Ruby Valley Roads and Telephone Lines – Ruby Valley NV

Description

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built and graded roads leading to the newly created Ruby Lake Wildlife Refuge, in order  to connect with existing state highways to Wells NV, where the railroad passed.  The road up the east side of the valley was entirely new, while the west side county road was improved.  

“Using a combination of heavy equipment and manual labor, the CCC built the 26-mile long ‘East Service Road.’ In all, Ruby Lake enrollees graded 52 miles of road service, including 19 miles of county road, between the refuge and the oiled highway (State Route 229) that led to Wells.” (Kolvet & Ford 2006)

These roads are today’s Ruby Valley Road north along the west side of Ruby Lake NWR to State 229, the Brown Dike East Access Road along the east side of Ruby Lake NWR up to the junction with Ruby Wash Road, and probably a good part of Ruby Wash Road all the way to State 299 near the junction with US 93 (on to Wells). 

CCC workers also helped with  communications between Ruby Lake NWR and the outside world, adding 12 of 40 miles of new telephone line between the refuge and the Elko County Fish Hatchery and another line between the Gardner Ranch in Ruby Valley and Murphy Ranch in Secret Valley.   This work was done by crews from Ruby Valley CCC camp and the nearby Division of Grazing’s Camp Warm Creek (DG-82).