Nevada’s Capitol in downtown Carson City on Oct. 23, 2024.
Photo by Scott Neuffer.
Coming through a stretch of mountainous desert, writer John McPhee once likened a Nevada town to a Christmas tree “alone in the night” — a collection of lights in so much empty space.
Carson City resident and local historian Cindy Southerland put it this way: “Nevada's harsh yet rich environment shaped its history and culture.”
Following a celebration over the weekend, Nevada turns 160 years old Thursday. As much as parts of the state have changed over the decades, namely the population centers of Las Vegas and Reno/Sparks, the landscape between and around those centers remains wild, empty and hypnotic, and the inhabitants throughout proud of a hardscrabble heritage.
“I have traveled the entire state to uncover its incredible history and the contributions of its citizens to transform a desert into a state,” said Southerland. “Along the way, I had the opportunity to meet many others who also feel that we live in a special place that encompasses the strong values and principles which built our nation.”
Before Europeans arrived in the arid West, the Paiute, Shoshone and Washoe tribes inhabited the land now known as Nevada.
“The first Europeans to explore the region originated from Spain,” reads a history from the Nevada Joint Information Center “They gave the region the name of Nevada (snowy) due to the snow which covered the mountains at winter. The area formed part of the viceroyalty of New Spain, becoming part of Mexico when that country gained independence in 1821.
“The United States acquired the territory in 1848 following its victory in the Mexican-American War, and the area was eventually incorporated as part of Utah Territory in 1850. The discovery of silver at the Comstock Lode in 1859 led to a population boom that became an impetus to the creation of Nevada Territory out of western Utah Territory in 1861.”
According to historian Jerome Edwards, writing on the Online Nevada Encyclopedia — a publication of Nevada Humanities — voters in the Nevada Territory rejected a state constitution on Jan. 19, 1864.
“Yet the idea of statehood did not die; instead it was immediately taken up on the national level, and a new attempt to create a state of Nevada was started in the United States Congress,” according to Edwards.
There were reasons to rush Nevada to statehood, Edwards wrote.
“First, it was at a time when the nation was fighting a desperately fought Civil War, and Nevada Territory was universally and correctly perceived to be both pro-Unionist and strongly Republican,” Edwards wrote. “Thus, despite other territories having considerably more population, Nevada was pushed to the head of the line for statehood. As the 1864 presidential election approached, there were certain perceived advantages in having an additional Republican state. For one thing, a Republican congressional delegation could provide additional votes for the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery, which earlier had narrowly failed to garner the necessary two thirds support of both houses of Congress.”
A second statehood convention met in July 1864 and used the previously defeated constitution for a new document, Edwards wrote. The beginning of the new constitution entailed the outlawing of slavery, retention of public lands by the federal government and allegiance to the U.S. without the right to secede.
Edwards added that the new state constitution “espoused democratic principles, popular in the West, with popular elections demanded for many state offices, including the state judiciary.”
The Nevada Constitution was approved by voters on Sept. 7, 1864.
“The constitution was telegraphed to Washington, D.C. at a cost of $3,416.77, supposedly the longest and most expensive telegram ever sent up to that time,” Edwards wrote. “Lincoln proclaimed Nevada a state on Oct. 31, 1864, and, eight days later, Nevada voted strongly Republican in the presidential, congressional, and legislative elections. The state surely was ‘Battle Born’ (one of its several state mottoes). The Civil War had been indispensable for giving statehood to one of the least populated and economically viable of all the territories.”
Southerland said, “As we look forward to Nevada Day and 160 years of statehood, Nevada’s past is always this close.”
“I like to remember that on Nevada’s state flag the term Battle Born still is a symbol of the strength, resilience and courage that shaped this great state,” she said.
Josh Bonde, director of the Nevada State Museum, said Nevadans share a connection to the land.
“As a born and raised Nevadan, a proud citizen of the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone, from a farm family from Fallon, having lived and worked in every corner of the state, I feel like all Nevadans share a common sense of connection to this place,” he said.
Bonde said in the high, rain-shadowed deserts of the Mojave and Great Basin, Nevadans are “keenly aware of the sensitivity of the resources across this landscape” — water, minerals, agriculture. He said being museum director lets him reflect on the past and the legacy of the state.
Of the future, Bonde said:
“I see Nevada as a model for the very best in this country. I see a state which understands the sensitivity of the land and is moving in a direction, albeit not fast enough for many, of more careful land management, a state which reflects a demographic of the future and in light of global future risks is trying to leverage opportunity.
“I think every Nevadan from CalNevAri to Jackpot and West Wendover to Dyer should be very proud of our state, acknowledging our past and learning to prepare for a better next 160 years.”