Montello is an unincorporated community

Unincorporated area

In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

 in Elko County

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...

, Nevada

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

, United States

United States

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

. It is home to Montello Elementary School which is part of the Elko County School District. The population of Montello is 216. Two small bars and a market/motel selling fuel & sundries comprise the business district. Various cattle ranching operations surround the area.

Montello is part of the Elko

Elko, Nevada

Elko is a city in Elko County, Nevada, United States. The population was 18,297 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Elko County. The city straddles the Humboldt River....

 Micropolitan Statistical Area

Elko micropolitan area

The Elko Micropolitan Statistical Area is a two county Nevada statistical area of . The area includes portions of the Humboldt River Basin , the Snake River Basin , and the Central Nevada Desert Basins subregion ....

.

History

The town of Montello was established in 1904 as a "division point" (operations base) for 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....

. Montello's development was prompted by the construction of the Lucin Cutoff

Lucin Cutoff

The Lucin Cutoff is a railroad line which included a railroad trestle which crossed the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Built by the Southern Pacific Company between February 1902 and March 1904 across Promontory Point, it bypassed the original Central Pacific Railroad route through Promontory Summit...

 across the Great Salt Lake

Great Salt Lake

The Great Salt Lake, located in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah, is the largest salt water lake in the western hemisphere, the fourth-largest terminal lake in the world. In an average year the lake covers an area of around , but the lake's size fluctuates substantially due to its...

 in Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

, a line that bypassed the area's former division point town of Terrace, Utah

Terrace, Utah

Terrace is a ghost town, located in the Great Salt Lake Desert in west-central Box Elder County, Utah, United States. The town was established in 1869 as a Central Pacific Railroad "division point" , on the route of the First Transcontinental Railroad...

. Many of the original houses in Montello were moved there from Terrace and nearby Kelton, Utah

Kelton, Utah

-External links:* by Randy W. Lewis* at Utah State History...

. Montello was originally named "Bauvard," and received its current name in 1912. The word "Montello" means "rest" in the Shoshone language

Shoshone language

Shoshoni or Shoshone is a Native American language spoken by the Shoshone people. Principal dialects of Shoshoni include Western Shoshoni in Nevada, Gosiute in western Utah, Northern Shoshoni in southern Idaho and northern Utah, and Eastern Shoshoni in Wyoming.Shoshoni-speaking Native Americans...

.

Montello was at its peak in the 1910s and early 1920s, with a population of perhaps 800. While the town's economic life was dominated by the railroad, it also served as a community center for local ranchers and as a supply point for the nearby mining camp of Delano

Delano, Nevada

Delano is a ghost town located in northeastern Elko County, Nevada, about 36 miles north of Montello. Delano was the center of a small gold-mining district that saw production from the 1870s to the 1960s. The post office closed in 1927....

. Montello began declining in the late 1920s, however; railroad employment began to lessen and a 1925 fire devastated the town's business district. The primary factor in Montello's decline, though, was the railroad's shift from steam

Steam locomotive

A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...

 to diesel

Diesel locomotive

A diesel locomotive is a type of railroad locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine, a reciprocating engine operating on the Diesel cycle as invented by Dr. Rudolf Diesel...

locomotives, which took place in the 1940s and early 1950s. This rendered the servicing facilities at Montello obsolete, and they were removed by the Southern Pacific in the 1950s.