Sparks History Sets the Stage

For much of its centenium, the wayside hamlet of Sparks has been ignored by the state’s well known historians and authors. Sparks was considered a bedroom community of Reno; a railroad town with no distinction. Perhaps it owes its anonymity to its muddled beginnings and various name changes. Names that changed from Stones and Gates, Glendale, Harriman, East Reno, and in quick succession, Sparks. As nondescript as this little vagabond town was, it became the home to a new railroad community.

In the 1850’s the local meadows saw thousands of people camping in their wagons while their horses grazed on the bounty of grass. By 1857, Charles Gates and John Stone accommodated nomads by building a toll bridge over the Truckee River a few miles below Reno. From this crossing, the town of Glendale sprung up. Downtown hosted a hotel, two or three stores, a country school house and more than anything else, several saloons. Glendale’s countryside gave way to vast acreage of farms hosting the state’s largest crops of fruit, vegetables and hay. The local paper commented that Glendale was noted for “greenness and coziness, and so many of our best families make it their home.” (May 1877, Reno Gazette)

Unfortunately, Glendale’s hopes of becoming more than some wayfarers respite, soon ended, when in 1863, Lakes Crossing was discovered to be a nice shallow place to ford the river. Soon, town lots were being sold and the city of Reno quickly emerged; rapidly overshadowing the farming community of Glendale.

Sparks. The Railroad Town

With an appeal to the vanity of government and railroad officials, the tide turned for the future name of Sparks.

E.H. Harriman became the director of the Union Pacific Railroad and by the 1900’s became president of both the Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific. He took the lagging railroad to its height of glory, repairing lines and conducting affairs with efficiency. Even so, government officials were aware of the railroads’ poor safety record and lack of shipping tariffs. Regardless, to honor the president, the budding railroad town proposed the name of Harriman, until E.H. Harriman himself objected to its use. In desperation, the name East Reno stuck for a short time.

Railroad executives suggested the town be name Sparks, in honor of John Sparks, then Governor of Nevada. The railroad officials’ ploy was politically unsuccessful. The state soon forced the safety issues and levied tariffs on shipping of goods across Nevada.

Governor Sparks felt honored with the distinction. He hosted a barbecue for the citizens of Sparks at his Alamo Stock Farm (at Moana Springs, near the present-day site of the Reno-Sparks Convention Center) in celebration of the town's incorporation.

The town of Sparks officially began in Wadsworth, Nevada.

“There, [in Wadsworth] the railroad housed its operations, facilities and employees in the late 1800’s. By 1901, the Southern Pacific Railroad, made a decision to re-route the old line to cut out dangerous curves and excessive grades and to avoid areas subject to flooding. This work shortened the line and required that a new terminal with division points and repair facilities be established somewhere west of Wadsworth. The line was to shift to the Truckee Meadows.” (A History of Sparks, written by Phillip Earl for Rainshadow Associates)

Reno was considered a good candidate but real estate jumped in value when the railroad considered relocating there. Southern Pacific then looked to the swamp land a few miles east of Reno. It was determined it would be more profitable to fill the swamps than to buy property in Reno. The swamps were then filled with rocks and dirt from an area near the current Mountain View Cemetery as well as east, near Vista. The crews worked seven days a week, twenty four hours a day for the next six months to a year. When the vast acreage was ready, construction began on the roundhouse and miles of track with hundreds of switches laid. The huge roundhouse was distinguished with 41 stalls and the largest turntable in the world. It housed the most advanced and extensive repair shop in history.

By the summer of 1904 the big move from Wadsworth began. Homes were dismantled; possessions, livestock, pets and people were loaded on railroad cars and flatbeds. Seventy of the homes from Wadsworth were moved to the “Reserve;” ranch property purchased for Southern Pacific employees. Other homes and businesses were established and life began quickly in a brand new town.