Ghost town beauty under Pilot Mountains
This is a returned letter from Silver Gulch Mining Company that used to operate in Mina Nevada. This one is from 1920! More than 100 years ago!
Yes Mina Nevada used to be a prominent mining town. Now it’s considered a ghost town. But considering the value of commodities increasing, I wander if brighter future lies ahead for this beautiful little town of Mina Nevada!
Mina Nevada was a home to salt miners too. Salt mining was happening not too far from Mina Nevada. Down few miles south on highway 95 is Rhodes Salt Marsh. Here is where the salt was mined.
Rhodes Nevada that is very close to Mina Nevada is a former rail station and Post Office on the Carson Colorado railway.
Based on Wikipedia:
Until 1862, salt was transported from San Francisco to Nevada at a cost of US$150 (equivalent to $4,071 in 2021)/ton.
In 1862, salt was mined in nearby Rhodes Salt Marsh and transported using imported camels at half that cost.
In 1863, salt was discovered at Sand Springs Marsh and found to be cheaper than salt from Rhodes Salt Marsh. In 1869, salt from Rhodes Salt Marsh was transported to Columbus, Nevada and Belmont. In 1874 and in 1882, one ton per day of borax was being produced.
The Post Office was called Rhodes from October 1893 until October 1907 and then Dea from October 1907 until May 1908.
In 1930, a sodium plant was built at Rhodes Marsh. By November 1932, Rhodes Marsh was producing one train car load per day and employing about 100 men.
In about 1934, Germany started shipping sodium sulphate as ballast, which caused the price to drop, making mining at Rhodes Marsh unprofitable. In 1948, mining of sodium sulphate resumed, with the output going to a Florida paper manufacturer. At that time, all 30 of the employees were residents of Mina, Nevada
And that’s how Mina Nevada lost it’s other 30 people. And kept slowly over time losing its population. But it looks like that trend is reversing now.
Here is the pieced out Mina Nevada map from June 1917 created by Royal & Queen Inc Cos.
Some of these buildings are still standing in Mina today. And it is so fun to point to them and say: “ This was a meat market before or Ice House.” “Here is the foundation that used to be Mina Railroad Depot. Or, “here is where the particular saloon was.”
Too bad I don’t have the map like this from the opposite side – west side of the railroad tracks where Mina Nevada Roundhouse used to stand or Francine’s Lucky Strike saloon used to be. Maybe sometime in the future I will find it. And I’m sure I will eventually and share it with you.
It’s so great to see this historic map from 1917 of what was where then in Mina Nevada. And it does really seam that it was a booming mining town then and had great community of people, shops, bars and saloons that served the miners and other western folks and dreamers.
Based on photos I see and their description I believe Mina Nevada had another railroad depot.
So this building on the photo above is a Railroad Depot in Mina Nevada. The photo was taken on June 1951.
We already have several photographs of the main Mina Railroad Depot. You can see it here and another one here. And it looks like this was the other one. At least it was called so.
It captures the Mina Nevada Railroad Depot with locomotive number 5259 which was called the Cow and locomotive 5502 which was called the Calf. These locomotives are standing on the Southern Pacific main line.
Cow and Calf! How cool and cute! My kids are going to love that!
I love this photo and it is so great to see the history of Mina Nevada and what was here on this spot in the past.
One thing I really remember from my last visit to Mina Nevada was this feeling that something huge is standing above me. There it is, always there, not too close but it felt it was right there next to me. The magnificent Pilot Peak, the highest peak of Pilot Mountains. What a beauty!
Pilot Peak stands 2708 meters 8885 feet tall. That height maybe doesn’t seem that tall but for me it is. I’m from Eastern European country of Slovakia. Slovakia does have beautiful magnificent Rocky Mountains called High Tatar’s and the highest peak is actually shorter than Minas Pilot Peak. Gerlach which is the highest peak of High Tatras is 2656 meters tall which is 22 meters shorter than Pilot Peak.
That is significant! Gerlach is huge! It looks big when you look at it. Pilot Peak is huge when you look at it! And it is beautiful! It’s standing there with pride. It ads the magnificent feeling to the whole town of Mina sitting in the valley just under it.
There are several functioning mines in the close vicinity to Pilot Peak in the Pilot mountains. These mines mine for turquoise, silver, gold and most likely other stuff. I talked to a local nice lady that has little side hustle mining gold in this area. How cool! Mining is back! I love it!
Off roading is very popular in Pilot mountains. People come from all around the US to park their trailers in Mina Nevada with their four wheeler toys and go for it! I want to do it too! And I will eventually. Riding around these beautiful desert mountains and exploring the old mines. How fun! It’s also a great way to go back in time to true American mining history.
Nature around Mina Nevada is beautiful! It’s not the typical greenery you see on many American countrysides. It’s different. It’s unique and interesting. The wast desert around Mina creates the feel of space and freedom. And the Pilot Peak mountain just above it gives this town a significance and character that I love so much!
Here is a new look at historic Mina Nevada’s Southern Pacific Railroad train station depot. A new look to the past:
I already have few of these old historic and awesome photos of Mina Nevada railroad depot on this website. But this one is a beauty on its own! And I believe this one is much older than the others.
Look at the organized uncluttered railroad depot front yard with the parcel and luggage carriages next to it. The two houses behind look almost like some kind of store fronts. And if you dig deeper you’ll find detailed images of these houses on this website.
Anyway, I love finding new images and materials of this beautiful town of Mina Nevada. And the search never ends. New stuff always pops up from somewhere and I try to capture it. Always! That’s why I really created this website after all. Simply to capture and make available these historic material of this beautiful town in Nevada.
More and more you can find about Mina Nevada town on internet. It is getting discovered again. Like in the old times when silver was found in this area by miners. But now the reason is the freedom from the cities, the remoteness and serenity that’s becoming the attraction.
The small town of Mina, Nevada is settled far from the hustle and bustle of large cities. Coming here feels like coming to a different world. World of peace and quite. And that’s what I believe people are seeking these days.
Life is short. Our time is limited. And we humans crave the meaning and significance. We get lost in big city. Our time is spend fast as it seams. Not in Mina. Time slows down. You’re one of few here. And that makes you feel like you took a grip of your life back. You slowed the time for yourself. You size every moment in here!
Now it is impossible to live here in Mina for many people. People have jobs. Their kids go to schools and do countless of activities city provides. So we are sort of trapped in a big city living our life we created for ourselves. I understand. I’m one of them. And that’s just fine. Or is it?
The way we can get the benefits from town like Mina Nevada is to escape the hustle and bustle and come here to recreate at least. Maybe we come here for weekend get away trips. Is that unusual way to spend a weekend? I think so. But why not? There plenty of opportunity to camp here or park your RV here and enjoy the quite beautiful desert environment.
And lots of people already do that. They come to Mina Nevada to enjoy it, admire it and learn the history of it. I believe the pandemic started all that and it is not coming back to the way it was. People learned the value of open space and quite. They discovered the value of unusual uncrowned vacation. And who can blame them for it. It’s only natural to us human beings.
That’s right everyone! Mina Nevada has airport! How cool is that! Now, it is not large commercial airport where you can land jumbo jets but, it is still an airport. And a very cool one!
This Mina Nevada Airport is a public use airport and is owned by Bureau of Land Management. So I believe if I or you owned the right kind of airplane and I knew how to fly it, I would be able to land here. And off course take off from here. Now you might say, off course Milan, airports are for landing and taking off. Yes exactly!!!
Suddenly, as many say Mina Nevada is in the middle of nowhere, it is not true! I believe you can fly here from San Francisco or Los Angeles in most likely under 2 hours. And flying from Reno or Las Vegas here will take way under 1 hour. That is so awesome!
Now imagine you are small sports air plain flying enthusiast and you’re looking for fun get away place to buy. Maybe little house with small air plain hangar in the backyard is the coolest place you should have.
Park your plain into your hangar anytime you fly here from Las Vegas for a weekend. Or just park it in the backyard like you’d park your boat. And when it’s time to go home again, you hop into your plain instead of a car. You drive yourself to the Mina Airport and fly home. Yes people do it! They just drive their small plain from their home to the airport and take off! There is even book writen about it! Check it out. It’s called Heart Of The Desert by Jack Randy Martin. It’s a fiction book about Mina Nevada and the main character owner of a shop in Mina owns an air plain. And he flies in and out of Mina all the time while his plain is parked in his hangar next to his house there. So cool! And so possible!
Mina Nevada airport has almost 5 star review ranking and is fun spot to land small sport airplanes. Now I’m not a pilot or hobby flying enthusiast so please check all specifications before landing here and don’t rely on my info in here. I’m very excited for Mina having this small airport indeed!
Mina Nevada being still considered a ghost town with an airport makes my mind wander into many directions. No! This is not a ghost town. It’s a small town where incredible opportunities are possible. It’s a town that wasn’t discovered yet with all its amenities, location and opportunities. This town will grow in the future. And it’s Mina Airport that will help it grow too. But do we really want Mina town to grow? I think little growth and little bit more care would help this beautiful town a lot!
Related articles:
Vacation get away in Mina Nevada
I had a conversation with a local guy in Mina Nevada few years ago about some interesting facts about this beautiful town.
One of the the interesting things he mentioned was the geothermal activity that is happening under Mina Nevada. He was serious about potentially trying to tap into this hot springs that are there in Mina. I find it fascinating that Mina Nevada has this incredible resource under it.
Often I dream about creating little hot springs resort there or maybe someone should. And I think someone will do it eventually. Why not? I think it would be very cool!
Maybe Mina Nevada will in the future become the famous hot springs town where people will go and relax in this beautiful desert mountain environment and enjoy what nature provides naturally for us people. Let’s keep dreaming!
Mina Nevada is a very small town. Some call it a ghost town. But I disagree! This town lives! And people live here.
Mina has 182 people according to world population review statistic. And just looking at the graph of population I believe Mina NV is growing! What do you think?
Considering what just happened over the last 2 years with pandemic and major population shift from cities to the more rural places, I believe Mina Nevada will grow in the future.
People need space. Living in big cities is not as attractive as it used to be. Everyone has access to internet these days. And working from home is becoming more and more common norm.
Mina Nevada is not too far from big cities like Reno or Sacramento. Even San Francisco Bay Area is only about 6 hours away from Mina.
Now imagine having your little personal piece of paradise far away from hustle and bustle and still being able to work and bring income from places like San Francisco.
I believe it is just a question of time when people discover this historic beautiful small mining town of Mina Nevada. And it will become great, unusually special vacation home town. I strongly believe that’s coming.
Beautiful far stretching vistas with desert plains and magnificent mountains makes this perfect oasis of peace, quite and freedom. And I believe every human being need this for rejuvenating and healing. The perfect balance we all seek!
Mina Nevada will grow in the future. It’s already growing. People see it’s beauty and true potential it really deserves. It is a perfectly placed far and not too far from everything that makes cities so great and so terrible at the same time. If you long for the city, just hop in the car and in few hours you can be there. The same applies if you want to escape the city. Just drive home to Mina!
More about Mina Nevada:
History of Mina Nevada in photographs