Ely, Nevada | |
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City | |
Downtown Ely
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Location of Ely, Nevada |
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Location in the United States | |
Coordinates: 39°15′12″N 114°52′38″W / 39.25333°N 114.87722°WCoordinates: 39°15′12″N 114°52′38″W / 39.25333°N 114.87722°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Nevada |
Government | |
• Mayor | Melody VanCamp |
Area | |
• Total | 7.1 sq mi (18.5 km2) |
• Land | 7.1 sq mi (18.5 km2) |
• Water | 0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2) |
Elevation | 6,437 ft (1,962 m) |
Population (2010) | |
• Total | 4,255 |
• Density | 600/sq mi (230/km2) |
Time zone | Pacific (PST) (UTC-8) |
• Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC-7) |
ZIP codes | 89301, 89315 |
Area code(s) | 775 |
FIPS code | 32-23500 |
GNIS feature ID | 0859671 |
Ely (/ˈiːli/, EE-lee) is the largest city and county seat of White Pine County, Nevada, United States. Ely was founded as a stagecoach station along the Pony Express and Central Overland Route. Ely's mining boom came later than the other towns along US 50, with the discovery of copper in 1906. Though the railroads connecting the First Transcontinental Railroad to the mines in Austin and Eureka have long been removed, the railroad to Ely is preserved as a heritage railway by the Nevada Northern Railway and known as the Ghost Train of Old Ely. As of the 2010 census, the population was 4,255.
Ely was founded as a stagecoach station along the Pony Express and Central Overland Route. Ely's mining boom came later than the other towns along US 50, with the discovery of copper in 1906. This made Ely a mining town, suffering through the boom-and-bust cycles so common in the West. Originally, Ely was home to a number of copper mining companies, Kennecott being the most famous. With a crash in the copper market in the mid-1970s, Kennecott shut down and copper mining disappeared (temporarily).
The town was first called Ely in 1878 in honor of Smith Ely, president of the Selby Copper Mining and Smelting Company.