An unfortunate effort to expand wheat in the sagebrush steppe of northeastern Nevada.
METROPOLIS IS AN UNUSUAL NEVADA ghost town.
The town was created from an early 20th-century effort to grow wheat in the sagebrush lands near Wells.
The community had actually mainly run out by the mid-1930s due to reduced agricultural costs as well as conflicts over water civil liberties. Particularly, a lawsuit from downstream water users in the Humboldt River drain blocked using irrigation water from a neighborhood creek.
All that remains of the once-bustling town are the ruins of the school and hotel. Otherwise, aside from a few broken artifacts, little has been left standing. The scruffy gray-green shrub prominent across the area is sagebrush, which has grown back all across its original range.
Before Metropolis’s final demise, settlers tried to grow dry-land wheat with no success.
Know Before You Go
From Wells, Nevada, on Interstate 80 go northwest on N. Metropolis Road, which is the main road on the far (northeast) side of the railroad. About two miles out of town, the road bends to the right and crosses the Humboldt River.
Keep following Metropolis Road generally north to the T-junction, about seven miles, and turn left. Go about three miles to a junction with a graded road coming in from the left. Turn there and follow it about one mile. Metropolis is on the right. The roads should be passable to ordinary passenger cars in dry weather.
