Wells, NV

Wells sits in northeastern Elko County at the springs that gave Humboldt Wells its name. Covered-wagon parties on the California Emigrant Trail used the marshy oasis to rest and refill before the long haul west; when the Central Pacific Railroad reached the area in 1869, it established a station there. Elko County changed the name to Wells in 1873. The town’s later history has another sharp marker: a magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck in 2008 and heavily damaged historic downtown buildings. Wells is a railroad-and-trail town whose older water stop remains part of the map.