Mina, Nevada: The Copper Queen's Town

The small desert crossroads of Mina carries the name of one of Nevada's most remarkable prospectors. In nineteen oh five, the Carson and Colorado Railway, a Southern Pacific line, needed a freight and passenger terminal in the Soda Spring Valley. Officials decided to name it after Ferminia Sarras, a landowner and prospector in central Nevada.

She was known across the region as the Copper Queen. The railroad shortened her name to Mina, and the town appeared almost overnight. It soon had a roundhouse, machine shops, and a depot.

The mines played out, the railroad departed, and Mina shrank to a quiet stop on US Ninety-Five. A little over a hundred people still live here, in the shadow of a woman who worked the desert on her own terms.