Carlin, NV

Carlin is an Elko County city 23 miles west of Elko, set along Interstate 80 and the Union Pacific railroad in northeast Nevada. The 2020 census counted 2,050 residents. The town was founded in 1868 at the eastern end of the Central Pacific Railroad's Humboldt Division and named for Civil War general William Passmore Carlin. The old slogan, "Where the Train Stops," still makes sense when you see the tracks running through the middle of town. That transportation history remains easy to read from the road.

Carlin's working map has always been bigger than the city limits. The Carlin Trend gold-mining country begins nearby, while Carlin Canyon and the railroad corridor give the surrounding desert a strong transportation shape. The Carlin Museum occupies an old schoolhouse and keeps the railroad-and-mining story close to Main Street. Carlin's local scoop is a railroad town that became a gold-country base, with I-80, the tracks, the museum, and the canyon all pulling in different directions from one compact stop.