Table of Contents:
NON NATIVES
A NEW STATE.
GOLD?
WATER, WATER
A HISTORY OF HORSES.
ILLEGAL GAMBLING.
NEVADA TODAY.
I love Nevada. The state has so much to offer. There is a natural beauty, cowboys and girls, hot springs, ghost towns, snow skiing, water skiing, and more. There are four national parks, numerous state parks, and it even borders a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And it has Las Vegas, a great town beyond the strip.
Ancient Nevada History.
We need to go back about 200 million years ago to talk about the first inhabitants.
Nevada is the only U.S. state to have a complete Ichthyosaur skeleton. A who-a-what? This creature was a predatory marine reptile whose name means fish lizard.
They find the bones in Berlin, Nevada, and they measure 55 feet in length.
Up until recently, it was the common belief that all of Nevada was under a shallow sea. All the fossils they were finding were marine animals. It was not until circa 2006 that they began finding remains of animals that were landlubbers.
Not So Ancient History.
Long before the Europeans were looking for passages to India and the Orient, the Paiute, Western Shoshone, Quoeech, Washoe, and Walapai tribes were living in the area that would become Nevada. Unfortunately, there is very little known about their earlier history as they did not write. Their accounts were stories the elder would pass down.
We know the Europeans were sailing the ocean blue in 1492. But that was only to what we now know as the Caribbean.
It will take several decades before they create the Spanish Main. The mainland of North America stretching from Venezuela to the Gulf of Mexico and including Florida’s entire area. From here, Hernan Cortez will push inland, massacring the Aztecs, Inca, and anyone else who gets in his way.
Those he spares quickly convert to Catholicism.
It is not clear when Spain claims the Western half of N. America for itself. It will not be until 1770 when someone reaches the area of Nevada to see what they “own.”
Franciscan missionary Francisco Garcés, acting as a missionary and explorer for the Viceroyalty of New Spain, arrives. He can keep peace among the locals. However, the Spanish settlers arriving soon after began seizing land leading to an uprise. Garces and his fellow friars are part of the casualties. Soon there are too many Spanish settlers to fight, and the natives relocate.
More European-Americans
Jedediah Smith arrives in the Las Vegas Valley circa 1827. He will go on to map much of the southwest.
Peter Ogden is also a trapper and explorer. He will explore and map much of the area near the Great Salt Lake. He is also responsible for a more natural route through the Sierra Nevada mountains, which will become the California Trail.
In 1848, as a result of the Mexican–American War, Mexico lost Alta California. It includes the current U.S. states of California, Nevada, and Utah. Also, parts of Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico.
The U.S. leaves the new area as territories. Nevada will be part of the Utah Territory until 1861 when they name it the Nevada Territory. The capital is Carson City.
A New State.
Three years later, they hold a convention and vote. The requirement to vote on statehood requires a minimum of 60,000 voters. Nevada has 1/10th that many, but they vote in September and create the 36th state.
They telegraph the entire state constitution to Congress to ensure they are a state before the national election. It takes two days to send and costs over $4000. That was a lot of money in those days.
In November, they help re-elect Abraham Lincoln as president.
The Nevada State Flag
They are one of only two states to gain statehood during the American Civil War. Their state flag sports the term “Battle Born,” as a nod to this.
There’s a Little Gold in them Hills.
Until the late 1850s, Nevada territory is just a place you have to pass through to get to California.
Circa 1848, they find gold at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California. The lust for gold will draw 300,000 people to California.
By 1855, the gold starts to dry up.
Then 1859, and near Virginia City, Nevada, Henry Comstock unearths a silver lode, and Nevada has a new industry.
Thousands of miners, many from California, start streaming in. Claim disputes begin almost immediately. Limits that had worked for gold near the surface did not work for the deeper bodies of silver.
The small legal and judicial system of Carson County is not ready for the tremendous amount of cases to hear.
There are not enough judges, and they are underpaid or underqualified. The blatant bribery of witnesses and jurors is rampant. Record-keeping and property titles are not complete, legible, or disappear. It takes the resignation of the entire territorial supreme court to stop litigation and allow mining to resume. And that is what happens in 1864.
Next, they find gold in Aurora, Nevada, a year after the Comstock strike. But Aurora is in California. No, it’s in Nevada. Finally, they settle that it is in Nevada.
After an 1867 gold discovery just beyond Nevada’s southern boundary, officials move the Nevada border. They figure the state has more experience handling rushes.
Comes a Great Fall
After 1870, the silver industry begins to fall. By 1874, even the Comstock is no longer excavating the amounts as before. The state goes into economic depression as silver funds everything.
It is not until 1910 that Nevada’s economy recovers when they find silver, then gold near Tonopah.
Although technology is better than it was in 1860, some methods result in up to 25% losses. Others use poisonous chemicals or mercury for extracting. No one knows the health issues they would cause.
Precious Liquids.
With many people arriving, and many water sources tainted with mercury, the water became scarce.
By 1873, they construct an iron pipe stretching eleven miles from the Sierra Nevada mountains to the valley.
It creates such pressure moving downhill that they can “push” water to Virginia City. Some of these pipes are still in use.
Horses and Mules in Nevada History.
Just like the wagons following the California Trail, all local freight and passengers were using horse or mule power. The mines were using teams of 10 to 16 horses or mules. They would haul wood and supplies up to the shaft and return with the ore.
Each team would pull “trains” of two to four wagon loads. These wagon trains, traveling in groups, could be over one mile in length.
Around 1860, small railroad lines began popping up across the state. The mines build many of these to get supplies in and out. Horse and mules still had to get the supplies to the train.
Ponys
In April of 1860, Central Overland California and Pike’s Peak Express Company began an unheard of service. Mail from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, in only ten days. Previously, it took about 21 days.
Young men would take turns riding a set trail that was 1,966 miles long across eight states. It took 120 riders, 184 stations, 400 horses, and several hundred personnel to keep it running.
The stations were about 10 miles apart. The rider would change to a fresh horse at each station, taking only the mail pouch (mochila) with him. The same rider would do seven to ten stations before changing. They were riding day and night. The horsemen could not weigh more than 125 pounds and, except for the 20-pound mailbag, carried little else. Most were teenagers.
The route was along the Oregon and California Trails from Missouri to Fort Bridger in Wyoming. The rider would follow the Mormon Trail to Salt Lake City. Then along the Central Nevada Route to Carson City, Nevada Territory, before passing over the Sierra mountains to Sacramento. From there, boat service would take the mail to San Francisco.
It was an immediate success putting California closer to the east.
And Then…
Two months after starting, Congress authorizes a bill subsidizing a transcontinental telegraph line from Missouri to the Pacific Coast.
By October of the following year, San Francisco is in direct contact with New York City. A month later, the last Pony Express rider delivers his mailbag.
Most of the original trail is just a memory, and some sections are matters of conjecture.
Of the original 186 stations, more than 100 still exist. Many became stagecoach stations.
Metal Horses
Sometime circa 1860, the first application for a railroad franchise goes before the state’s first legislature. They want to run a line between Carson City and Virginia City.
Two years later, President Lincoln passes the Pacific Railroad Bill to provide federal aid to construct a transcontinental railroad.
The Union Pacific will build westward from Council Bluff, Iowa. The Central Pacific would build eastward from Sacramento. By 1869, the two railroads meet north of Salt Lake City. The portion through Nevada is not far off the California Trail.
Towns begin blossoming along the rail line.
Circa 1890, Union Pacific Railroad begins construction of a route between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. Railroad engineers determine that the water-rich Las Vegas Valley is a prime location for a watering stop facility. The tracks arrive in Las Vegas by 1904, and a city is born.
In 1931, the Union Pacific would construct a rail line linking Las Vegas to Boulder City, where they are building a dam. The route requires the construction of five tunnels. Today, parts of that line are a recreation area.
A Sad Note
The trans-continental railroad owes a very big thank you to a group of workers whose presence has almost vanished.
Possibly 20,000 Chinese laborers made up sometimes 80-90% of the Central Pacific’s labor pool. The Chinese would work longer days for 30-60% less pay than Caucasians. The railroad would make them pay for their housing and food, a benefit they gave other workers.
They were not slave labor on paper, but treatment was certainly similar. Ones with mining experience would become engineers, explosives experts, and tunnellers. Others would learn to log, become masons, or blacksmiths.
“Chinatowns” pop up all along the track in Nevada. Reno, Sparks, and Winnemucca all had tent cities and a few “buildings” from scraps from the railroad.
Once the railroad was completed, the Chinese laborers became persona non-grata in many towns. Their neighborhoods mysteriously caught fire, and some towns would pass legislation banning them. Some would become almost slave labor in the mines. Others would move on.
Nothing remains of the original towns. A 1970s picnic pagoda in Reno and a marker here or there is the only visible evidence of their presence.
Ironically, Las Vegas had a small group of Chinese workers on the Salt Lake to Los Angeles project.
They have a Chinatown… mall. It has nothing to do with the Chinese Railroad workers.
More Irony – perhaps the best-documented study and record of the Chinese railroad workers are at Stanford University. Robber Baron Leland Stanford founded the university with money he made as president of the Central Pacific Railroad.
Nevada Where Gambling is Illegal
WHAT? Gambling was a problem in Nevada during the mining days. People could lose all their money, and the result was a fight or worse. In 1910, gambling became illegal.
Twenty years later, the U.S.A. is in a depression. As a temporary fix to the local economy, Nevada legalizes “gaming” in 1931.
Tax revenues from “gaming” make up more than 30% of the state’s revenue.
Reno was the gambling capital of Nevada in the 1930s. Much of that is having to do with easy access by train. In the 1940s, military bases began springing up, and casinos and other forms of entertainment.
The Oldest Profession.
Whiskey and the company of ladies go hand in hand throughout the old west. Wherever large groups of men gather, they are going to need a distraction. Prostitution came to Nevada soon after the first miner.
Although they tolerate it in many places, it did not become legal until 1971. A brothel owner, wanting to be within the law, was able to get legislators to approve. This upstanding business owner would lose his brothel for tax evasion and several other crimes not much later.
Today, the industry is still legal in some places. It is illegal in counties with large populations. However, many of these counties are close to less populated ones.
Today around 20 legal brothels are operating. The majority are near the California border around, but not in Las Vegas and Reno. The rest are near Elko, Nevada, along Interstate 80, which follows the transcontinental railroad and old California Trail. Coincidence?
Post War Nevada
Soldiers are coming home from war, and they are buying cars. They want to see the country they were defending.
Reno is a developed town celebrating its 80th birthday and maybe sitting on its laurels a bit too much.
On the rail line and highway from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles is a broad valley.
Las Vegas already has “gaming” since the depression. With the Hoover Dam construction nearby, Las Vegas weathers the 1930s better than most of the state.
In the 1940s, the city gets the Army Airfield Gunnery School. Another boost to the economy. Today that property is Nellis Air Force Base.
In 1946, the Golden Nugget and the Pioneer Club open on Freemont.
So why after the war, did this town of just over 24,000 residents boom? Undeveloped land spreading out so far and wide.
If You Build it.
Having trouble buying casinos within the city limits due to his reputation, Bugsey Siegel buys a property outside. In the last week of 1946, he opens the Flamingo Resort. It fails at first but begins to catch on by the following summer. It is the first luxury resort, but not the first hotel on the strip.
The Flamino joins the El Rancho and the Frontier. Both of these low-rises from the early 40s have western-themes.
Other large resorts with casinos follow. There is the Thunderbird in 1948, Desert Inn in 1950, The Sahara, and the Sands in 1952. In 1955 The Riviera and The Dunes open. A year later, The Hacienda, and in 1957 the Tropicana. 1958 saw the opening of the Stardust.
Caesars Palace and the Aladdin are newcomers debuting in 1966.
Nevada’s Other Boom
In 1951, the U.S. began above-ground nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles north of Las Vegas. The mushroom cloud is easily identifiable from Las Vegas. Atomic Cocktails, hair-dos, and beauty contests to crown Miss Atomic Blast pop up all over town.
Also, the best spots to watch the explosion. This booming goes on until 1963 when the test-ban treaty makes underground testing mandatory.
Nevada Today.
Just over three million people are living in Nevada. Around two million live in Clark County, around Las Vegas. The Reno / Sparks area has approximately 350,000, and Carson City, the capital, has just over 55,000. The rest of the population lives in small towns and rural areas.
Nevada’s economy makes its money from tourism (including entertainment and gaming), gold mining, and cattle ranching. Silver mining is a distant second place to gold.
There are four national parks in the state. Great Basin National Park and Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument are entirely within Nevada.
Death Valley National Park spills over into California and Lake Mead National Recreation Area, reaches into Arizona.
The UNESCO World Heritage site of the Grand Canyon and the Grand Canyon National Park is not in Nevada. They are on the border in Arizona.
While not a park, the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is also worth a visit.
State Parks
With close to 30 state parks, there is almost certainly something for everyone.
See dinosaur fossils at Berlin-Ichthyosaur and Ice Age Fossils parks.
Nevada History comes alive at Elgin, Fort Churchill, Mormon Station, Spring Mountain Ranch, Ward Charcoal Ovens, and more.
There are water sports at Rye Patch, Cave Rock, and Big Bend of the Colorado Parks. Cave Lake and South Fork Parks have great fishing.
For scenery, Washoe Lake, Valley of Fire, and Kershaw-Ryan parks are hard to beat.
Ghost Towns
I have never seen a ghost, so maybe the ruins of old towns would be a better name. Most of these date from the mining days. They are not movie sets or tourist traps built last year. That’s both good and bad. They are deteriorating because there is no one to do the upkeep in most cases.
Nevada has numerous sights in disrepair, but maybe only four that will still pass as towns. Many are only a building these days.
I have not found a “ghost” town in Nevada worth making a special trip to visit. However, if it is on the way, you may find it of some interest.
They are Rhyolite, which you can see going or coming from Death Valley in no specific order.
The town (few buildings) of Berlin is within the Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park.
Belmont has an impressive courthouse, but that’s about it.
The “Ghost Towns” I found most interesting, Goldfield, Jarbridge, Paradise Valley, and Unionville, have people, living breathing residents. So why do they call them ghost towns?
A few “don’t give up” individuals in these towns are trying to preserve a small part of their history. I wish I could give them more.
If you pass through, stop, and see their labors of love and toss them a few dollars. It will make you feel good.
Train Museums
The state has several excellent railroad museums. There are also several cars here and there that need to find homes.
Nevada Northern Railway Museum
Although there is a museum here, the working railyard and steam train are what will get your attention. Many consider it the best-preserved train facility in North America. Ely Nv is four hours from either Salt Lake City or Las Vegas. It is an hour away from the main gate at Great Basin National Park. Trains run year-round.
Nevada State Railroad Museum – Carson City.
Besides an exciting museum, it offers steam or streetcar rides around the property.
Nevada State Railroad Museum – Boulder
A.K.A., the Nevada Southern Railroad Museum, this museum in Boulder City is more hands-on. There are rides on life-size trains as well as smaller gauge rides around the grounds. There are also chances to ride with the engineer or become one briefly. Train rides are seasonal, so check the schedule on the website (orange link).
And Trains!
Thirty minutes north of Carson City is the best “ghost” town with living people and a railroad. The Virginia and Truckee Railroad began in 1869 as a freight railroad to the Comstock mines. Later, there a passenger service began.
In 1950, with the mines closed and the increase in autos, the train shut down. Luckily, some people with vision bought up the railroad before s. Today, trains run (seasonally) between Virginia City to Gold Hill and Carson City to Virginia City by diesel or steam.
I want to dislike Virginia City because it looks like Frontierland. But upon closer inspection, you realize it’s not a make-believe western town. There are a good number of buildings dating from its golden (silver) days.
The schoolhouse, Comstock Mine, Makay Mansion, St Mary’s, and the Washoe Club building will give you perspectives on the old.
A drive down the main street to see many original buildings is also a treat. Unfortunately, most of the interiors are now more for modern-day merchandizing. You will find more boutiques than stores with mining equipment and a sourdough starter.
And there is some touristy stuff, but not enough to ruin the real experience.
Nevada Summary
Is this everything to see in Nevada? Hardly. Don’t forget you can click on any orange link for more information.
Did you know the Las Vegas Strip is not really in Las Vegas? So do not judge the city by a four-mile piece of real estate. Las Vegas has a lot to offer beyond the strip.
And do not judge a state by one city.
Nevada has so much to offer. You will want to tell everybody what happens outside of Vegas.,
Nevada Destinations.
NORTH
CENTRAL.
SOUTH.