The Silver State’s past is on display at every Nevada Day parade in Carson City.
Photo by Steve Ranson.
Although Nevada Day was celebrated on Saturday with a parade and other activities in Carson City, the actual day of admission as the 36th state is Thursday, Oct. 31.
Coupled with Halloween, Nevada has a unique distinction of having two unique days celebrated on the last day of October.
Locally, the Maine Street “Spooktacular” is Thursday from 4-6 p.m. and features fun activities for all ages.
Trick-or-treating will be available at a trunk-or-treat and from the businesses on Maine Street. The three-block celebration will also include bounce houses, an inflatable obstacle course, foam pumpkin painting, a coloring station, story time with the Churchill County Sheriff’s Office, golfing activities, jiu-jitsu demonstrations and more. A concrete truck, fire truck, ambulance, the Domestic Violence Intervention school bus and search and rescue vehicles will also be on display.
Food will be available for purchase from Newa Tacos, Mendoza’s MM Food Truck, the Fallon Theatre and Churchill County High School cheerleaders. The Tipsy Tumbleweed will sell non-alcoholic mocktails and P’s and Q’s Tavern will have hot chocolate and hot apple cider.
Nevada’s position as a territory resulted in its admission into the Union 160 years ago.
A telegraph from Carson City was sent by James W. Nye, then the Governor of the Territory of Nevada.
Nevada wanted statehood and President Lincoln wanted this then-conservative, mostly Republican state, to assure votes needed for Lincoln’s re-election. It was on Sept. 2, 1863, voters within the Nevada Territory approved by a vote of 6-1 the concept of statehood; however, 39 delegates first had to draft a state constitution for voter approval. Voters did not like the verbiage brought forth in January 1864 imposing a mining tax, thus resoundingly defeated the constitution.
The 38th U.S. Congress was not dissuaded and created an enabling act in March 1864 - signed by Lincoln — to begin admission proceedings pending a binding state constitution. This state then was pro-Unionist and Republican.
A second attempt at righting the defeated state constitution was drafted in July 1864, now containing the outlawing of slavery and that all public lands would be retained by the federal government never to be taxed among other strong commitments to the Union. Most important was the clause that miners would be taxed only on their net proceeds – inserted to assure passage of the document – and was adopted by the voters in September 1864 by a 10-1 vote.
The next step was to telegraph the entire adopted state constitution – 16,543 words – to Washington, D.C., the longest and most expensive telegram at the time transmitted between 7-12 hours, depending on the resource, and overseen by James. H. Guild, superintendent of Carson City telegraph office. Lincoln admitted Nevada as the 36th state to the Union on Oct. 31, 1864 even though it was one of the least populated territories — but one of the most economically viable — at that time.
Only one other state, West Virginia, was admitted for statehood during the Civil War when it separated from Confederate Virginia in June 1863.
In his proclamation No. 119 on Oct. 31, 1864, Lincoln declared, “Be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, in accordance with the duty imposed upon me by the act of Congress aforesaid, do hereby declare and proclaim that the said State of Nevada is admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States.”
Carson City District Judge Clark J. Guild convinced the community to hold the first Nevada Day Parade on Oc. 31, 1938. Celebration of Nevada statehood became official in 1939 when it became a state holiday. In the late 1990s, the state legislature approved the observed day to be celebrated on the last Friday of October, thus creating a three-day weekend.