The narrow gauge Carson & Colorado Railway had service to Hawthorne beginning in April 1881, and then as far as Benton, California by January 1883. Queen was a station on that line. By 1900, the C & C was sold to Southern Pacific
From 1900 through 1905 the Carson & Colorado Railway was operated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Southern Pacific. In 1905 the railway was incorporated as the Nevada & California Railway Company also a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Southern Pacific. In 1912 the N & C Railway was transferred to the Central Pacific subsidiary of the Southern Pacific. Portions of the line were abandoned in the 1930's and the 1940's, and operations ceased entirely by 1960.
-Rails West
The 1920 Federal Census reveals J.A. McConnell as the depot master, Edward Paye and S. Oritauka as railroad foremen, and Angelo Madero as a railroad laborer. Eleven others, involved in mining and ranching, called Queen their home.
If you look on Google Maps you'll see a marker labeled "Madame Airport" and next to it a rough airstrip. It's still popular in some flight simulators, Paul Freeman, who operates the Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields website says:
It's depicted as "Landing Strip" on 1987 & 97 topos. Aerial pics show it was created between 1966-83, probably to support whatever used to be just east of it. But the Google Maps label could easily be wrong - those annotations are done by unpaid "community volunteers", and often you get what you pay for. - Paul
Mr. M. Fleming remarks on our Facebook page, "I remember seeing the fully operational Janie's Ranch and the orange wind sock for the runway flying right next to it when we were heading west down Montgomery Pass as a kid back in the 1970s on our trips between Tonopah and Bishop." More info on the brothel here.
Did Joe Conforte own Janie's Ranch brothel?
An article on the life of Shirley Fendon gave the following detail when she worked at her job at Continental Telephone on Main Street in Bishop as an operator:
One of the more interesting characters she encountered on the switchboard was famed Nevada brothel operator, Joe Conforte. Conforte owned and operated the first legal brothel in the United States – the Mustang Ranch in Storey County Nevada. Conforte often called one of his other brothels near Bishop (Janie’s Ranch) just over the state line on Highway 6 near Montgomery Pass. Shirley put those calls through and would have brief conversations with him during the process of connecting his calls. She said he was always “very nice” on the phone and she enjoyed their visits.
-https://sierrawave.net/fendon-obit/
Now, we know Conforte was invloved with some doings at Mt. Montgomery, but here too?
Queen was a small stop located at the western foot of Mt. Montgomery where the railroad really started to gain elevation for its climb over the mountain pass. For the railroads use there was a section house, bunk house, privy, sand house, water tank, root cellar, bake oven, and tool house and at one time it even had a false front building that was likely a general store. Today nothing remains but the right of way, a few foundations and thousands of old tin cans scattered all over the desert floor.
http://carsoncolorado.com/historic-route/the-route/queen/
At the time, Queen was in Esmeralda county until Mineral county was formed in 1911.
It's lonely, remote country out there.
THE citizens of Esmeralda county are taking steps to hunt up the murderers of I. N. Woodhouse, a prospector and mine owner, who it is supposed was murdered for his money some time last January, while on his way to Bishop Creek from Hawthorne. It appears that the local authorities have not taken any steps to hunt up the murders of Woodhouse, and this week a relative of his from the east has been looking into the matter with a detective. It is strange that nothing has been done about this case until now, and the chances for the capture of the criminals are not very favorable.
-Yerington Times, October 8, 1887
Fourteen years later, they're still thinking about it.
MURDER WILL OUT.
An Old Esmeralda Mystery Is Partially Clear
ed Up.
Park Barnes, who arrived from Inyo county last week, informs the Hawthorne Bulletin that Fred Merkle, setion foreman of the C. &. C., recently found the bones of a human arm near Queen station. The Indian known as Jack Magee, who saw the bones, appeared much excited. and upon being questioned said that they had been brought to the place by a coyote. He said that about fourteen years ago a White man was traveling in the vicinity in a buckboard and that an Indian had killed him with a shotgun and buried the remains in a ravine about three miles south of Queen, after which the buckboard and its contents were burned. Mr. Merkle offered the Indian $5 if he would point out the grave, but after consultation with other Indians he refused to do so.
Messrs. Barnes and Merkle believe that the murdered man was I. N. Woodhouse, whose mysterious disappearance about fourteen years ago was the cause of a sensation. The remains of an old buckboard near the spot con¬firm the belief that it was Woodhouse who was murdered there.
Woodhouse left Hawthorne for Bishop on the 8th of January, 1887, in a buckboard. The next day he was seen at Teel's marsh. This was the last ever seen of him. He never reached his destination and a few days later his horse returned to Hawthorne.
-The Silver State (Unionville, Nevada), March 29, 1901
With the Tonopah mining boom happening, Queen found itself uniquely qualified to support local mining operations.
COPPER FIND IN FURNACE CANYON
Queen, Nevada, Stocking and Dennison, who are operating in Furnace canyon, Esmeralda county, report that they encountered a three foot ledge in their tunnel which carries high values in copper. The entering stringers are very rich and the owners believe that have a big mine. Their find was made on the 24th.
-Reno Evening Gazette, February 1, 1906
QUEEN STATION MINES AT WORK
QUEEN STATION, Nev. On the property of the Sunshine Gold Mining Company, situated two miles from here. development work is being pushed with al possible speed. On the SHanghai claims a drift is being run to tap the main vein at the 100-foot level. Work will soon recommence on the old Indian Queen, which has already yielded many millions.
-Nevada State Journal, July 4, 1908
Being on the railroad already was handy for local mines.
New Camp of Queen
Station is Coming
to the Front
Special to The Gazette:
QUEEN STATION, Nev., Jan. 28.—In spite of the most severe winter in years, development work being rushed on a number of promising claims in this vicinity.
The Queen City Mining company is opening up a zinc prospect under the direction of H. E. Haggerty.
Fred Buecheler is on the lid as watchman at the Indian Queen which is closed down for the present.
A force of sixteen men are at work at the Tip Top. A trial shipment of two cars of ore was made same time ago, with highly satisfactory results. A party of Seattle and Carson capitalists, under the corporate name of The Nevada-Oneota company are spending considerable money in an effort to locate the extension of the Golden Gate vein which traverses the Nicholas group.
Leasers are at work on the Golden Gate extending the edit which was started two years ago. This is the 11th lease which has been given at different times on this mine. The location was made on December 22, 1905.
The rich ore found near the surface and which created a sensation at the time was found on a Friday. But not withstanding this unpropitious array of dates the discoverer, C. D. Nichols. emphatically refuses to carry a rabbit's foot and sincerely believes that with proper development the "Golden Gate" will prove to be one of the big mines of the state.
Work will be resumed on the Shanghai, Panorama and Bird groups in the early spring.
-Reno Evening Gazette, January 29, 1910
Apparently the area was good for pine nuts, and they were available at a very reasonable price. All you had to do was come get them.
PINE NUTS FOR SALE 10 cents per pound, f.o.b. Queen, Nevada. 100 pounds lots. Address GIRARD & VAN EVERY, Queen, Nev.
-Nevada State Journal, December 16, 1916
DOESN'T PAY TO BE AN INDIAN DOCTOR
Sam Weathers, an Indian, was arrested by Deputy SHeriff Hammil at Mina last week, and will be charged with responsibility for the death of Jim McGee, and Indian doctor. McGee disappeared from Queen about a month ago, and the authorities have been investigating the matter, finally fastening the guilt on the prisoner. The doctor had attended a relative of Weathers', who died, and, following a time-honored custom of the Piutes, Weathers killed the doctor. On being accused by Hammil, the Indian confessed, and led the officer to the spot where he buried the body. Weathers will be brought to Hawthorne to await trial- Walker Lake Bulletin
-The Daily Appeal, July 8, 1920
With Mt. Montgomery hovering around 7180 feet in altitude, a train had to climb 1,000 feet in the six miles or so from Queen, or recover from an approximately 889-foot climb in three and a half miles from Basalt on the eastern side of the hill, although the stations of Silex and Nichols were between Queen and the summit, it is unknown (to us) what services they provided and when. According to a timetable from 1882, if you left the summit at 9:25 PM you could expect to get to Queen by 10:25 PM
Eventually, there was no reason for the railroad about which, in 1883, Darius Ogden Mills, a major financier said was "built 300 miles too long or 300 years too early."
In 1910 a standard gauge Southern Pacific line came up from Mojave and
met the C&C at Owenyo. This line was called the Jawbone. When all the
mining glories died - Tonopah, Bodie, Candelaria and Cerro Gordo - and all
the booms were over and forgotten and the C&C served a ghost region, it was
decided to scrap the line. There was
mild protest in the Owens Valley. The
people were attached to the little railroad
which by now ran only once a day from
Keeler to Laws and back.
-North of Bishop
By Russ Leadabrand
I suppose Mr. Alick saw the writing on the wall and wanted to get out the service station business. The 1927 map shows the highway to be "improved," usually meaning gravel and grading, and by 1936 it had been paved.
FOR SALE-- Store, service station and lunch counter on Highway, Queen, Nevada, doing good business. For full particulars address Alick Wright, Mt. Montgomery, Nevada
-Reno Evening Gazette, June 24, 1924
By the late 1930's, the old railroad was no longer in Queen Valley, and there was really no use for Queen.
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
There are but few remains of Queen Station, aside from what appears to be a root cellar of some sort and lots of cans, mixed with a lot of more contemporay trash. This place seems to be a popular dumping ground for tires, for some reason. Closer to the road is what appears to be the remains of an old brothel, whch might explain the nearby "airstrip."