The Nevada–California–Oregon Railway was a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge railroad originally planned to connect Reno, Nevada, to the Columbia River.

It was decided that the best plan was to build north to the Columbia River to service cattle ranches and farms in northeastern California and eastern Oregon.

The northern terminus was to be The Dalles, Oregon, since that city was located on the Columbia River and had no eastern or southern rail connections at that time.

One board meeting actually ended with a gun fight between two members, which killed the corporate secretary and wounded the man who became president.

In April 1884, the bank took full control of the railroad, purchasing the company at a court ordered auction for just over $372,000.

[2] All three passenger depots still exist, and are listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places along with the locomotive house and machine shop in Reno.

[10] The N-C-O railway office in Alturas and the depot at Lakeview are examples of the 1880s style of architecture known as Mission Revival.

The features include solid massive walls with buttressing, broad unadorned wall surfaces, wide projecting eaves, low-pitched tile roofs, corridors with Roman aqueduct-like arches, terraced bell towers and mission belfry facades.

The style showed up at Stanford University, the Southern Pacific depot in Santa Barbara and the Mission Inn in Riverside.