Hawthorne

Present Mineral Co. Seat -- Former Esmeralda Co. Seat<br><br> Townsite selected in 1880 by H. M. Yerington, president of the Carson and Colorado Railroad Co. as a division and distribution site for the new railroad.<br><br> The location was adjacent to the important Knapp's Station and Ferry Landing on the busy Esmeralda Toll Road from Wadsworth to Candelaria<br> Radiating roads ran to all of the surrounding mining areas.<br><br> Yerington named the new town Hawthorne after a lumberman friend in Carson City and on April 14, 1881, the first train arrived, loaded with prospective buyers for the new town lots.<br><br> In 1883, Hawthorne took the Esmeralda County seat from declining Aurora but later lost it to booming Goldfield. In 1911, it again became a county seat, this time for the new Mineral County.<br><br> In 1926, a destructive munitions explosion in the east caused the military to select Hawthorne for a new site. In 1928, Governor Balzar, former citizen of Hawthorne, turned the first shovel of dirt and dedicated the new depot which officially opened in 1930.<br><br> Hawthorne is a central point for desert travelers and for the vacation activity on nearby Walker Lake.