In theory, a town should be able to thrive anywhere in the world, so long as there's enough water to sustain it, right? That's what Harry L. Pierce wanted to prove in 1909, by creating a 40,000 acre, 10,000 population city in the middle of the Nevada desert, but getting the water out there turned out to be a whole different problem.

Operating with the Pacific Reclamation Company of New York City, advertising an already thriving city with orchards and farms, and partnered with the Mormon Church, Pierce was even quick to secure a railroad contract with the Southern Pacific Railroad to have a train line to the city built within the first year of its life.

The nearby Bishop Creek was dammed using rubble from the 1906 San Fransisco Earthquake, and water diverted to the town. The town began to flourish, but ranchers downstream, now deprived of the water they relied on, sued the Pacific Reclamation Company. The company was forced to limit Metropolis' water consumption, and the town began to dry up. Famine, disease, and infestation of wild animals tool its toll on the town until fire finally gave it a death blow.

Now, even most of the streets have disappeared beneath the dust and sagebrush, but the Lincoln Hotel and the old Metropolis Schoolhouse ruins have become iconic among the ghost towns of the west. The arch for the school still stands as a grave stone for this ambitious town.

Metropolis is located in Elko County, Nevada, a few miles north of Wells.