Viewland is the low summit between Mud Flat and the Honey Lake Valley. From this vantage point, emigrants in the 1850s, who had finally traversed the Nevada desert, obtained their first view of the Honey Lake Valley and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The Nevada-California-Oregon Railroad established a station there named Murray, but when the line was broad gauged by the Southern Pacific Railroad it became their Viewland. The siding was important for sheep growers who, after shearing, would haul the wool there to be shipped out by rail.