As the Southern Pacific Company straightened and realigned old Central Pacific trackage across Nevada, it moved its shops and headquarters from Wadsworth to this location in 1904 and established a new division point and town. The railroad set aside five city blocks for employee residences, with each railroader paying $1.00 for a lot, building a house within 120 days, and filing a deed of ownership. The company also cut employees’ Wadsworth houses into sections, loaded them onto train cars, and shipped them free of charge to Sparks, moving employees, their houses, and personal belongings on July 4, 1904. Originally known as East Reno, New Town Tract, Harriman, and earlier as Harriman alone, Sparks came into official existence in 1904 and was incorporated by the state legislature in 1905, taking its name from John Sparks, a rancher and governor of Nevada. During the steam era, Sparks had one of the largest roundhouses in the world and served as the western Nevada base for a large fleet of steam locomotives, especially the cab-in-front articulated type known as Mallets, which hauled freight and passengers over the steep Sierra Nevada grades between Roseville, California, and Sparks.