Wabuska

Wabuska began in the early 1870s as a freight stop on the road into Mason Valley, with a post office opened in 1874. The narrow-gauge Carson and Colorado Railroad reached it in 1881 and made it the valley's main supply and shipping point—the place where Mason Valley's ranchers and the surrounding mines sent and received their goods. A general store, a restaurant, and a hotel for railway workers grew up around the siding. The rail traffic eventually faded, but the name endures on the map of northern Mason Valley, a reminder of how track made towns.

What the plaque says

Wabuska (perhaps a Washoe Indian term, for white grass) was first established in the early 1870s as a station on the stage and freight road from Wadsworth on the Central Pacific to the roaring mining camps of Aurora, Bodie, Candaleria, Columbus, and Bellville. In 1881, the town served as the principal Mason Valley supply and distribution center on the newly constructed narrow gauge Carson and Colorado Railroad. Southern Pacific purchased the railroad and converted it to standard gauge at the beginning of the twentieth century. Tonopah and Goldfield mining booms greatly increased freight and passenger traffic. When copper was discovered in Mason Valley, the town became the northern terminus of the new Nevada Copper Belt Railroad, built 1909-1911. Wabuska waned with declining mining activity in the 1920s.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Buckland’s Station — 11 mi
• Desert Well Station (Overland Mail and Stage Station) — 18 mi
• Dayton — 23 mi
• Dayton Chinatown — 23 mi