By 1880, as Comstock ore dwindled, the men who founded the Virginia and Truckee Railroad and owned most of the mills on the Comstock sought to restore their high profits by tapping mining bonanzas in the southern deserts. They planned a mining railroad from the V&T at Mound House to the Colorado River in Arizona, the Carson and Colorado Railroad. Rails passed through Dayton in November 1880, and in 1881 the first depot was erected there. Mining developments then drew the railroad away from Colorado to Owens Valley, ending at Deeler, California, in July 1883. Rail traffic boomed in the 1880s, but by 1900 profits declined and the line was sold. In 1905 the Hazen Cutoff connected to the Transcontinental Railroad, bypassing the line from Churchill to Mound House and hurting Dayton. Segments were abandoned over the years, with the last remnant in Owens Valley running until 1960. Use of the Dayton Depot diminished after the 1905 bypass, and the line through Dayton was completely abandoned in 1934. The depot became a private residence, and in the 1950s it was moved to the corner with Main Street to make way for Highway 50E. Lyon County purchased the depot in 2007 using federal highway funds secured by the Historical Society of Dayton Valley, which also became its steward. Today it is one of only three original Carson and Colorado passenger depots remaining and the only one in Nevada.