Wabuska (the Washo Indian term for White Grass) was first established in the early 1870's as a station on the stage and freight road from Wadsworth on the Central Pacific to the roaring mining camps of Aurora, Bodie, Candelaria, Columbia and Belleville.

In 1881, the town served as the principal Mason Valley supply and distribution center on the newly constructed narrow-gauge Carson and Colorado Railroad. The railroad was purchased and standard- gauged by the Southern Pacific in the period 1900-1905. 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 1920's.