Metropolis, Nevada is a ghost town in Elko County, Nevada, 12 mi (19 km) northwest of Wells. During the early twentieth century, many homesteaders attempted to farm in the Great Basin, especially in western Utah but also in northeastern Nevada. Creating the town of Metropolis was the project of an eastern businessman, Harry L. Pierce of Leominster, Massachusetts, and of investors from both Massachusetts and Salt Lake City. During the second decade of the twentieth century, Pierce's Pacific Reclamation Company attempted to make the optimistically named Metropolis the center of a huge farming district.