A presentation of the Nevada Historical Society, High Noon with Neal Cobb is a monthly history series that delves into Nevada topics with local experts. Neal Cobb is a passionate historian and honorary curator for the Nevada Historical Society. Each month he is joined by a different guest presenter.

This month, Jean-Guy Tanner Dubé will tell us about historic Nevada railroad depots.

Nevada’s railroad history is long, rich, and varied, dating back to 1868 when the Central Pacific Railroad reached the state, building east from Sacramento, California. In a century and a half since, the Battle Born state has been served by a handful of railroads. One aspect of their legacy is the railroad depots and facilities built to serve local communities.

A century ago, there were hundreds of depots dotting the state. Today, just over two dozen passenger and freight depots survive in Nevada. Some are threatened, and some are preserved. Their present-day uses range from Amtrak stops to museums; homes to a brewery; businesses to tourist railroads.

Jean-Guy Tanner Dubé is an author, architectural draftsman, and historian. He has studied Southern Pacific depots since 1983 and is the author of Railroad Depots: A Southern Pacific Collection. Dubé works for the State Historic Preservation Office of Nevada as the national and state register of historic places coordinator. He is a member of the Friends of the Nevada State Railroad Museum, the Southern Pacific Historic & Technical Society, and the Virginia & Truckee Railroad Historical Society. Dubé received the Leicester B. Holland Prize in 2017.

Register to attend High Noon with Neal Cobb live on Zoom. Recordings of all past episodes are available on the library’s YouTube channel.