Montello is a small desert

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

Elko County Elko County is a county in the northeastern corner of Nevada, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 53,702. Its county seat is Elko. The county was established on March 5, 1869, from Lander County. Elko County is the fourth ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

, United States. It is home to Montello Elementary School, which is part of the

Elko County School District Elko County School District (ECSD) is a school district headquartered in Elko, Nevada Elko is a city in and the county seat of Elko County, Nevada, United States. As of the official 2020 U.S. Census, the city has a population of 20,564. Elko s ...

. The population of Montello was 50 as of the 2018

American Community Survey The American Community Survey (ACS) is an annual demographics survey program conducted by the United States Census Bureau. It regularly gathers information previously contained only in the long form of the United States census, decennial census ...

. Various cattle ranching operations surround the area. Montello is part of the Elko Micropolitan Statistical Area and also a part of a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) named after it.

History

The first permanent settlement at Montello was made in 1869. The town of Montello was established in 1904 as a "division point" (operations base) for the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...

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

Lucin Cutoff The Lucin Cutoff is a railroad line in Utah, United States that runs from Ogden to its namesake in Lucin. The most prominent feature of the cutoff was a railroad trestle crossing the Great Salt Lake, which was in use from 1904 until the l ...

across the

Great Salt Lake The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world. It lies in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah and has a substantial impact upon the local climate, partic ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, a line that bypassed the area's former division point town of Terrace, Utah. Many of the original houses in Montello were moved there from Terrace and nearby

Kelton, Utah Kelton is a ghost town, just north of the Great Salt Lake, in the Park Valley area of Box Elder County, Utah, United States. The town was inhabited during the period of 1869–1942. Once an important section station on the First transcont ...

. Montello was originally named "Bauvard", and received its current name in 1912. The word Montello is Italian for "little mountain" and was probably given by one of the early Italian settlers. 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. 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 is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine ...

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. In February 2017, the town was flooded after a very wet winter. The failure of the "Twenty One Mile" earthen dam did not contribute to Montello flooding. Sections of State Route 30, State Route 233, and U.S. Highway 93 were closed, some sections of road were washed out and rail traffic had to be re-routed.

Geography

Montello is located in eastern Elko County along

Nevada State Route 233 State Route 233 (SR 233) is a state highway in rural eastern Elko County, Nevada, United States. The highway follows the route of the First transcontinental railroad from Interstate 80 (I-80) to the Utah state line. The highway was ...

, northeast of

Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one of the ori ...

Oasis In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

border. Elko, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

, is to the west. According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

, the Montello CDP has an area of , all of it land. No information is provided for the village alone.

Demographics

Because the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

has included Montello in one of its census-designated places (CDP), published census information only applies to the entire CDP, not the village alone.

References

External links

Census-designated places in Elko County, Nevada Census-designated places in Nevada Elko, Nevada micropolitan area Populated places established in 1904 1904 establishments in Nevada {{ElkoCountyNV-geo-stub