Nipton Roda (partially NV 164)

[Max Rockatansky]

I started writing the Nipton Road blog on Gribblenation this evening.  It turns out Nipton Road was once far larger and once reached the Silver Lake Cutoff of the Arrowhead Trail.  Here are some of the significant historical items of interest:

-  Nipton was founded on February 9, 1905, in Ivanpah Valley in San Bernardino County, California.  The founding of Nipton came on the same day that the first train ran on the then newly completed Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad.  Nipton was originally known as "Nippeno Camp" until 1910 when the Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad was annexed into the Union Pacific Railroad. 

-  Following the plotting of Nipton a road would be constructed eastward from the then existing Mormon Road which linked it to Searchlight.  The origin of the Searchlight-Nipton Road was at the Valley Wells copper smelter near Halloran Summit.  From Halloran Summit the roadway traversed the Ivanpah Mountains and descended into Nipton in Ivanpah Valley.  From Nipton the roadway continued eastward into Nevada where it terminated in Searchlight. 

-  Some of the segments of road west of Ivanpah Valley may have been already around.  The 1910 USGS map in the area displays way too many mines in around what is now Mountain Pass to think that area was devoid of infrastructure before 1905.

-  The Arrowhead Trail (18) can be seen aligned along the Silver Lake Cutoff (Nevada State Route 6) south of Las Vegas via Jean, Goodsprings, Columbia Pass and Ripley on the 1924 Rand McNally Auto Trails map of California and Nevada.  The Evergreen National Highway (20) and National Park-to-Park Highway (64) are shown using the original alignment of the Arrowhead Trail south of Las Vegas towards Searchlight on Nevada State Route 5.  Nipton-Searchlight Road is shown to be a prominent highway which originated at the Arrowhead Trail near Silver Lake and spanned eastward to Searchlight.

The map I'm citing:

https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/workspace/handleMediaPlayer?qvq=q%253Acalifornia%2Bhighway%2B1924%253Bsort%253APub_List_No_InitialSort%252CPub_Date%252CPub_List_No%252CSeries_No%253Blc%253ARUMSEY%257E8%257E1&trs=10&mi=1&lunaMediaId=RUMSEY~8~1~201769~3000698&widgetFormat=simple

-  1925 California Legislative Chapter 369 would add the Silver Lake Cutoff north of Barstow and Daggett and an extension of Legislative Route Number 31.  The June 1925 California Highways & Public Works reported that the Arrowhead Trail north of Daggett to the Nevada state line was formally under California Division of Highways maintenance.  US Route 91 would be added to the existing Silver Lake Cutoff during November 1926.

-  The April 1932 California Highways & Public Works reported that US Route 91 was under construction between Halloran Summit and Mountain Pass.  The project corridor functionally annexed existing Nipton-Searchlight Road from the vicinity of Valley Wells to Ivanpah Valley into the State Highway System.  The article stub notes after the active project were completed only 21.5 miles of Legislative Route Number 31 were left to modernize.  The Halloran Summit-Mountain Pass segment of US Route 91 was completed in 1932 and functionally were the last piece necessary to provide a link to the Nevada state line in Ivanpah Valley.  It is unclear why no Division of Highways document goes into greater detail regarding the completion of Legislative Route Number 31 to the Nevada state line.  The 1932-1934 Division of Highways Biennium did announce the completion of the segment via a list of contracts.

-  The Nevada portion of Nipton Road becomes NV 68 in 1940.  The Nipton Road and Cottonwood Cove Road both show up as Federal Aid Secondary 545 on the 1968 Nevada Department of Highways map of Clark County.  I'm unclear on why NV 68 wasn't extended east of Searchlight.  Regardless, NV 68 became NV 164 as part of the 1976 State Highway Renumbering.