Nevada's earliest maps show Walker Lake. Jedediah Smith, first American into Nevada, passed near here in 1827 during his remarkable trip across the state. Peter Skene Ogden was here in 1829, then Fremont in 1845 with his guide, Joseph Walker, for whom the lake is named.

Until its creation in 1911, Mineral County was part of Esmeralda. The first county seat was at Aurora, but it was moved to Hawthorne in 1883, the year after the Carson and Colorado Railroad was built. The county had many well-known mining towns, Aurora, Belleville, Candelaria, Rawhide and others.