Mina is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) in Mineral County in west-central

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

, United States. It is located along

U.S. Route 95 U.S. Route 95 (US 95) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway System, United States Highway in the western United States. It travels through the states of Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Idaho, staying inland ...

(38° 23' 25" N 118° 06' 30" W) at an elevation of . The population at the 2020 census was 127.

History

Mina was founded as a railroad town in 1905 and was named for Ferminia Sarras, a large landowner and famed prospector known as the "Copper Queen". The

Carson and Colorado Railway The Carson and Colorado Railway was a U.S. narrow gauge railroad that ran from Mound House, Nevada, to Keeler, California, below the Cerro Gordo Mines. It was incorporated on May 10, 1880, as the Carson and Colorado ''Railroad'', and constru ...

, a division of

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...

, had a station in the town. The railroad is long gone – the last section between Thorne and Mina shut down in 1985 – but at one time a local shuttle called the "Slim Princess" allowed Native Americans to ride free of charge atop the railcars, and passengers and crew would shoot wild game from open windows. The train moved slowly enough that hunters were able to retrieve their game and reboard.

Gee Jon Gee Jon (; 1895 – February 8, 1924) was a Chinese national who was the first person in the United States to be executed by lethal gas. A member of the Hip Sing Tong criminal society from San Francisco, California, Gee was sentenced to dea ...

and Hughie Sing were convicted of the August 27, 1921, murder in Mina of Tom Quong Kee. Gee Jon, a 29-year-old member of the

Hop Sing Tong The Hop Sing Tong is a Chinese American Tong that was established in 1875. Branches The Hop Sing Tong has several branches in the United States. Branches include: * Boise, Idaho - 706 Front Street ''(defunct)'' * Denver, Colorado - 4130 E Colfa ...

, became the first person to be executed by lethal gas. The execution was at the Nevada State Prison on February 8, 1924.

Name

Some sources state that the name is derived from the Spanish word meaning "mine". Other sources state that John C. Fulton (or John M. Fulton), division general manager for the

, named the town after Fermina Sarras (or Sarrias), a Nicaraguan woman who was operating nearby copper prospects. Initially a railroad station was intended to be at Sodaville, but agreement between the railroad and land speculators could not be reached, so Mina, Nevada, was platted two miles north of Sodaville.

Geography

Mina is located in the Soda Spring Valley of eastern Mineral County along

, southeast of

Hawthorne Hawthorne often refers to the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne may also refer to: Places Australia *Hawthorne, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane Canada * Hawthorne Village, Ontario, a suburb of Milton, Ontario United States * Hawt ...

and northwest of Tonopah. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Mina CDP has an area of , of which , or 0.04%, are water.

Climate

The Köppen Climate System classifies the weather in this area as

semi-arid A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a aridity, dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below Evapotranspiration#Potential evapotranspiration, potential evapotranspiration, but not as l ...

, abbreviated ''BSk''. This climate type occurs primarily on the periphery of true deserts in low-latitude semiarid

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without closed forests except near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the tropical and subtropica ...

regions.Climate Summary for Mina, Nevada
/ref>

Demographics

References

External links

{{Mineral County, Nevada 1905 establishments in Nevada Census-designated places in Mineral County, Nevada Populated places established in 1905