V&T sold the C&C to SP just a couple of months before the Tonopah discoveries in 1900. D. O. Mills supposedly quipped the comment in a mid 1880's inspection "we either built this road 300 miles too long or 300 years too soon." They soon regretted the sale as SP created the Nevada & California Railroad and in 1905 broad gauged the whole line to Mina including Churchill to Moundhouse, but they also built the Hazen Cutoff, by-passing most of traffic to the Sparks-Ogden main line. Tonopah & Goldfield ores were initially processed in Virginia City and on the Carson River but that traffic dried up by 1907 or so. The standard gauge connection thru Dayton to Moundhouse remained on the ground until about 1934. SP even kicked around the idea of buying the V&T in 1900 too, but the price wasn't right. By 1923 the Ammo Dump at Hawthorne was established and even if the V&T had kept the line its likely it would have eventually gone to the SP anyway.