they say, has gained so much notoriety in his enterprises he might be con-sidered not a proper person to have associated in the gaming, industry—even as a landlord. A formal hearing on Nihei's application was called to study just that point.
-Reno Evening Gazette, June 24, 1959
The Mt. Montgomery facilities are now on the Gaming Commission's radar.

Conforte Again Pleads Not Guilty
Joe Conforte is now in the Mineral county headlines. He appeared in justice court in Hawthorne this week and plead not guilty to a misdemeanor charge of selling
liquor without a license on Sep tember 23 at Mt. Montgomery. Bartender Robert Paolo also plead not guilty to the same charge. Liquor license which had been issued to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Campo for operation of the bar at Mt. Montgomery was revoked this week also. Campo was shot to death near Dayton by his wife on September 19.
-Mason Valley News, October 7, 1960


Farmer Given Slot License At Montgomery
A Visalia, Calif., farmer who began negotiating with Joe Conforte while the Nevada vice figuire was sitting out a sentence in the Storey County jail won Nevada Gaming Control Board approval today on his bid to operate ten slot machines at Conforte's Mt. Montgomery Pass bar and former brothel. Getting an approval recommendation for ten slot machines at Mt. Montgomery Pass was Willie Wolfe, a Visalia farmer who told the board he would cash Conforte out for $47,500 and have nothing whatever to do with prostitution at the U. S. Highway 6 lodge. He said he met Conforte for the first time in the Storey County jail after he had inquired of a caretaker about a "for sale" sign and was informed of the vice figure's whereabouts. Mineral County authorities told the board they had no objection to the license as long as Conforte was clearly out.
-Reno Evening Gazette, December 7, 1960


A bid by Richard Northcott, Temple City, Calif., and Mamie Seeland, Pasadena, Calif., to buy the Mt. Montgomery Pass Bar and Cafe for $85,000 was denied [by the Nevada Gaming Control Board] on the grounds of questionable finances.
-Reno Evening Gazette, November 20, 1962


Some more benign ownership changes

Boundary Peak Lodge is the new name of the former Montgomery Pass motel on U.S. Highway 6 at Montgomery Pass, 49 miles north of Bishop. New owner Bill Cramer, formerly of Las Vegas, chose the name to reflect the motel's location near Nevada's tallest mountain, Boundary Peak, on the California-Nevada border.
"For more than 20 years, Bud Soper's Montgomery Pass Lodge casino here has played host to thousands of travelers," Cramer said. We wanted to establish a new identity for our 14-unit motel."

Eventually things settled down and Mt. Montgomery became a favorite spot for the "locals."

Montgomery Pass Casino prospers in unlikely setting
MONTGOMERY PASS, Nev. — The Pass."
It's a refuge for many looking to unwind in a very unlikely place for a casino.
"If I've had a rotten day, I start thinking about going up to the Pass and relaxing,'' said Kathy Tutt, a Bishop, Calif., drugstore clerk. She's typical of many eastern Sierra residents who frequent Soper's Montgomery Pass Casino. It sits near the 7,167-foot summit on U.S. Highway 6 about 55 miles north-east of Bishop and 12 miles inside the Nevada state line. To the north lies Hawthorne; to the east, Tonopah. To the south stands 13,140-foot Boundary Peak, Nevada's highest point.
The modest facility also houses a bar with wide-screen television and a restaurant. Across Highway 6 is a motel and next door is a gas station, all an hour's drive from Bishop. Montgomery Pass draws a lot of business from Inyo and Mono counties, especially on holidays and peak tourist periods. "I don't like the big city casinos," Tutt said on a recent evening while getting slot machine money at the cashier's cage. "I prefer this place because they get to know you, and always ask how you are. Plus the drive is marvelous and it's a chance to get away from town for a while." The casino complex has a long history, but has been owned by the Irwin "Bud" Soper family only since 1963. Soper also owns the Regency, another bordertown casino in Laughlin on the Colorado River. Larry Schmidt, a wisecracking New Jersey native, signed on then as casino manager and unofficial public relations man. He can still be found dealing 21 or personally greeting customers every night but Thursdays.
-Reno Evening Gazette, December 29, 1985

At some point, though, its popularity waned and it went out of business. Cash in those chips, folks! Legalization of casinos in Bishop, California didn't help.

REDEMPTION NOTICE
Tokens and chips for Montgomery Pass Casino can be redeemed at Montgomery Pass Casino, Hwy 6, Montgomery Pass, Nevada, Mondays through Fridays from 10:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. until November 2, 2001.
-Reno Gazette Journal, July 27, 2001

Rumor has it some or most of the buildings burned down in 2010.

While we did not go off road to explore the railroad tunnel, we did stop briefly at the top where the old casino, motels, and service station was. A popular stop for trucks resting after making the climb.