February 22, 2009 Travels to Vacated Jungo and Smelly Sulphur

It was a gloomy afternoon. Occasional light showers and sprinkles, dark clouds, not a glimpse of the sun to be had. My friend Graham C. had one more day in Winnemucca before returning home to Big Pine and he wanted to do more than just sit in his motel room or at my home. I was still tired from our travels two days before.

Graham had been looking at maps for much of the morning before he came over to my house and a straight line pretty much due west from Winnemucca piqued his curiosity. The road heads along the old Western Pacific Railroad, now part of the Union Pacific system; that line running to and across the Black Rock Desert – famous for its Burning Man event of counterculture silliness – and into northeastern California far north of the more famous Union Pacific over Donner Pass.

Two spots showed on Graham’s Auto Club map – Jungo and Sulphur. I’ve seen both in Stan Paher’s NEVADA GHOST TOWNS & MINING CAMPS and in particular Jungo looked interesting. So I decided that since the road was well bladed dirt all the way, that I’d jump in with Graham and his oversized pup Toby and head west.



Map of our route.


Graham’s 2000 Toyota Tacoma TRD 4WD pickup.

Off we sped west along Jungo Road. The road turns to dirt about five miles out of Winnemucca, but is freeway smooth the entire way to Sulphur. It is 57 miles along Jungo Road to the site of Sulphur. Jungo sits 35 miles out from Winnemucca. Graham dropped his tire pressure, but never put his truck in 4WD.



Out Jungo Road about six miles from Winnemucca. My Garmin eTrex sits on the dash, with the coordinates for Jungo and Sulphur programmed in and aiding our navigation so we’d know when we got there. Blue Mountain, at 7,342 feet, sits in the background.


Along the road to Jungo. The Eugene Mountains in the distance.


At the point my Garmin told us that we arrived at Jungo, we arrived at Jungo and found – nothing. A railroad switchbox said Jungo on it. An idling rail grinding work train idled on a siding. We were parked smack along a half dry / half flooded playa that seemed to go on forever. However, getting out of the truck gave us a glimpse of the Jungo of the past.

JUNGO – The Western Pacific Railroad established a town at this forlorn site in 1910 to serve the ranching and mining interests in a wide swath of north-central Nevada extending north to the Oregon border. A saloon, post office, blacksmith shop, warehouse, school, feed lot, loading corrals, a hotel and store sat on this dry lake for decades, serving whatever populace that must have set their dusty boots here. Turn your copy of NEVADA GHOST TOWNS & MINING CAMPS (you all have one, right?) to page 152 and see what was the Jungo Hotel, post office and general merchandise store sitting at this very spot. In the background can be seen several homes. There was once life here at Jumbo. But life at Jungo decided that life elsewhere was better, and in 1952 the post office declared it was no longer worth sending mail to this point.

Today, Graham and I found no life, except for the idling work train. However, we saw no faces in the darkly tinted windows, no movement outside the train or the muddy Ford van that was parked behind it. So Graham and I set about looking for clues that Jungo exisited. And we found some oddities.



Graham and I found quite a few collapsed and semi-collapsed series of tunnels. Maybe part of a giant cellar that once sat under the two story Jungo Hotel/store/post office?



Scattered discards were even found on the flooded part of the playa. It appeared that only a thin levee of dirt spread upon the playa surface next to the road and railroad tracks spared downtown Jungo from waters that sat upon the playa during wet winters. The view is northwest at the western slopes of Blue Mountain.



What appeared to be an old Ford pickup truck cab and front clip – identified only by the V8 symbol on the hood – at Jungo. The view is southwest to the very south end of the Jackson Mountains.



The foundations of the old Jungo water tower and the idling work train nearby.



BLM mileage signs dot the landscape, giving ample directions and distances to far flung places void of people or habitations.


After a reconnoiter around Jungo, Graham and I set our sights on Sulphur. My maps show a couple of streets, Graham’s memories of a visit years ago seemed to be filled with people and buildings. It was another 22 miles west to Sulphur, so we tossed Toby and ourselves into Graham’s Tacoma and head that way.



Someone with a sense of humor and a piece of wood made his mark on one of the roadsigns along the way between Jungo and Sulphur.



Coming around the end of the Kamma Mountains and Pulpit Rock as we near Sulphur, at the southern end of the Black Rock Desert.

SULPHUR – In 1869, a Paiute Indian showed prospectors some funny yellow rock with a promise for a pony, saddle and blankets and promptly got stiffed. In 1899 sulfur mining began in earnest, which was aided in 1910 when the Western Pacific Railroad laid down tracks right through the middle of the operations. A post office was opened, a town laid about, and the usual homes and businesses opened. Sulphur even had an airstrip. But by 1953, that smell got to everyone and they all left.

On this day, Graham and I found more at Sulphur than at Jungo. The BLM set up an information board amid the ruins telling about the Jackson Mountains Wilderness area, as well as the Black Rock Desert. Someone made a sign indicating the route to Burning Man. BLM also placed abundant signage at the three way intersection that marked Sulphur. The Haycock Mining Company had a huge open pit mine operation a mile west at the edge of the Kamma Mountains. And boy, did Sulphur stink! The smell of that pungent odiferous product wafted on the breeze and accosted the senses everywhere we walked.



A Sulphur ruin, viewing south.



Graham and Toby poking through the ruins.



Viewing northeast across the tracks to Pulpit Rock.



On the north side of the tracks at Sulphur was apparently the town’s junkyard or town dump. Most vehicles seemed represented mainly by General Motors and Oldsmobiles but I found a few Fords, one Mercury, one Rambler and one Chrysler. There were around 20 or so vehicles and they all fell were between 1940 and 1970; with the largest representation being the 1950s.







Graham found this cellar. The view is southeast into the Kamma Mountains.

It was now getting close to sundown, although you’d never know it. The sun hadn’t shown and the only clue was that it was a bit more gloomy than it had been. Graham and I started backtracking toward Winnemucca. About three miles from Sulphur, we spied a few buildings off to the north of the road and decided to investigate.



One of about six buildings in a far flung ranch complex. Most were made from railroad ties and many appeared to have been inhabited up to maybe the 1980s.



Someone wasn’t satisfied with a mere brick $hit house! This outhouse was made of railroad ties and able to support mile long freight trains.



This home was the largest and most complex. It had rooms that were actually caves dug into the hillside, a second story had windows with a view out over the southern Black Rock Desert.



Another home on the same large spread, this one the farthest north and closest to the railroad. This one had a sturdy outhouse with a concrete floor and toilet area.



Yet another solid home of railroad ties. This one, however, had a far flimsier outhouse.


By now, it was getting dark and Graham and I wrapped up our exploration, returned to the Tacoma and set our sights for the long drive back to the bright lights of Winnemucca for a beer and pizza.



Along the road between Sulphur and Jungo.



Winnemucca in sight.


This morning, Graham left for home. But he got enough of a good appetizer of north-central Nevada that he’s already planning a return to revisit all the sites we traveled to once again – and more to come.