- Nevada: comes from the Spanish adjective meaning “snow-covered” or “snowy”
- Capital: Carson City
- Statehood: October 31, 1864
- Nickname: “The Silver State”
- Washoe (the early name for Nevada)
- Motto: “All For Our Country” (1866)
- Flower: sagebrush (1917)
- Tree: single-leaf pinyon (1953)
- Flag: the 1929 flag used the words “Battle Born”, and “Nevada” was added in 1991.
- Bird: Mountain Bluebird
Prehistory
Nevada was once under a shallow sea but over time the sea levels dropped forming wetlands, then a highly active volcanic island chain which helped form the Basin and Range province. This then turned into woodlands allowing plants and wildlife to thrive. The oldest known petroglyphs in North America are in the Great Basin near the banks of Winnemucca Lake in Nevada, this rock art dates between 10,500 and 14,800 years ago.
Territory
Nevada was explored and claimed by the Spanish Empire making it a part of Alta California province in 1804, but the Mexican War of Independence won in 1821 acquired the area for Mexico. In 1848 the Mexican-American War and Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo caused Mexico to lose the territory to America. The state’s area evolved first as part of the Utah Territory then it was turned into the Nevada Territory.
Statehood
Eight days before the presidential election of 1864, Nevada became the 36th state in the Union, despite lacking the minimum 60,000 residents that Congress typically required a potential state to have. At the time, Nevada’s population was little more than 40,000.
Governor Nye was frustrated that previous attempts to send the constitution via overland mail and by sea had failed, so on October 26th the full text was sent by telegraph at a cost of $4,303.27, the costliest telegraph on file at the time for a single dispatch, equivalent to $83,831.36 today. Finally, the response from Washington came on October 31, 1864: “the pain is over, the child is born, Nevada this day was admitted into the Union”. Statehood was rushed to the date of October 31st to help ensure Abraham Lincoln’s reelection on November 8th and post-Civil War Republican dominance in Congress, as Nevada’s mining-based economy tied it to the more industrialized Union.
Nevada Day
Observed:
Friday, October 25, 2024
Nevada Day is a legal holiday in the state of Nevada it commemorates the state’s October 31, 1864, admission to the Union.
The first known observance of Nevada Day (originally known as Admission Day) was by the Pacific Coast Pioneer society during the 1870s. The Nevada Legislature established it as a state holiday in 1933. It was originally observed on October 31st but to give it a three-day weekend, in 2000 Nevada Day was moved to the last Friday in October.
