This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Surnames: Walsh McBride
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/UQB.2ACE/32
Message Board Post:
Last year I saw a query seeking information about Mina, NV and a Charles McBride. I can
no longer locate the query, but here is the info I finally received from my grandfather
who was born there:
"Mina was established in 1906 by the Southern Pacific Railroad as a railroad terminal
and division point connecting its branch line from Hazen with the Tonapah and Goldfield
Railroad and its narrow gauge line terminating at Mojave, CA. It was originally called
Terminal because it was the terminus of 3 railway lines. Mina means mine in Spanish.
The Southern Pacific Railroad stationed a Roadmaster, Trainmaster and Master Mechanic in
Mina. It built a roundhouse, passenger depot, freight depot and 14 residences for its key
employees. It was the town's major employer. Charles McBride was a railroad
official. I [my grandfather] went to school with his daughter Louise.
Mina is not a ghost town. It is a town in economic decline since the railroad left. It
still has a year 2000 census population of 350, an elementary school, a post office, a
grocery store. John Herbert Walsh was the Deputy Sheriff of Mina from 1927 to 1937.
The major forms of recreation during my childhood were baseball, ballroom dancing,
gambling, swimming at Sodaville, recreational bridge and the weekly movie.
The Episcopal Church burned down as did the Hotel Mina and the American Legion hall.
The weekly newspaper was called the Western Nevada Miner before it ceased publication. US
Higway 95 is the Main street of town.