Empire City.
This town is situated on the banks of the Carson River, three and a half miles east of Carson, and on the line of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad. Empire is pre-eminently a milling town. Here are located the Mexican, Morgan, Brunswick, and Merrimac Mills, all first-class silver reduction works. The town is in Ormsby County, and contains about 700 inhabitants. Each year thousands of cords of wood floated down the Carson River from Alpine County, California, are taken out here. Formerly no fewer than 150,000 cords of wood came down to this town in the drives of a single season. On account of these wood drives Empire was jockularly termed the “seaport” of Nevada. The wood “drives” and the landing of them for a time each year gave employment to a great number of men and teams.
The town contains a number of handsome residences and a few good public buildings.