Caliente was first settled as a ranch that furnished hay for the mining camps of Pioche and Delamar. In 1901, the Harriman-Clark right-of-way battle ended when rancher Charles Culverwell, with the aid of a broad-gauge shotgun, allowed one railroad grade to be built through his lush meadows. Harriman and Clark had battled for eleven years by building side-by-side grades while ignoring court orders and federal marshals. A population boom began with an influx of railroad workers, most of them immigrants from Austria, Japan, and Turkey, and racial conflicts were frequent because they did not understand the laws and customs of the land. A tent city was settled in August, 1903. With the completion of the Los Angeles, San Pedro and Salt Lake Railroad in 1905, Caliente became a division point. In 1906-07, the Caliente and Pioche Railroad, now the Union Pacific, was built between Pioche and the main line at Caliente. The large Neo-Mission type depot was built in 1923, serving as a civic center as well as a hotel.