In April 1905, Clark made a verbal agreement with Francis Marion Smith that Smith could build a rail line to his borax operations at Lila C connecting with the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad at Las Vegas.

After Smith's men had already graded 12 miles (19 km) for tracks, his workers received a no-trespassing order that they were not allowed to connect with Clark's rail.

Clark had apparently changed his mind, and subsequently, he laid his own rail on the line graded by Smith's men.

In response, Smith started his own competing railroad, the Tonopah and Tidewater to the Goldfield boomtowns in direct competition with Clark.

The Las Vegas and Tonopah continued to serve the Bullfrog Mining District at Beatty until 1917/1918.