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COPYRIGHT 2005 Las Vegas Review-Journal
BYLINE: JOAN WHITELY , REVIEW-JOURNAL
In 2005, stubborn people are willing to "camp" in line for hours to snag a scarce concert ticket or a lot in a desirable housing subdivision. A century before, risk-takers traveled cross-country to camp literally for months in the harsh Southern Nevada desert for a shot at buying land in a town so new it existed only on paper.
The buyers had to be audacious. They braved dust, hellish heat and isolation to "get in on the ground floor" of the business opportunity the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad was offering.
"We landed April 2, 1905," Charles Aplin told an oral historian in 1968. "We camped in tents along the creek with dozens of other people who were doing the same, and we stayed there until after the lots had been auctioned off on May 15." Aplin was 18, from California.
The railroad -- which had just completed its rail connecting Southern California with Salt Lake City in January 1905 -- needed manpower to live at the southern end of Nevada in order to ice down eastbound cargoes of fresh California produce; water and feed the westbound livestock; and service the trains, too. This was halfway between its rail operations in San Bernardino, Calif., and Salt Lake City.
The railroad planned to build a town from scratch in the godforsaken spot, which Mormon...
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