Nevada Railway is situated on “America’s Loneliest Road.” Dirt the Railway Cat is a cat that can be found right there.
So, how did a filthy cat-like Dirt become so popular in the media? True, he has distinct markings, but he always gives the impression of having spent the entire day on the rails with the rest of the railway staff!
The truth is that Dirt’s eternal home is the East Ely Railroad’s engine building. He was born to a stray mama cat that walked into the station more than 11 years ago. His mother gave birth to her kittens under one of the trains a long time ago. To be accurate, it was a rotating snowplow built in 1907.
The mom and the rest of Dirt’s siblings were gone, but this one kitten was left alone and afraid to leave. As a result, the train workers decided to place a tin of tuna on a chair for the lonely kitty every night. Dirt eventually grew more confident and friendly as time went on!
Dirt had a lot of fun rolling around on the engine house’s dirt floors and climbing through the coal trees on the steam-powered train. This is how he got his moniker, DIRT!
Of course, the name, like the coal, stayed. Dirt used to be an orange and white cat, but his white fur became discolored with gray spots after he started rolling in the dirt and climbing on the railway.
Dirt also learned not to quit cleaning himself at a young age. Perhaps we wanted to resemble some of his human coworkers a little more?
“Railroading was the second most dangerous job in the world when our trains were created. Mining was the country’s most dangerous employment, and we were a copper mining railroad doing the country’s first and second most dangerous occupations in the same place.
Millions of tons of rock were moved by train 100 years ago to be melted down and turned into copper, which was used to power the world. When you look at ancient photographs of those men, you can tell they have stories to tell by the expression in their eyes. Dirt has the same expression when you gaze into his eyes.” – said one of the crew members.
Dirt eventually had her own litter of kittens. Like her, most of them were orange and white. These kittens were eventually gathered and adopted off to their own forever homes. Dirt, on the other hand, stayed with her gang!
When the museum began to employ its own social media push, Dirt, like other animal social media sensations, attracted a lot of attention. Dirt became the star she was meant to be when a photographer named Steve Crise stepped in and captured some fantastic images of her!
