Directory:Nevada

Nevada is a state of the western United States. It was admitted as the 36th state in 1864. Part of the area ceded by Mexico to the United States in 1848, it became a separate territory in 1861 after an influx of settlers drawn by the discovery (1859) of the Comstock Lode. Carson City is the capital and Las Vegas the largest city. Population: 2,410,000.

History

Early Exploration

In the 1770s several Spanish explorers came near the area of present-day Nevada but it was not until half a century later that fur traders venturing into the Rocky Mts. publicized the region. Jedediah S. Smith came across S Nevada on his way to California in 1827. The following year Peter Skene Ogden, a Hudson's Bay Company man trading out of the Oregon country, entered NE Nevada. Joseph Walker in 1833–34 followed the Humboldt R. and crossed the Sierra Nevada to California.

Later many wagon trains crossed Nevada on the way to California, especially during and after the gold rush of 1849. Travelers going to California over the Old Spanish Trail also crossed S Nevada, and Las Vegas became a station on the route. Guided by Kit Carson, John C. Frémont had explored much of the state between 1843 and 1845, and his reports gave the federal government its first comprehensive information on the area, which the United States acquired from Mexico in the Mexican War. These accounts may have aided Brigham Young when he was shepherding the Mormons west to build a new home in the mountains and valleys of Utah.

The Lure of Minerals

When in 1850 the federal government set up the Utah Territory, almost all of Nevada was included except the southern tip, which was then part of New Mexico. Non-Mormons had been averse to settling in Mormon-dominated territory, but after gold was found in 1859 non-Mormons did come into the area. A rush from California began and multiplied manyfold as news of the Comstock Lode silver strike spread. Most of the newcomers preferred to consider themselves as still being within California, and a political question was added to the general upheaval. Meanwhile, miners came helter-skelter, raising camps that grew overnight into such booming and raucous places as Virginia City.

Partly to impose order on the lawless, wide-open mining towns, Congress made Nevada into a territory in 1861 as migrant prospectors and settlers poured in. The territory was then enlarged by increasing its eastern boundary by one degree of longitude in 1862. It was rushed into statehood in 1864, with Carson City as its capital. President Lincoln (in order to get more votes to pass the Thirteenth Amendment) had signed the proclamation even though the territory did not actually meet the population requirement for statehood.

In 1866 Nevada acquired its present-day boundaries when the southern tip was added and more eastern land was gained from Utah. Communications with the East, which had been briefly maintained by the Pony Express, were firmly established by the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. The state continued to be dependent on its precious ores, and its fate was affected by new strikes such as the big bonanza (1873), which enriched the silver kings, J. W. Mackay and J. G. Fair, and the discoveries of silver deposits at Tonopah (1900), of copper at Ely, and of gold at Goldfield (1902).

Resting on such an undiversified base, the economy was seriously shaken by mining depressions and by fluctuations in the market prices of the minerals. Naturally the political leaders of Nevada were vociferous in favor of the free coinage of silver. From the 1870s to the 1890s the people of Nevada were strong supporters of the cheap money advocates and were thus linked with the discontented farmers of the Midwest in favoring the Bland-Allison Act and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act (although both were considered insufficient measures). They enthusiastically endorsed the silver program of William Jennings Bryan and the Democrats in 1896, and even after its resounding defeat they continued to clamor for government purchase and coinage of silver.

The Federal Government and Population Growth

In the 20th cent. the federal government has played a major role in Nevada's development. Some federal works, like the Newlands Irrigation Project (1907)—the nation's first federal irrigation project—and the Hoover Dam (completed in 1936), have been generally welcomed. Others have aroused opposition. The Atomic Energy Commission began conducting nuclear tests in Nevada at Frenchman Flat and Yucca Flat in the 1950s. In 1987 the Department of Energy chose Yucca Mountain for the storage of high-level nuclear wastes; the state has continued to fight that decision. Federal activities in general gave impetus to the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, which demanded that the U.S. government give Nevada lands back to Nevadans.

Nevada's population, sparse since the time when the Paiute and other tribes eked out a meager living from the land and animals, increased by more than 1200% between 1950 and 2000. By far the fastest-growing U.S. state, Nevada is increasingly home to retirees and to workers in new, especially technological, industries.

Trivia

• In 1899 Charles Fey invented a slot machine named the Liberty Bell. The device became the model for all slots to follow.

• The Reno Ice Pavilion is a 16,000-square-foot rink once dismantled and moved to Reno from Atlantic City, New Jersey.

• Bugsy Siegel named his Las Vegas casino "The Flamingo" for the long legs of his showgirl sweetheart, Virginia Hill.

• The Imperial Palace on the Las Vegas strip is the nation's first off-airport airline baggage check-in service.

• Bertha was a performing elephant that entertained for 37 years at John Ascuaga's Nugget casino located in Sparks. She was 48 years old when she died.

• There were 16,067 slots in Nevada in 1960. In 1999 Nevada had 205,726 slot machines, one for every 10 residents.

• While Samuel Clemens took the penname "Mark Twain" as a reporter working for the "Territorial Enterprise," he began his writing career as a reporter in the Midwest some years before moving to Virginia City in 1862.

• Pershing County located in Cowboy Country features the only round courthouse in the United States. Update: {the Bucks County Courthouse in Pennsylvania, constructed in 1960, is considered round. Now there are two.}

• In 1931 the Pair-O-Dice Club was the first casino to open on Highway 91, the future Las Vegas Strip.

• In March 1931 Governor Fred Balzar signed into law the bill legalizing gambling in the state.

• Once the highest concrete dam in the world, Hoover Dam offers guided tours and a museum of artifacts of the construction and its workers.

• In Death Valley, the Kangaroo Rat can live its entire life without drinking a drop of liquid.

• Construction of the Nevada State Capitol located in Carson City was proposed on April 14, 1870. Carson City is one of the smallest state capitals in the country. Update: {With current growth, may now be 14th smallest.}

• The ghost town of Rhyolite still pays homage to early pioneers and their dreams. Remains of the depot, glass house, bank and other buildings are on display.

• In Tonopah the young Jack Dempsey was once the bartender and the bouncer at the still popular Mispah Hotel and Casino. Famous lawman and folk hero Wyatt Earp once kept the peace in the town.

• The first recorded white men in the Elko area were fur trappers who trapped beaver in the area starting in 1828.

• The first community college in Nevada opened in Elko in 1967. Great Basin College was the forerunner of a statewide system associated with the University of Nevada.

• Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park is constructed around the fossilized remains of ancient, mysterious reptiles within a well-preserved turn-of-the-century Nevada mining camp.

• The ichthyosaur is Nevada's official state fossil.

• Austin's oldest church, St. Augustine, requires the establishment's bells in the tower to be rung by pulling a rope located in the men's restroom.

• Nevada takes its name from a Spanish word meaning snow-clad.

• Most of the state is desert but the Sierra Nevada mountain range near Reno and the Ruby Mountains near Elko has snow for half the year.

• Locals use terms like The Sagebrush State, The Silver State, and The Battle Born State as nicknames for Nevada.

• Nevada is the seventh largest state with 110,540 square miles, 85% of them federally owned including the secret Area 51 near the little town of Rachel.

• Nevada has more mountain ranges than any other state, with its highest point at the 13,145 foot top of Boundary Peak near the west-central border.

• Grammatically, the proper term for the mountains is the Sierra Nevada not the Sierras. Robert Conrad almost called one of his television series High Sierra Rangers but changed it to High Mountain Rangers.

• Wayne Newton owns a home in the Las Vegas area, and it was a real location for the film "Vegas Vacation."

• The longest running show in Las Vegas is the Follies Bergere at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino. It opened in 1959. The production numbers in "Showgirls" were written specifically for the Paul Verhoeven film and shot in the Horizon Hotel at Lake Tahoe. The bulk of the movie used locations located at the Luxor and the Forum Shops at Caesars.

• You see the name Hughes on numerous locations and developments. Howard Hughes bought up considerable Nevada property before he died in 1976, including the following hotels and casinos: Castaways, Desert Inn, Frontier, Landmark, Sands, Silver Slipper, and Harold's Club. Part of the Hughes legend was recounted in Jonathan Demme's "Melvin and Howard."

• Misfits Flats off Highway 50 near Stagecoach takes its name from the John Huston film. Huston used the privately owned area to film a complicated wild horse round up with Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift and Eli Wallach.

• Nevada is the largest gold-producing state in the nation. It is second in the world behind South Africa.

• The state has about 50,000 miles of paved road, much of it featured in films like "Vanishing Point," "Breakdown," "Rainman," and "Lethal Weapon 4."

• Hoover Dam, the largest single public works project in the history of the United States, contains 3.25 million cubic yards of concrete, which is enough to pave a two-lane highway from San Francisco to New York. The dam face was used in an amazing stunt for Roland Emerich's "Universal Soldier" and has been seen in such films as "Viva Las Vegas" and "Fools Rush In."

• The Virginia City steam train still operates and was featured in the Imax project "Mark Twain's America." The "steam train" is a modern-day tourist train and does not link back to the original Virginia & Truckee RR which had its last run to Virginia City in 1938.

• The state's Highway 50, known as the Loneliest Highway in America, received its name from "Life" magazine in 1986. There are few road stops in the 287 mile stretch between Ely and Fernley.

• Frank Sinatra once owned the Cal-Neva at Lake Tahoe's Crystal Bay. It is possible to stand in both Nevada and California inside Cal-Neva's building.

• Nevada's smallest incorporated city is Gabbs located about 140 miles southeast of Reno.Update: {Gabbs, what was Nevada's smallest city was disincorporated on May 8, 2001}

• Nevada tribes include the Shoshone, Washo and Paiute. Tribal lands have been used in such film projects as "Misery," and "The Greatest Story Ever Told."

• The Las Vegas Strip is actually under jurisdiction of Clark County and can be seen in just about any film set in the city.

• Nevada is the only state with an entire museum devoted to the life and time of entertainer Liberace.

• Writer and commentator Lowell Thomas called Elko the last cowtown in America. Elko is the home of the annual Cowboy Poetry Gathering.

• Area 51 is acknowledged with State Route 375 officially christened "The Extraterrestrial Highway" in a ceremony featuring the director and cast of the movie "Independence Day." The highway runs between Alamo and Tonopah. There is a tiny restaurant stop at the Little Ale' Inn at Rachel.

• The only Nevada lake with an outlet to the sea is man made Lake Mead.

• Camels were used as pack animals in Nevada as late as 1870.

• To drive from Los Angeles, California to Reno, Nevada the direction traveled is to the west.

• Construction worker Hard Hat's were first invented specifically for workers on the Hoover Dam in 1933.

• Las Vegas has more hotel rooms than any other place on earth.

• Las Vegas has the majority of the largest hotels in the world.

• The longest morse code telegram ever sent was the Nevada state constitution. Sent from Carson City to Washington D.C. in 1864. The transmission must have taken several hours.

• Virginia City is the home of the Nevada Gambling Museum.

External links

• Nevada.gov - Official website.