History of Nevada
Encyclopedia
Nevada
became the 36th state on October 31, 1864, after telegraphing the Constitution of Nevada
to the Congress
days before the November 8 presidential election (the largest and costliest transmission ever by telegraph). Statehood was rushed to help ensure three electoral votes for Abraham Lincoln
's reelection and add to the Republican congressional majorities.
Nevada's harsh but rich environment shaped its history and culture. Before 1858 small Mormon settlements along the Utah border sustained their communities through faith, but the secular western section stumbled along until the great silver strikes beginning in 1858 created boom towns and fabulous fortunes. After the beginning of the 20th century, profits declined while Progressive reformers sought to curb rampaging capitalism and its attendant miseries. They imagined a civilized Nevada of universities, lofty idealism, and social reform. But an economic bust during the 1910s and disillusionment from failures at social reform and a population decline of nearly one-fourth meant that by 1920 Nevada had degenerated into a "beautiful desert of buried hopes." The boom returned when big time gambling arrived in 1931, and with good transportation (especially to California metropolitan areas), the nation's easiest divorce laws, and a speculative get-rich-quick spirit, Nevada had a boom-and-bust economy that was mostly boom until the worldwide financial crisis of 2008 revealed extravagant speculation in housing and casinos on an epic scale.
topography, the "Nevada Basin
" physiographic region, and the central Nevada desert (e.g., the recession of the Pleistocene
Lake Lahontan
changed the Humboldt River
course), and Great Basin
. The Native American
tribes had inhabited Nevada for millennia before Euro-American
s arrived in the 18th century.
was the first European in the area, Jedediah Smith
entered the Las Vegas Valley in 1827, and Peter Skene Ogden
traveled the Humboldt River
in 1828. As part of the Mexican Cession
(1848) and the subsequent California Gold Rush
that used Emigrant Trail
s through the area, the state's area evolved first as part of the Utah Territory
, then the Nevada Territory
(March 2, 1861; named for the Sierra Nevada).
with Mexico in 1848. Mexico had never established any control in Nevada, but American mountain men were in Washoe (the early name for Nevada) as early as 1827. A permanent American presence began in 1851 when the Mormons set up way stations en route to the California gold fields. In the absence of any governmental authority, some 50 Mormons and Gentile prospectors and cattle ranchers drew up the "Washoe code" to deal with land claims; its coverage eventually covered other governmental issues. There still was no federal presence in the area so Mormon
-Gentile
relations worsened and petitions of complaint went to Washington. Gentiles sought annexation to California
. Utah Territory
countered this by incorporating the area as a county. When Federal troops were sent to Utah in 1857, the Mormons left Washoe. The Gentiles took over and launched a move for separate territorial status. The early 1860s saw the end of an Indian war, the great Comstock
mining boom of 1859 in Virginia City
and the coming of the Civil War. The provisional territorial government led to the creation of Nevada Territory by Congress in 1861. The pragmatic attempts to establish workable frontier institutions had failed and the paternalistic territorial system was welcomed.
convention (July 4–28) and a public vote on September 7 (the population of 6,857 in 1860 increased to 42,941 in 1870), although Nevada had far fewer than the 40,000 people usually required.
The University of Nevada
was founded in Elko
in 1874 and moved to Reno in 1885 (extension classes began at Las Vegas
in 1951).
) was created by the Hoover Dam
on the state's 1867 Colorado River
border (construction began in 1931). From 1930 to 2000, the Clark County
population grew from 8,532 to 1,375,765; while the Reno population
increased from 18,529 to 180,480.
discovery opened the era of silver mining in Nevada
, and attracted thousands of miners—most from California. It was discovered by James Finney in Carson County. Disputes over the legal limits of a claim soon went to court, as the Law of the Apex, used to determine those limits, was unworkable for the deep ore bodies in the Comstock. The legal and judicial system of Carson County was unprepared for the tremendous demands placed on it. Judges were underpaid and underqualified, bribery of witnesses and jurors was commonplace, vague record-keeping created nearly insurmountable difficulties with property titles, and evidence was often destroyed. Though workable mining laws still were needed, the resignation of the entire territorial supreme court in 1864 did cause litigation to stop and allowed mining work to resume.
The 1867 expansion of the state's southern boundary was prompted by the discovery of gold in the area since officials thought Nevada would be better able to oversee the expected gold rush. By 1872, Nevada mining was an industry of speculation and immense wealth. After 1870, however, the mining industry went into eclipse, as the state's Silverite
politicians worked to secure laws to require the federal government to purchase silver.
The discovery of silver and gold in 1900 near Tonopah set off a boom that ended Nevada's economic depression.
The operators used the best available technology to recover gold and silver from ore, but by modern standards there was much inefficiency and chemical pollution. Methods included the use of the arrastra
, the patio process
, the Freiberg process, and the Washoe pan process. Estimates of value lost through recovery processes ran as high as 25%. Mine operators sought improved technology, but were unwilling to wait years or decades for it to arrive. No one at the time understood the health problems such metals as mercury
could cause.
crossed the state in 1869, most town and mines were remote from it and required a network of wagon freight and stagecoaches. Numerous small companies supplied the horses, mules, and wagons for hauling borax and silver ore. Stagecoaches were notoriously uncomfortable across the roadless land, but were better than the alternatives and flourished until a railroad finally arrived. Hold-ups were rare, and usually involved petty theft since armed guards were an effective deterrent. Mail contracts kept stage lines afloat and allowed the emergence of a class of entrepreneurs who won contracts and subcontracted the actual work.
The Eureka and Palisade Railroad
was a narrow-gauge railroad ninety long built in 1875 to carry silver-lead ore from Eureka, Nevada, to the Southern Pacific Railroad
trunk line that ran through Palisade. Nevertheless, despite the determined and colorful management style of John Sexton, the line succumbed to the effects of flood, fire, competing road traffic, and dwindling amounts of ore extracted in Eureka. The rails and rolling stock of the last surviving narrow-gauge railroad in Nevada were removed in 1938.
Historic highways include the 1937 US 6 and 1919 US 50 (Lincoln Highway). The 1926 destination of the first air mail flight was Elko
. Interstate 15 in Nevada
was completed in 1974, while the Lovelock
bypass was the last completed section of Interstate 80 in Nevada
.
was a mining town in northern Nevada built when discovery of copper
, silver
, gold
, and lead brought entrepreneurs who opened mines and mills in the district. A diverse society of native-born Americans
, French
, Portuguese
, Paiutes, Chinese
, and other people came to Golconda to live and work. During 1898-1910, the town had a train depot, several hotels, a school, businesses, newspapers, and two brothels. Its population peaked at about six hundred in 1907-08. Although boosters predicted growth for Golconda, after 1910 the mines played out, leaving the region as an area of ranches and farms. Most of the town's buildings from its mining heyday are gone, and Golconda today is a minor stop on Interstate 80.
Tuscarora
was founded in Elko County after an expedition by trader William Heath discovered gold. As miners flocked to the town in 1867-70, a fort was built to offer protection from Indian raids and a water ditch was created to supply the town with water. Many Chinese men who had been employed by the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) relocated to the town and began placer mining. A second boom began following the discovery of silver in 1876-77.
A strike at Tonopah
(1900, silver) was followed by strikes in Goldfield
(1902–1919, gold) and Rhyolite
(1904–1911, gold). The strikes brought Nevada to the forefront of the nation again, just as the Comstock load in Virginia City, Nevada had in the late 1800's. While the Comstock made dozens of owners rich, the gold in Goldfield and the stock sold on speculation made two people exceedingly rich.
George S. Nixon and George Wingfield were worth $30 million after taking their Goldfield Consolidated Mining Company public in 1906 . The partner's had a loss the following year and Nixon's Nye County Bank struggled.
Wingfield, however, reaped an even greater fortune from real estate, especially after moving to Reno, Nevada. After gambling was legalized in 1931, Wingfield again had money coming in from his leases and a partnership in several casinos.
As many Nevada towns went through the boom and bust cycle, gambling keep the state's economy strong. However, remnants of mining resulted in the 1989 designation of the Carson River Mercury (Superfund) Site
Rio Tinto was developed after the discovery of copper in Northern Elko County's Cope Mining District. The town moved from mine to mine and it went from boom to bust in regular cycles. In 1919 Frank Hunt discovered copper in the area and later named his claim Rio Tinto. Once investors and big mining companies became interested in Hunt's copper, the town soon developed and filled with homes to house the miners. After all the copper was removed, Rio Tinto suffered the same fate as most boom towns and vanished.
of maximum 640 acre (2.6 km²) in the arid state were generally too little land for a viable farm. Instead, early settlers would homestead land surrounding a water source, and then graze cattle on the adjacent public land, which is useless without access to water. The Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909, the establishment of a state dry-farming experiment station, and private promotional efforts stimulated dry farming within a fifty-mile radius of Wells, Nevada, but a combination of low precipitation, short summers, abundant jackrabbits, mediocre soil, and the faulty judgment of the settlers themselves virtually ended the ill-favored experiment after 1916.
(U.S. Senator), Vail Pittman (Key Pittman's brother; governor); Pat McCarran
(U.S. Senator) and George Thatcher (a leader of the state Democratic party)
John Edward Jones and Reinhold Sadler
, Silver Party governors of Nevada, during 1895-1903, shared like backgrounds and rose to political power by the same route. Each was a European immigrant who came to the state in its mining boom of the 1870s, prospered financially, and engaged in politics until the boom collapsed late in the 1870s. Then Jones and Sadler embraced bimetallism
and a companion cure-all for Nevada's economic ills - reclamation of desert land in order to provide an economy based partly on agriculture.
heritage of its parish clergy and the bulk of their flocks. Slavic, Italian, and Basque Catholics moved to the state after 1900 and sometimes allied with native-born Americans so that the traditional dominance of Irish Catholics diminished markedly by the 1930s.
Italian Americans Nevada as miners, but, unlike many other immigrants, enough Italians stayed after the mining booms collapsed; they became the largest European ethnic groups by 1910. Many operated farms and ranches. Besides exercising significant economic clout, they have fundamentally influenced the Nevada social order in other ways, in part because of their persistent anticlericalism
Because of hostility from miners and their sympathizers, Nevada's territorial and state antigambling laws were mostly unenforced from 1859 until the Comstock Lode mining booms collapsed in the 1870s. After 1881, the state attempted to restrict gambling through licensing and other statutory controls. Opponents of gambling and prostitution became organized and in the Progressive Era
at last persuaded state legislators to prohibit gambling statewide in 1910 as part of a nationwide anti-gaming crusade
.
During the Great Depression in the United States
, Nevada legalized gambling—terming it "gaming"--in 1931; (the Northern Club received the first license). At the time, the leading proponents of gambling expected that it would be a short term fix until the state's economic base widened to include less cyclical industries. However, re-outlawing gambling has never been seriously considered since, and the industry has become Nevada's primary source of revenue today. Gambling taxes account for 34% of state revenue.
Also in 1931 the residence requirement for divorce was reduced to six weeks, making Reno a famous mecca for the quickie divorce and people from all over the country to "take the cure." In the 1930's, Reno's Bank Club was the state's largest employer. It was also the largest casino in the world until Harold's Club surpassed it in the 1950's .
The Second World War was very good to Reno as local bases and those in Northern California helped boost the economy. In the late 1940's "Bugsy" Siegel helped get Las Vegas on the map by first building the most expensive casino in the world, the Flamingo, and then by being gunned down in his Beverly Hills home.
Las Vegas casinos of the 1950's were mostly low-rise building taking advantage of the wide-open spaces that Reno didn't offer in the downtown area of Virginia Street. However, Las Vegas boomed with new luxurious hotels in the 1960's and the city's gambling casinos drew players from all over the world, and away from Reno and Lake Tahoe.
s have been tolerated in Nevada since the middle of the 19th century; one in Elko
has been in business since 1902. In 1937, a law was enacted to require weekly health checks of all prostitutes. Reno
and Las Vegas
had red light district
s, when the federal government prohibited all prostitution near military bases in 1942 (lifted in 1948). In 1951, both Reno and Las Vegas had closed their red light districts as public nuisances.
(1843), Lieutenant E. G. Beckwith (1854), and the Fortieth Parallel Survey (1867). During the American Civil War, the territory
mustered infantry and cavalry, and skirmishes of the American Indian Wars occurred in Nevada during the Snake War
(1864–1868). American Old West
forts in Nevada included Fort Churchill
, Fort Halleck
, Fort McDermit
, and Fort Schellbourne
. The current Hawthorne Army Depot
was established for munitions production in 1930.
and other Nevada officials campaigned successfully in Washington to open military installations in Nevada. It had vast lands, sunny weather and good rail connections. The Las Vegas Army Gunnery School, the Basic Magnesium plant, Nellis Air Force Base, and other facilities brought thousands of people to the area for training as well as workers to construct housing, air strips, and other military installations.
Las Vegas Army Air Field
and Tonopah AAF
were created from existing airfields, and the United States Army Air Forces
built four additional Nevada airfields in 1942, including Indian Springs AAF
, Reno Army Air Base
, and a facility near Fallon
. Ranges and emergency strips included the Battle Mountain
Flight Strip, the Black Rock Desert
gunnery range (part of the Lovelock Aerial Gunnery Range
during the Cold War
), Churchill Flight Strip
, and Owyhee Flight Strip
. Both Tonopah AAF and Indian Springs AAF each had 5 auxiliary airstrips including Indian Springs' at Forty-Mile Canyon Field
and Groom Lake Field
. Camp Williston (1940–1944) at Boulder City
provided security for Henderson's Basic Magnesium Plant (14,000 employees) and Hoover Dam
(a concrete observation station still exists).
in 1951 with a 1 kiloton
bomb dropped on Frenchman Flat
. Over 1000 nuclear detonations were conducted until the site's last atmospheric detonation in 1962 and last underground detonation in 1992. In 2002, Congress approved the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository at the site.
Notable military aircraft accidents in Nevada include the 1948 B-29 Lake Mead crash
, the 1949 Stead AFB F-51 crash, and several USAF Thunderbird demonstration team crashes, including the 1982 Indian Springs AFAF
formation that killed 4 pilots. Spy plane testing in Area 51
began in April 1955, and stealth fighter testing began in 1982 at the Tonopah Test Range
, where in 2008 the last F-117 Nighthawk
was retired in secure storage. The USAF Red Flag combat exercise was first held in 1975 at the Nellis Air Force Range
, and the United States Navy
's TOPGUN school was moved to Naval Air Station Fallon
in 1996.
In 1998, the largest industries were services (40.7% of earnings), construction (11.6%), and state/local government (10.0%).
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
became the 36th state on October 31, 1864, after telegraphing the Constitution of Nevada
Constitution of Nevada
The Constitution of the State of Nevada is the organic law of the state of Nevada, and the basis for Nevada's statehood as one of the United States.-History:The Nevada Constitution was created in 1864 at a convention on July 4 in Carson City...
to the Congress
38th United States Congress
-House of Representatives:Before this Congress, the 1860 United States Census and resulting reapportionment changed the size of the House to 241 members...
days before the November 8 presidential election (the largest and costliest transmission ever by telegraph). Statehood was rushed to help ensure three electoral votes for Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
's reelection and add to the Republican congressional majorities.
Nevada's harsh but rich environment shaped its history and culture. Before 1858 small Mormon settlements along the Utah border sustained their communities through faith, but the secular western section stumbled along until the great silver strikes beginning in 1858 created boom towns and fabulous fortunes. After the beginning of the 20th century, profits declined while Progressive reformers sought to curb rampaging capitalism and its attendant miseries. They imagined a civilized Nevada of universities, lofty idealism, and social reform. But an economic bust during the 1910s and disillusionment from failures at social reform and a population decline of nearly one-fourth meant that by 1920 Nevada had degenerated into a "beautiful desert of buried hopes." The boom returned when big time gambling arrived in 1931, and with good transportation (especially to California metropolitan areas), the nation's easiest divorce laws, and a speculative get-rich-quick spirit, Nevada had a boom-and-bust economy that was mostly boom until the worldwide financial crisis of 2008 revealed extravagant speculation in housing and casinos on an epic scale.
Early history
Geologic events formed the state's Basin and RangeBasin and Range
The Basin and Range Province is a vast physiographic region defined by a unique topographic expression. Basin and Range topography is characterized by abrupt changes in elevation, alternating between narrow faulted mountain chains and flat arid valleys or basins...
topography, the "Nevada Basin
Great Basin section
The Great Basin section is a physiographic area which extends into the Colorado River watershed on the southeast , as well as into the watersheds of the Klamath River and Sacramento River...
" physiographic region, and the central Nevada desert (e.g., the recession of the Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
Lake Lahontan
Lake Lahontan
Lake Lahontan was a large endorheic Pleistocene lake of modern northwestern Nevada that extended into northeastern California and southern Oregon...
changed the Humboldt River
Humboldt River
The Humboldt River runs through northern Nevada in the western United States. At approximately long it is the second longest river in the Great Basin, after the Bear River. It has no outlet to the ocean, but instead empties into the Humboldt Sink...
course), and Great Basin
Great Basin tribes
The Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin are the Native American peoples of the Great Basin inhabited a cultural region between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, in what is now Nevada, and parts of Oregon, California, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah. There is very little precipitation in the...
. The Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
tribes had inhabited Nevada for millennia before Euro-American
Spanish colonization of the Americas
Colonial expansion under the Spanish Empire was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by the Monarchy of Spain through its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous conversions...
s arrived in the 18th century.
Exploration
Francisco GarcésFrancisco Garcés
Francisco Hermenegildo Tomás Garcés was a Spanish Franciscan missionary who explored much of the southwestern part of North America, including what are now Arizona, southern California, and northeastern Baja California. Garcés was born April 12, 1738, in Morata de Jalón , Zaragoza province,...
was the first European in the area, Jedediah Smith
Jedediah Smith
Jedediah Strong Smith was a hunter, trapper, fur trader, trailblazer, author, cartographer, cattleman, and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the American West Coast and the Southwest during the 19th century...
entered the Las Vegas Valley in 1827, and Peter Skene Ogden
Peter Skene Ogden
Peter Skene Ogden , was a fur trader and a Canadian explorer of what is now British Columbia and the American West...
traveled the Humboldt River
Humboldt River
The Humboldt River runs through northern Nevada in the western United States. At approximately long it is the second longest river in the Great Basin, after the Bear River. It has no outlet to the ocean, but instead empties into the Humboldt Sink...
in 1828. As part of the Mexican Cession
Mexican Cession
The Mexican Cession of 1848 is a historical name in the United States for the region of the present day southwestern United States that Mexico ceded to the U.S...
(1848) and the subsequent California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
that used Emigrant Trail
Emigrant Trail
The Emigrant Trails were the northern networks of overland wagon trails throughout the American West, used by emigrants from the eastern United States to settle lands west of the Interior Plains during the overland migrations of the mid-19th century...
s through the area, the state's area evolved first as part of the Utah Territory
Utah Territory
The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah....
, then the Nevada Territory
Nevada Territory
The Territory of Nevada was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until October 31, 1864, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Nevada....
(March 2, 1861; named for the Sierra Nevada).
Territory
Nevada became part of the United States with the Treaty of Guadalupe HidalgoTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is the peace treaty, largely dictated by the United States to the interim government of a militarily occupied Mexico City, that ended the Mexican-American War on February 2, 1848...
with Mexico in 1848. Mexico had never established any control in Nevada, but American mountain men were in Washoe (the early name for Nevada) as early as 1827. A permanent American presence began in 1851 when the Mormons set up way stations en route to the California gold fields. In the absence of any governmental authority, some 50 Mormons and Gentile prospectors and cattle ranchers drew up the "Washoe code" to deal with land claims; its coverage eventually covered other governmental issues. There still was no federal presence in the area so Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
-Gentile
Gentile
The term Gentile refers to non-Israelite peoples or nations in English translations of the Bible....
relations worsened and petitions of complaint went to Washington. Gentiles sought annexation to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Utah Territory
Utah Territory
The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah....
countered this by incorporating the area as a county. When Federal troops were sent to Utah in 1857, the Mormons left Washoe. The Gentiles took over and launched a move for separate territorial status. The early 1860s saw the end of an Indian war, the great Comstock
Comstock Lode
The Comstock Lode was the first major U.S. discovery of silver ore, located under what is now Virginia City, Nevada, on the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range. After the discovery was made public in 1859, prospectors rushed to the area and scrambled to stake their claims...
mining boom of 1859 in Virginia City
Virginia City, Nevada
Virginia City is a census-designated place that is the county seat of Storey County, Nevada. It is part of the Reno–Sparks Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 855 at the 2010 Census.- History :...
and the coming of the Civil War. The provisional territorial government led to the creation of Nevada Territory by Congress in 1861. The pragmatic attempts to establish workable frontier institutions had failed and the paternalistic territorial system was welcomed.
Statehood
Statehood came in 1864 following a Carson CityCarson City, Nevada
The Consolidated Municipality of Carson City is the capital of the state of Nevada. The words Consolidated Municipality refer to a series of changes in 1969 which abolished Ormsby County and merged all the settlements contained within its borders into Carson City. Since that time Carson City has...
convention (July 4–28) and a public vote on September 7 (the population of 6,857 in 1860 increased to 42,941 in 1870), although Nevada had far fewer than the 40,000 people usually required.
The University of Nevada
University of Nevada, Reno
The University of Nevada, Reno , is a teaching and research university established in 1874 and located in Reno, Nevada, USA...
was founded in Elko
Elko, Nevada
Elko is a city in Elko County, Nevada, United States. The population was 18,297 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Elko County. The city straddles the Humboldt River....
in 1874 and moved to Reno in 1885 (extension classes began at Las Vegas
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
University of Nevada-Las Vegas is a public, coeducational university located in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada, USA. The campus is located approximately east of the Las Vegas Strip. The institution includes a Shadow Lane Campus, located just east of the University Medical Center of...
in 1951).
Water
The largest United States reservoir (Lake MeadLake Mead
Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States. It is located on the Colorado River about southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, in the states of Nevada and Arizona. Formed by water impounded by the Hoover Dam, it extends behind the dam, holding approximately of water.-History:The lake was...
) was created by the Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam, once known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the US states of Arizona and Nevada. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President...
on the state's 1867 Colorado River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
border (construction began in 1931). From 1930 to 2000, the Clark County
Clark County, Nevada
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 1,375,765 people, 512,253 households, and 339,693 families residing within the MSA. The racial makeup of the MSA was 71.6% White , 9.1% Black, 5.7% Asian, 0.8% American Indian and 12.8% of other or mixed race. 22.0% were Hispanic of any race...
population grew from 8,532 to 1,375,765; while the Reno population
Reno (Nevada gaming area)
Reno is only 14 miles over the California border. The Nevada Gaming Commission groups it as one gaming region, with a total of five casinos earning more than $72 million in the last fiscal year...
increased from 18,529 to 180,480.
Mining
The 1858 Comstock LodeComstock Lode
The Comstock Lode was the first major U.S. discovery of silver ore, located under what is now Virginia City, Nevada, on the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range. After the discovery was made public in 1859, prospectors rushed to the area and scrambled to stake their claims...
discovery opened the era of silver mining in Nevada
Silver mining in Nevada
Silver mining in Nevada, a state of the United States, began in 1858 with the discovery of the Comstock Lode, the first major silver-mining district in the United States. Nevada calls itself the "Silver State." In 2006, Nevada was the nation's second-largest producer of silver, after...
, and attracted thousands of miners—most from California. It was discovered by James Finney in Carson County. Disputes over the legal limits of a claim soon went to court, as the Law of the Apex, used to determine those limits, was unworkable for the deep ore bodies in the Comstock. The legal and judicial system of Carson County was unprepared for the tremendous demands placed on it. Judges were underpaid and underqualified, bribery of witnesses and jurors was commonplace, vague record-keeping created nearly insurmountable difficulties with property titles, and evidence was often destroyed. Though workable mining laws still were needed, the resignation of the entire territorial supreme court in 1864 did cause litigation to stop and allowed mining work to resume.
The 1867 expansion of the state's southern boundary was prompted by the discovery of gold in the area since officials thought Nevada would be better able to oversee the expected gold rush. By 1872, Nevada mining was an industry of speculation and immense wealth. After 1870, however, the mining industry went into eclipse, as the state's Silverite
Silverite
The Silverites were members of a political movement in the United States in the late-19th century that advocated that silver should continue to be a monetary standard along with gold, as authorized under the Coinage Act of 1792...
politicians worked to secure laws to require the federal government to purchase silver.
The discovery of silver and gold in 1900 near Tonopah set off a boom that ended Nevada's economic depression.
The operators used the best available technology to recover gold and silver from ore, but by modern standards there was much inefficiency and chemical pollution. Methods included the use of the arrastra
Arrastra
An Arrastra is a primitive mill for grinding and pulverizing gold or silver ore. The simplest form of the arrastra is two or more flat-bottomed drag stones placed in a circular pit paved with flat stones, and connected to a center post by a long arm...
, the patio process
Patio process
The patio process was a process used to extract silver from ore. The process was invented by Bartolomé de Medina in Pachuca, New Spain , in 1554. The patio process was the first process to use mercury amalgamation to recover silver from ore. It replaced smelting as the primary method of extracting...
, the Freiberg process, and the Washoe pan process. Estimates of value lost through recovery processes ran as high as 25%. Mine operators sought improved technology, but were unwilling to wait years or decades for it to arrive. No one at the time understood the health problems such metals as mercury
Mercury (element)
Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum...
could cause.
Transportation
Although the transcontinental railroadFirst Transcontinental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad was a railroad line built in the United States of America between 1863 and 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad that connected its statutory Eastern terminus at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska The First...
crossed the state in 1869, most town and mines were remote from it and required a network of wagon freight and stagecoaches. Numerous small companies supplied the horses, mules, and wagons for hauling borax and silver ore. Stagecoaches were notoriously uncomfortable across the roadless land, but were better than the alternatives and flourished until a railroad finally arrived. Hold-ups were rare, and usually involved petty theft since armed guards were an effective deterrent. Mail contracts kept stage lines afloat and allowed the emergence of a class of entrepreneurs who won contracts and subcontracted the actual work.
The Eureka and Palisade Railroad
Eureka and Palisade Railroad
The Eureka and Palisade Railroad was a narrow gauge railroad, constructed in 1873-1875 between Palisade and Eureka, Nevada, a distance of approximately...
was a narrow-gauge railroad ninety long built in 1875 to carry silver-lead ore from Eureka, Nevada, to the Southern Pacific Railroad
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific Transportation Company , earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or Espee, was an American railroad....
trunk line that ran through Palisade. Nevertheless, despite the determined and colorful management style of John Sexton, the line succumbed to the effects of flood, fire, competing road traffic, and dwindling amounts of ore extracted in Eureka. The rails and rolling stock of the last surviving narrow-gauge railroad in Nevada were removed in 1938.
Historic highways include the 1937 US 6 and 1919 US 50 (Lincoln Highway). The 1926 destination of the first air mail flight was Elko
Elko, Nevada
Elko is a city in Elko County, Nevada, United States. The population was 18,297 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Elko County. The city straddles the Humboldt River....
. Interstate 15 in Nevada
Interstate 15 in Nevada
In the U.S. State of Nevada, Interstate 15 begins in Primm, continues through Las Vegas and it crosses the border with Arizona in Mesquite. The freeway runs entirely in Clark County. Many motorists use Interstate 15 to visit Las Vegas, as it is the only primary Interstate Highway in the city. The...
was completed in 1974, while the Lovelock
Lovelock, Nevada
Lovelock is a city in western Nevada that is the county seat of Pershing County, the location of a prison, and the namesake of the area's Cold War gunnery range...
bypass was the last completed section of Interstate 80 in Nevada
Interstate 80 in Nevada
In the U.S. state of Nevada, Interstate 80 traverses the northern portion of the state. The freeway serves the Reno-Sparks metropolitan area, and also goes through the towns of Fernley, Lovelock, Winnemucca, Battle Mountain, Elko, Wells and West Wendover on its way through the state.I-80 follows...
.
Mining towns
GolcondaGolconda, Nevada
Golconda is an unincorporated community in Humboldt County, Nevada, United States. Located along Interstate 80 in the northwestern part of the state, it is named for the ancient diamond mining center of Golkonda in India. The community lies east of the city of Winnemucca and the Golconda Summit,...
was a mining town in northern Nevada built when discovery of copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
, silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
, gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
, and lead brought entrepreneurs who opened mines and mills in the district. A diverse society of native-born Americans
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
, Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
, Paiutes, Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
, and other people came to Golconda to live and work. During 1898-1910, the town had a train depot, several hotels, a school, businesses, newspapers, and two brothels. Its population peaked at about six hundred in 1907-08. Although boosters predicted growth for Golconda, after 1910 the mines played out, leaving the region as an area of ranches and farms. Most of the town's buildings from its mining heyday are gone, and Golconda today is a minor stop on Interstate 80.
Tuscarora
Tuscarora, Nevada
Tuscarora is an unincorporated community in Elko County, Nevada. It is home to two small schools provided by the Elko County School District. Tuscarora is part of the Elko Micropolitan Statistical Area....
was founded in Elko County after an expedition by trader William Heath discovered gold. As miners flocked to the town in 1867-70, a fort was built to offer protection from Indian raids and a water ditch was created to supply the town with water. Many Chinese men who had been employed by the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) relocated to the town and began placer mining. A second boom began following the discovery of silver in 1876-77.
A strike at Tonopah
Tonopah, Nevada
Tonopah is a census-designated place located in and the county seat of Nye County, Nevada. It is located at the junction of U.S. Routes 6 and 95 approximately mid-way between Las Vegas and Reno....
(1900, silver) was followed by strikes in Goldfield
Goldfield, Nevada
Goldfield is an unincorporated community and the county seat of Esmeralda County, Nevada, United States, with a resident population of 440 at the 2000 census. It is located about southeast of Carson City, along U.S...
(1902–1919, gold) and Rhyolite
Rhyolite, Nevada
Rhyolite is a ghost town in Nye County, in the U.S. state of Nevada. It is located in the Bullfrog Hills, about northwest of Las Vegas, near the eastern edge of Death Valley. The town began in early 1905 as one of several mining camps that sprang up after a prospecting discovery in the surrounding...
(1904–1911, gold). The strikes brought Nevada to the forefront of the nation again, just as the Comstock load in Virginia City, Nevada had in the late 1800's. While the Comstock made dozens of owners rich, the gold in Goldfield and the stock sold on speculation made two people exceedingly rich.
George S. Nixon and George Wingfield were worth $30 million after taking their Goldfield Consolidated Mining Company public in 1906 . The partner's had a loss the following year and Nixon's Nye County Bank struggled.
Wingfield, however, reaped an even greater fortune from real estate, especially after moving to Reno, Nevada. After gambling was legalized in 1931, Wingfield again had money coming in from his leases and a partnership in several casinos.
As many Nevada towns went through the boom and bust cycle, gambling keep the state's economy strong. However, remnants of mining resulted in the 1989 designation of the Carson River Mercury (Superfund) Site
Rio Tinto was developed after the discovery of copper in Northern Elko County's Cope Mining District. The town moved from mine to mine and it went from boom to bust in regular cycles. In 1919 Frank Hunt discovered copper in the area and later named his claim Rio Tinto. Once investors and big mining companies became interested in Hunt's copper, the town soon developed and filled with homes to house the miners. After all the copper was removed, Rio Tinto suffered the same fate as most boom towns and vanished.
Homesteading
Over 80% of the Nevada area is owned by the federal government, as homesteadsHomestead Act
A homestead act is one of three United States federal laws that gave an applicant freehold title to an area called a "homestead" – typically 160 acres of undeveloped federal land west of the Mississippi River....
of maximum 640 acre (2.6 km²) in the arid state were generally too little land for a viable farm. Instead, early settlers would homestead land surrounding a water source, and then graze cattle on the adjacent public land, which is useless without access to water. The Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909, the establishment of a state dry-farming experiment station, and private promotional efforts stimulated dry farming within a fifty-mile radius of Wells, Nevada, but a combination of low precipitation, short summers, abundant jackrabbits, mediocre soil, and the faulty judgment of the settlers themselves virtually ended the ill-favored experiment after 1916.
Twentieth century
The state was by far the smallest in terms of population. The 1930 census reported 91,000 people, with Reno the largest city at 19,000 and Las Vegas at 5,000. 62% of the people lived in towns with fewer than 2500 people or in rural areas alongside the 340,000 cattle and 830,000 sheep.Politics
The gold discovery in Tonopah in 1900 brought together a group of men who dominated Nevada politics for a half century. They included George Wingfield (mine owner, banker and behind-the-scenes player); George Nixon (banker, editor and cofounder of the Silver party); Key PittmanKey Pittman
Key Denson Pittman was a United States Senator from Nevada. He was a Democrat.Pittman was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1872 and was educated by private tutors and at the Southwestern Presbyterian University in Clarksville, Tennessee. He studied law, then later became a lawyer...
(U.S. Senator), Vail Pittman (Key Pittman's brother; governor); Pat McCarran
Pat McCarran
Patrick Anthony McCarran was a Democratic United States Senator from Nevada from 1933 until 1954, and was noted for his strong anti-Communist stance.-Early life and career:...
(U.S. Senator) and George Thatcher (a leader of the state Democratic party)
John Edward Jones and Reinhold Sadler
Reinhold Sadler
Reinhold Sadler was an American politician. He was the 9th Governor of Nevada. He was a member of the Silver Party.-Biography:Sadler was born on January 10, 1848 in Czarnikau, Posen Province, Prussia...
, Silver Party governors of Nevada, during 1895-1903, shared like backgrounds and rose to political power by the same route. Each was a European immigrant who came to the state in its mining boom of the 1870s, prospered financially, and engaged in politics until the boom collapsed late in the 1870s. Then Jones and Sadler embraced bimetallism
Bimetallism
In economics, bimetallism is a monetary standard in which the value of the monetary unit is defined as equivalent both to a certain quantity of gold and to a certain quantity of silver; such a system establishes a fixed rate of exchange between the two metals...
and a companion cure-all for Nevada's economic ills - reclamation of desert land in order to provide an economy based partly on agriculture.
Religion and ethnicity
Because most of Nevada was sparsely populated and was subject to economic booms-and-busts accompanied by population fluctuations, Catholic churches faced difficulties in serving spiritually their scattered and mobile communicants. Nevada Catholic parish life until 1900 reflected the IrishIrish American
Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...
heritage of its parish clergy and the bulk of their flocks. Slavic, Italian, and Basque Catholics moved to the state after 1900 and sometimes allied with native-born Americans so that the traditional dominance of Irish Catholics diminished markedly by the 1930s.
Italian Americans Nevada as miners, but, unlike many other immigrants, enough Italians stayed after the mining booms collapsed; they became the largest European ethnic groups by 1910. Many operated farms and ranches. Besides exercising significant economic clout, they have fundamentally influenced the Nevada social order in other ways, in part because of their persistent anticlericalism
Gambling
Progressive Era
The Progressive Era in the United States was a period of social activism and political reform that flourished from the 1890s to the 1920s. One main goal of the Progressive movement was purification of government, as Progressives tried to eliminate corruption by exposing and undercutting political...
at last persuaded state legislators to prohibit gambling statewide in 1910 as part of a nationwide anti-gaming crusade
Hart–Agnew Law
The Hart–Agnew Law was an anti-gambling bill passed into law by the Legislature of the State of New York on June 11, 1908. It was an amalgam of bills enacted as Chapter 506 and 507 which were sponsored by right-wing Assemblyman Merwin K. Hart and Republican Senator George B. Agnew...
.
During the Great Depression in the United States
Great Depression in the United States
The Great Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of October, 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. The market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth and personal advancement...
, Nevada legalized gambling—terming it "gaming"--in 1931; (the Northern Club received the first license). At the time, the leading proponents of gambling expected that it would be a short term fix until the state's economic base widened to include less cyclical industries. However, re-outlawing gambling has never been seriously considered since, and the industry has become Nevada's primary source of revenue today. Gambling taxes account for 34% of state revenue.
Also in 1931 the residence requirement for divorce was reduced to six weeks, making Reno a famous mecca for the quickie divorce and people from all over the country to "take the cure." In the 1930's, Reno's Bank Club was the state's largest employer. It was also the largest casino in the world until Harold's Club surpassed it in the 1950's .
The Second World War was very good to Reno as local bases and those in Northern California helped boost the economy. In the late 1940's "Bugsy" Siegel helped get Las Vegas on the map by first building the most expensive casino in the world, the Flamingo, and then by being gunned down in his Beverly Hills home.
Las Vegas casinos of the 1950's were mostly low-rise building taking advantage of the wide-open spaces that Reno didn't offer in the downtown area of Virginia Street. However, Las Vegas boomed with new luxurious hotels in the 1960's and the city's gambling casinos drew players from all over the world, and away from Reno and Lake Tahoe.
Prostitution
BrothelBrothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
s have been tolerated in Nevada since the middle of the 19th century; one in Elko
Elko, Nevada
Elko is a city in Elko County, Nevada, United States. The population was 18,297 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Elko County. The city straddles the Humboldt River....
has been in business since 1902. In 1937, a law was enacted to require weekly health checks of all prostitutes. Reno
Reno, Nevada
Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...
and Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
had red light district
Red Light District
Red Light District may refer to:* Red-light district - a neighborhood where prostitution is common* The Red Light District - the title of the 2004 album by rapper Ludacris* Red Light District Video - a pornography studio based in Los Angeles, California...
s, when the federal government prohibited all prostitution near military bases in 1942 (lifted in 1948). In 1951, both Reno and Las Vegas had closed their red light districts as public nuisances.
Military activities
Military and other government exploration of the territory included efforts by John C. FrémontJohn C. Frémont
John Charles Frémont , was an American military officer, explorer, and the first candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. During the 1840s, that era's penny press accorded Frémont the sobriquet The Pathfinder...
(1843), Lieutenant E. G. Beckwith (1854), and the Fortieth Parallel Survey (1867). During the American Civil War, the territory
Nevada in the American Civil War
During the American Civil War, Nevadas entry into statehood in the United States was expedited by Union sympathizers in order to ensure Nevada's participation in the 1864 presidential election in support of President Abraham Lincoln....
mustered infantry and cavalry, and skirmishes of the American Indian Wars occurred in Nevada during the Snake War
Snake War
The Snake War was a war fought by the United States of America against the "Snake Indians", the settlers' term for Northern Paiute, Bannock and western Shoshone bands who lived along the Snake River. Fighting took place in the states of Oregon, Nevada, and California, and in Idaho Territory...
(1864–1868). American Old West
American Old West
The American Old West, or the Wild West, comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...
forts in Nevada included Fort Churchill
Fort Churchill State Historic Park
Fort Churchill State Historic Park is a Nevada state park in Lyon County, Nevada, in the United States. Located south of the town of Silver Springs, it is in the Central Nevada Region of Nevada State Parks, and is one of seven National Historic Landmarks in the state of Nevada. The site is one...
, Fort Halleck
Fort Halleck
Fort Halleck may refer to a U. S. Army fort in the United States:*Fort Halleck , 1879-1886. First established as Camp Halleck in 1867, to protect the California Trail and the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad....
, Fort McDermit
Fort McDermit
Fort McDermit was an American fort in Nevada. It was established on August 14, 1865, by Captain J. C. Doughty, of Company I of the 2nd Regiment California Volunteer Cavalry, on orders of Lt. Col. Charles McDermit, Commander, Military District Nevada, as the Quinn River Camp No. 33...
, and Fort Schellbourne
Fort Schellbourne
Fort Schelbourne, formerly Camp Schell, in Ely, Nevada, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Its boundaries were increased in 1977.-References:...
. The current Hawthorne Army Depot
Hawthorne Army Depot
Hawthorne Army Depot is a U.S. Army ammunition storage site located near the town of Hawthorne in western Nevada in the United States. It is directly south of Walker Lake. The depot covers and has storage space in 2,427 bunkers...
was established for munitions production in 1930.
World War II
Senator Pat McCarranPat McCarran
Patrick Anthony McCarran was a Democratic United States Senator from Nevada from 1933 until 1954, and was noted for his strong anti-Communist stance.-Early life and career:...
and other Nevada officials campaigned successfully in Washington to open military installations in Nevada. It had vast lands, sunny weather and good rail connections. The Las Vegas Army Gunnery School, the Basic Magnesium plant, Nellis Air Force Base, and other facilities brought thousands of people to the area for training as well as workers to construct housing, air strips, and other military installations.
Las Vegas Army Air Field
Nellis Air Force Base
Nellis Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base, located approximately northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. It is under the jurisdiction of Air Combat Command .-Overview:...
and Tonopah AAF
Tonopah Army Air Field
Tonopah Army Air Field was a World War II United States Army Air Force training airfield located seven miles east of the central business district of Tonopah, a city in Nye County, Nevada, USA. It was active between 1942 and 1945.- Origins :...
were created from existing airfields, and the United States Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
built four additional Nevada airfields in 1942, including Indian Springs AAF
Creech Air Force Base
Creech Air Force Base , formerly known as Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field, is a United States Air Force base located one mile north of the central business district of Indian Springs, in Clark County, Nevada, United States. It is about northwest of Las Vegas and northwest of Nellis Air...
, Reno Army Air Base
Stead Air Force Base
Stead Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base operational in Nevada from 1942 to 1966. After its closure, it was reopened as Reno Stead Airport...
, and a facility near Fallon
Naval Air Station Fallon
Naval Air Station Fallon or NAS Fallon is the United States Navy's premier air-to-air and air-to-ground training facility. It is located southeast of the city of Fallon in western Nevada in the United States. Since 1996, it has been home to the Naval Fighter Weapons School , and the surrounding...
. Ranges and emergency strips included the Battle Mountain
Battle Mountain Airport
Battle Mountain Airport , also known as Lander County Airport, is a public-use airport located 3 miles southeast of the central business district of Battle Mountain, Nevada, United States...
Flight Strip, the Black Rock Desert
Black Rock Desert
The Black Rock Desert is an arid region in the northern Nevada section of the Great Basin with a lakebed that is a dry remnant of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan...
gunnery range (part of the Lovelock Aerial Gunnery Range
Lovelock, Nevada
Lovelock is a city in western Nevada that is the county seat of Pershing County, the location of a prison, and the namesake of the area's Cold War gunnery range...
during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
), Churchill Flight Strip
Silver Springs Airport
Silver Springs Airport is a public use airport located southwest of the central business district of Silver Springs, in Lyon County, Nevada, United States. It is owned by Lyon County and leased to Silver Springs Airport, LLC.Although most U.S...
, and Owyhee Flight Strip
Owyhee Airport
Owyhee Airport is a public use airport located four nautical miles west of the central business district of Owyhee, in Elko County, Nevada, United States. It is owned by the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes and is located within the Duck Valley Indian Reservation....
. Both Tonopah AAF and Indian Springs AAF each had 5 auxiliary airstrips including Indian Springs' at Forty-Mile Canyon Field
Pahute Mesa Airstrip
Pahute Mesa Airstrip is a private-use airport located northwest of the central business district of Mercury, in Nye County, Nevada, United States...
and Groom Lake Field
Area 51
Area 51 is a military base, and a remote detachment of Edwards Air Force Base. It is located in the southern portion of Nevada in the western United States, 83 miles north-northwest of downtown Las Vegas. Situated at its center, on the southern shore of Groom Lake, is a large military airfield...
. Camp Williston (1940–1944) at Boulder City
Boulder City, Nevada
Boulder City is a city in Clark County, Nevada, United States. It is approximately from the City of Las Vegas. As of the 2010 census the population of Boulder City was 15,023.Boulder City is one of only two cities in Nevada that prohibit gambling....
provided security for Henderson's Basic Magnesium Plant (14,000 employees) and Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam, once known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the US states of Arizona and Nevada. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President...
(a concrete observation station still exists).
Nuclear tests
Nuclear testing began at the Nevada Proving GroundNevada Test Site
The Nevada National Security Site , previously the Nevada Test Site , is a United States Department of Energy reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about northwest of the city of Las Vegas...
in 1951 with a 1 kiloton
TNT equivalent
TNT equivalent is a method of quantifying the energy released in explosions. The ton of TNT is a unit of energy equal to 4.184 gigajoules, which is approximately the amount of energy released in the detonation of one ton of TNT...
bomb dropped on Frenchman Flat
Frenchman Flat
Frenchman Flat is a Tonopah Basin landform used as a nuclear weapons detonation site at the Nevada Test Site , some from Las Vegas, in the United States. Frenchman Flat is a dry lake, an alkaline desert depression which spans Area 5 and Area 11 within NTS...
. Over 1000 nuclear detonations were conducted until the site's last atmospheric detonation in 1962 and last underground detonation in 1992. In 2002, Congress approved the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository at the site.
Notable military aircraft accidents in Nevada include the 1948 B-29 Lake Mead crash
1948 B-29 Lake Mead crash
The 1948 B-29 Lake Mead crash occurred July 21, 1948 when a Boeing B-29-100-BW Superfortress, modified into an F-13 reconnaissance platform and performing atmospheric research, crashed into the waters of Lake Mead, Nevada, USA...
, the 1949 Stead AFB F-51 crash, and several USAF Thunderbird demonstration team crashes, including the 1982 Indian Springs AFAF
Creech Air Force Base
Creech Air Force Base , formerly known as Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field, is a United States Air Force base located one mile north of the central business district of Indian Springs, in Clark County, Nevada, United States. It is about northwest of Las Vegas and northwest of Nellis Air...
formation that killed 4 pilots. Spy plane testing in Area 51
Area 51
Area 51 is a military base, and a remote detachment of Edwards Air Force Base. It is located in the southern portion of Nevada in the western United States, 83 miles north-northwest of downtown Las Vegas. Situated at its center, on the southern shore of Groom Lake, is a large military airfield...
began in April 1955, and stealth fighter testing began in 1982 at the Tonopah Test Range
Tonopah Test Range
Tonopah Test Range , also known as Area 52, is a restricted military installation located about southeast of Tonopah, Nevada. It is part of the northern fringe of the Nellis Range, measuring . Tonopah Test Range is located about northwest of Groom Dry Lake, home of the Area 51 facility...
, where in 2008 the last F-117 Nighthawk
F-117 Nighthawk
The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk was a single-seat, twin-engine stealth ground-attack aircraft formerly operated by the United States Air Force . The F-117A's first flight was in 1981, and it achieved initial operating capability status in October 1983...
was retired in secure storage. The USAF Red Flag combat exercise was first held in 1975 at the Nellis Air Force Range
Nevada Test and Training Range
The Nevada Test and Training Range is a training facility of the United States Air Force located in the desert of southern Nevada in the United States. It is the largest of its kind in the US, and is operated by the USAF Warfare Center's 98th Range Wing...
, and the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
's TOPGUN school was moved to Naval Air Station Fallon
Naval Air Station Fallon
Naval Air Station Fallon or NAS Fallon is the United States Navy's premier air-to-air and air-to-ground training facility. It is located southeast of the city of Fallon in western Nevada in the United States. Since 1996, it has been home to the Naval Fighter Weapons School , and the surrounding...
in 1996.
Recent history
Nevada favors a highly individualistic political culture, giving it a libertarian conservative political philosophy in an open society. Wealth from mining and gambling reinforced the individualistic ethic that early settlers brought with them. The libertarian ethic appears in the opposition of most Nevadans to big government, big labor, and big business. Labor unions, especially the SEIU which organizes hotel and casino workers, thrive among the minority workers in Las Vegas. Belief in limited government leads to an electorate that backs a pro-choice position on abortion while opposing the Equal Rights Amendment for women. The state's ongoing battles with the federal government involve the longstanding water rights dispute between Native Americans, backed by the federal government, and Nevada's ranchers; and the decade-long fight against the establishment of the nation's first permanent nuclear waste depository at Yucca Mountain.In 1998, the largest industries were services (40.7% of earnings), construction (11.6%), and state/local government (10.0%).
Surveys
- Driggs, Don W. and Leonard E. Goodall. Nevada Politics and Government: Conservatism in an Open Society (1996). online edition, university textbook
- Elliott, Russell R., and William D. Rowley. History of Nevada (2nd ed. 1987) online edition
- Hulse, James W. The Nevada Adventure (6th ed., 1990), for middle schools
Economy and people
- Bennett, Dana R., "'The Up-Growth of New Industries': Transformation of Nevada’s Economy, 1918–1929," Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, 52 (Fall 2009), 175–97.
- DePolo, Ron, and Mark Pingle. "A Statistical History of the Nevada Population, 1860-1993," Nevada Historical Society Quarterly,Dec 1994, Vol. 37#4, pp 282–306
- Douglass, William A. and Jon Bilbao, Jon. Amerikanuak: Basques in the New World (1975), scholarly study; ch 6 covers Nevada
- Elliott, Russell R. Nevada's Twentieth Century Mining Boom (1965).
- Glass, Mary Ellen. Silver and Politics in Nevada, 1892-1902 (1969)
- Goldman, Marion. Gold Diggers and Silver Miners (1981).
Politics
- Bushnell, Eleanore, ed. Sagebrush and Neon: Studies in Nevada Politics (2nd ed. 1976).
- Edwards, Jerome E. Pat McCarran: Political Boss of Nevada (1982), highly detailed narrative covers 1916 to 1954
- Elliott, Gary E. Senator Alan Bible and the Politics of the New West (1994)
- Mack, Effie Mona. Nevada: A History of the State from the Earliest Times through the Civil War (1936)
- Raymond, Elizabeth. George Wingfield: Owner and Operator of Nevada (1992)
- Titus, A. Constandina. ed. Battle Born: Federal-State Conflict in Nevada during the Twentieth Century (1989)
Primary sources
- Reid, John B.. and Ronald M. James, eds. Uncovering Nevada'S Past: A Primary Source History of the Silver State (2004)