Cobre is an uninhabited ghost town

Ghost town

A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...

 in Elko County, Nevada

Elko County, Nevada

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 45,291 people, 15,638 households, and 11,493 families residing in the county. The population density was 3/sq mi . There were 18,456 housing units at an average density of 1/sq mi...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The town was located at the former interchange point between the Southern Pacific Railroad

Southern Pacific Railroad

The Southern Pacific Transportation Company , earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or Espee, was an American railroad....

 and the Nevada Northern Railway

Nevada Northern Railway

The Nevada Northern Railway was a railroad in the U.S. state of Nevada, built primarily to provide rail access to a major copper producing area in White Pine County, Nevada...

, and came into being when construction of the Nevada Northern began in 1905. The Nevada Northern was constructed primarily to serve the copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

 mines and smelter near Ely, Nevada

Ely, Nevada

Ely is the largest city and county seat of White Pine County, Nevada, United States. Ely was founded as a stagecoach station along the Pony Express and Central Overland Route. Ely's mining boom came later than the other towns along US 50, with the discovery of copper in 1906...

, and cobre is the Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

word for "copper." In 1910, Cobre reached its peak population with a total of 60 residents. Over the next few decades Cobre's population would slowly declined due to travelers' preference to the automobile over the train. This led to the Southern Pacific Railroad abandoning the Cobre station in November 1948.

A post office was established at Cobre in 1906, and it was discontinued in 1956.