Nevadans for Cultural Preservation

May 2023

Archaeologist, Jeff Wedding, presented RAILROAD ARCHAEOLOGY: Investigations along the Union Pacific’s Salt Lake Line in Southern Nevada.

Between 1997 and 2001, Archaeologists from the Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies (HRC) at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), initiated and completed the investigation of more than a dozen historic era archaeological sites across the Las Vegas valley. All were found to be associated, directly or indirectly, to the construction of the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad between 1903 and 1905 (the progenitor of today’s Union Pacific line). Now, 120 years after the railroad’s construction and 20 years since shovels scraped dirt, Jeff Wedding presented the history behind the Salt Lake Route and reflect on the findings of those archaeological investigations.

For a video of this Zoom Webinar click here.