Nevada
:
This article is about the U. S. state of Nevada. For other places, see Nevada (disambiguation)., but . In 2005, the state issued a new series of license plates that list the name of the state as
Nevăda to help with the pronunciation problem.
Nevada has borders with
Oregon and
Idaho to the north;
California to the west;
Arizona to the southeast; and
Utah to the east. The border with Arizona includes the
Colorado River and
Hoover Dam.
The state is broken up by several north-south mountain ranges. Most of those ranges have inland-draining valleys between them, which belies the image portrayed by the term
Great Basin.
Much of the northern part of the state is within the
Great Basin Desert, a colder desert that experiences hot temperatures in the summer and sub-freezing temperatures in the winter. Occasionally, moisture from the Arizona
Monsoon will cause summer thunderstorms;
Pacific storms may blanket the area with snow.
The
Humboldt River crosses from east to west across the northern part of the state, draining into the
Humboldt Sink near
Lovelock. Several rivers drain from the
Sierra Nevada eastward, including the
Walker,
Truckee and
Carson rivers.
The mountain ranges, some of which have peaks above 12,000 feet, harbor lush forests high above desert plains, creating
sky islands for endemic species. The valleys are often no lower in elevation than 3,000 feet.
The eastern parts of the state receive more summer moisture and have a slightly more verdant terrain. Sagebrush grows and some rivers and streams break the desert terrain.
The southern third of the state, including the Las Vegas area, is within the
Mojave Desert. The area receives less precipitation in the winter, but is closer to the Arizona Monsoon in the summer. The terrain is also lower, mostly below 4,000 feet, creating conditions for hotter summer days and colder winter nights due to
inversion.
The largest mountain range in the southern state is the
Spring Mountains, just west of Las Vegas. The state's lowest point is along the Colorado River, south of Laughlin.
Some have suggested that Nevada annex the town of
Wendover, Utah, which would be merged with
West Wendover, Nevada. This deal will require the permission of both the Nevada and Utah legislatures and the U.S. Congress.
Areas maintained by the
National Park Service include:
*
California National Historic Trail*
Death Valley National Park*
Great Basin National Park near
Baker*
Lake Mead National Recreation Area*
Old Spanish National Historic Trail*
Pony Express National Historic TrailDerived from the
Father Kino expeditions at the end of the 17
th century through north
Mexico and south U.S., Nevada passed to Spanish control, belonging to the Viceroyalty of
New Spain. In
1821 became part of the
First Mexican Empire of
Agustin de Iturbide, until
1823, and afterwards of
Mexico. As a result of the
Mexican-American War of 1846-48 and based on the
Guadalupe-Hidalgo Treaty, Nevada became part of the United States. On
August 14,
1850, the
U.S. Congress established the
Utah territory which included the present day states of
Utah,
Idaho and Nevada. The year
1859 saw the discovery of the
Comstock Lode, a rich outcropping of gold and silver, and
Virginia City sprang up. This discovery brought a flood of miners, prospectors, merchants and others hoping to strike it rich.
On
March 2,
1861, the
Nevada Territory separated from the Utah territory and adopted its current name, shortened from
Sierra Nevada (
Spanish for "snowy range"). On
October 31,
1864, just eight days prior to the
presidential election, Nevada became the 36th state in the union. Statehood was rushed through despite Nevada's tiny population to help ensure
Abraham Lincoln's reelection and post-Civil War
Republican dominance in congress. As Nevada's mining-based economy tied it to the more industrialized
Union, it was viewed as politically reliable (as opposed to the more
agrarian and
Confederate-sympathizing
California).
Nevada achieved its current boundaries on
May 5,
1866 when it absorbed the portion of
Pah-Ute County in the
Arizona Territory west of the Colorado River. The transfer was prompted by the discovery of gold in the area, and it was thought that Nevada would be better able to oversee the expected population boom. This area includes most of what is now
Clark County, Nevada.
Mining shaped Nevada's economy for many years. In the late
19th century, the
Comstock Lode played out, and Nevada went into a tailspin. There was even talk of stripping away statehood, the only time in American history such an action was discussed in Congress. However, the rich silver strike at
Tonopah in 1900 helped save the state. This was soon followed by strikes in
Goldfield and
Rhyolite in the following years. These strikes lasted well into the
1910s and made Nevada a dominant player in mining once again.
Over 87% of the land is owned by the Federal Government. The primary reason for this is that
homesteads were not permitted in large enough sizes to be viable in the arid conditions that prevail throughout Nevada. Instead, early settlers would homestead land surrounding a water source, and then graze
livestock on the adjacent public land, which is useless for
agriculture without access to water (this pattern of
ranching still prevails). The deficiencies in the
Homestead Act as applied to Nevada were probably due to a lack of understanding of the Nevada environment, although some firebrands (so-called "Sagebrush Rebels") maintain that it was due to pressure from mining interests to keep land out of the hands of common folk.
Gambling was common in the early Nevada mining towns but was outlawed in
1909 as part of a nation-wide anti-gaming crusade. Due to a sharp decline in mining output in the
1920s and the decline of the agricultural sector during the
Great Depression, Nevada re-legalized gambling on
March 19,
1931, when senate bill 98 was signed into law. 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.
In 1931, construction began on
Hoover Dam near Las Vegas. Thousands of workers from across the country came to build the dam, and providing for their needs in turn required many more workers. The dam, and later war industries such as the Basic Magnesium Plant, first started the growth of the southern area of the state. Over the next 75 years, Clark County grew in relation to the Reno area, until today it encompasses most of the state's population.
The
Nevada Test Site, 65 miles (105 km) northwest of the City of Las Vegas, was founded on
January 11,
1951 for the testing of
nuclear weapons. The site is composed of approximately 1,350 square miles (3,500 km²) of desert and mountainous terrain.
Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site began with a one-kiloton of TNT (4 [joule|terajoule]]) bomb dropped on Frenchman Flats on
January 27, 1951. The last atmospheric test was conducted on
July 17,
1962 and the underground testing of weapons continued until September 23,
1992.
| Historical populations |
|---|
Census
year | Population |
|---|
|
| 1860 | 6,857 |
| 1870 | 42,941 |
| 1880 | 62,266 |
| 1890 | 47,355 |
| 1900 | 42,335 |
| 1910 | 81,875 |
| 1920 | 77,407 |
| 1930 | 91,058 |
| 1940 | 110,247 |
| 1950 | 160,083 |
| 1960 | 285,278 |
| 1970 | 488,738 |
| 1980 | 800,493 |
| 1990 | 1,201,833 |
| 2000 | 1,998,257 |
According to the Census Bureau, as of 2005, Nevada has an estimated population of 2,414,807, which is an increase of 81,909, or 3.5%, from the prior year and an increase of 416,550, or 20.8%, since the year 2000. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 81,661 people (that is 170,451 births minus 88,790 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 337,043 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 66,098 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 270,945 people.
The racial/ethnic makeup of the state is:
*65.2% White (not of Hispanic origin)
*19.7% Hispanic
*6.8% Black
*4.5% Asian
*0.9% Native American
*1.4% Mixed race
(Note: People of Hispanic origin may be of any race.)
The five largest ancestry groups in Nevada are: German (14.1%), Mexican (12.7%), Irish (11%), English (10.1%), Italian (6.6%), American (4.8%).
In Clark and Pershing Counties, a plurality of residents are of Mexican ancestry; Nye County and Humboldt County have a plurality of German-Americans.
6.8% of its population were reported as under 5, 26.3% under 18, and 13.6% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 50.7% of the population. As a result of its rapid population growth, Nevada has a higher percentage of residents born outside of the state than any other state.
Nevada Population Density Map: |
Nevadapopulationdensity.png |
Nevada is the fastest growing state in the country. Between 2000 and 2003, Nevada's population increased 12.2%, while the USA's population increased 3.3%. Between 1990 and 2000, Nevada's population increased 66.3%, while the USA's population increased 13.1%. Over two thirds of the population of the state lives in the fast-growing
Las Vegas metropolitan area. If Congress were reapportioned using 2005 data, Nevada would gain a representative seat, for a total of 4.
Religion
The religious affiliations of the people of Nevada are:
*
Christian – 66%
**
Protestant – 44%
***
Baptist – 15%
***
Methodist – 6%
***
Lutheran – 3%
***Other Protestant – 21%
**
Roman Catholic – 24%
**Other Christian – 1%
**
Latter-day Saint – 12%
*Other Religions – 2%
*Non-Religious – 20%Nevada Population Density Map:
The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that Nevada's total state product in 2003 was $88 billion. Per capita personal income in 2003 was $31,910, 19
th in the nation. Its agricultural outputs are cattle, hay, dairy products, onions and potatoes. Its industrial outputs are tourism, mining, machinery, printing and publishing, food processing, and electric equipment. It is well-known for gambling and nightlife. Large, luxurious casinos in
Las Vegas,
Lake Tahoe and
Reno attract visitors from around the world.
In portions of the state outside of the Las Vegas and Reno metropolitan areas, mining and cattle ranching are the major economic activities. By value, gold is by far the most important mineral mined. In 2004 6.8 million ounces of gold worth $2.84 billion were mined in Nevada, and the state accounted for 8.7% of world gold production. Silver is a distant second, with 10.3 million ounces worth $69 million mined in 2004.
[Nevada Mining Association, Economic Overview of the Nevada Mining Industry 2004] Other minerals mined in Nevada include construction aggregates, copper, gypsum, diotomite and lithium. Despite its rich deposits, the cost of mining in Nevada is generally high, and output is very sensitive to world commodity prices.
As of January 1, 2006 there were an estimated 500,000 head of cattle and 70,000 head of sheep in Nevada.
[United States Department of Agriculture Nevada State Agriculture Overview - 2005 ] Most of these animals forage on
rangeland in the summer, with supplemental feed in the winter. Calves are generally shipped to out-of-state
feedlots in the fall to be fattened for market. Over 90% of Nevada's 484,000 acres of cropland is used to grow
hay, mostly alfalfa, for livestock feed.
Nevada is also one of only a few states with
no personal income tax. The state
sales tax in Nevada is 6.5%. Counties can assess
option taxes as well, making the combined state/county sales taxes rate in some areas as high as 7.75%. Sales tax in Carson City is 7.125% and sales tax in Washoe County is 7.375%.
Interstate 15 passes through the southern tip of the state, serving Las Vegas and other communities. It has spur routes
I-215 and
I-515.
Interstate 80 crosses through the northern part of Nevada, reaching from Utah in the east and passing westward through Reno and into California. It has a spur route,
I-580. Nevada also is served by several federal highways:
US-6,
US-50,
US-93,
US-95 and
US-395. There are also 189
Nevada State Highways. Nevada is one of a few states in the U.S. that does not have a continuous
Interstate highway linking its major poulation cores:
Reno,
Carson City, and
Las Vegas.
The state is one of just a few in the country that allow
semi-trailer combinations with three trailers—what might be called a "
road train" in
Australia. However, American versions are usually smaller, in part because they must ascend and descend some fairly steep mountain passes.
Union Pacific Railroad has some railroads in the north and in the south (
map).
Amtrak's
California Zephyr uses one of the northern branches in a daily service from
Chicago, Illinois to
Emeryville, California serving
Elko,
Winnemucca,
Sparks, and
Reno. [
1]
BNSF Railway has
trackage rights to the Union Pacific lines in the north.
Amtrak provides bus services from Las Vegas to
Needles, California and
Los Angeles ([
2]).
Greyhound Lines also provides some bus services.
Las Vegas has a bus network and a
monorail system that is being extended.
McCarran International Airport in Paradise,Nevada is one of the busiest airports in the United States. The
Reno-Tahoe International Airport (formerly known as the Reno Cannon International Airport) is the other major airport in the state. The city of Elko also has an airport with regular commercial service.
There are also bus services in Reno/Sparks, and from there to Carson City. Some counties do not have public transport at all, for example Eureka County.
Nevada's governor is
Kenny Guinn (
Republican). Nevada's two
U.S. senators are
Harry Reid (
Democrat) and
John Ensign (Republican).
Legislature
Nevada has a bicameral
legislature, divided into a
Senate and an
Assembly. Members of the Senate serve for 4 years, and members of the Assembly serve for 2 years. Each session of the Legislature meets for 4 months every two years, or longer if the Governor calls a special session. Currently, the Senate is controlled by the Republican Party and the Assembly is controlled by the Democratic Party.
Judiciary
Nevada is one of the few U.S. states without a system of intermediate appellate courts. It has a
state supreme court, the
Supreme Court of Nevada, which hears all appeals. The court lacks the power of discretionary review, so Nevada's judicial system is extremely congested.
Original jurisdiction is divided between the District Courts (with general jurisdiction), and Justice Courts and Municipal Courts (both of limited jurisdiction).
Libertarian laws
In 1900, Nevada's population was the smallest of all states and was shrinking, as the difficulties of living in a "barren desert" began to outweigh the lure of silver for many early settlers. Historian
Lawrence Friedman has explained what happened next:
Nevada, in a burst of ingenuity, built an economy by exploiting its sovereignty. Its strategy was to legalize all sorts of things that were illegal in
California ...
[a]fter easy
divorce came easy
marriage and
casino gambling. Even
prostitution is legal in Nevada, in any county that decides to allow it. Quite a few of them do.
[Lawrence M. Friedman, American Law in the Twentieth Century (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 596-597.]Besides prostitution laws (See
Prostitution in Nevada), a number of laws in Nevada, to this day, are noticeably more liberal (or
libertarian) than in most other states:
Divorce laws. Nevada's early reputation as a "divorce haven" arose from the fact that prior to the
no-fault divorce revolution in the 1970s,
divorces were quite difficult to obtain in the United States. To boost its fragile economy, Nevada adopted one of the most liberal divorce statutes in the nation. This resulted in
Williams v. North Carolina, , in which the
U.S. Supreme Court ruled that
North Carolina had to give "
full faith and credit" to a Nevada divorce.
Statutory rape laws. Nevada is currently the only state that has different ages of consent for different sexual practices. An adult may have "ordinary
sexual intercourse,
anal intercourse,
cunnilingus or
fellatio" with another person that is 16 years old or older (
NRS 200.364); however a different law makes it illegal to incite, entice, or solicit any minor (a person under 18) to engage in an "infamous crime against nature". (NRS 201.195). (
See also: Age of Consent).
Tax laws. Nevada's tax laws also draw new residents and businesses to the state. Nevada has no
personal income tax or
corporate income tax. [
3].
Incorporation laws. Nevada also provides friendly environment for the formation of
corporations, and many (especially California) businesspeople have incorporated their businesses in Nevada to take advantage of the benefits of the Nevada statute.
Nevada Corporations offer great flexibility to the
Board of Directors and simplify or avoid many of the rules that are cumbersome to business managers in some other states. In addition, Nevada has no
franchise tax.
Financial institutions. Similarly, many U.S. states have
usury laws limiting the amount of
interest a lender can charge, but Federal law allows corporations to 'import' these laws from their home state. Nevada (amongst others) has relatively lax interest laws, in effect allowing banks to charge as much as they want, hence the preponderance of
credit card companies in the state.
Politics
Due to the tremendous growth of
Las Vegas in recent years, there is a noticeable divide between politics of northern and southern Nevada. The north has long maintained control of key positions in the state government even while the Las Vegas area is larger than the rest of the state (the "cow counties"). This has fostered resentment as the north sees the south as a potential bully of majority rule and the south sees the north as the "old guard" trying to rule as an
oligarchy. Most people outside the state are not familiar with this rivalry.
The state is not dominated by either major political party. Republicans won Nevada three times in the 1980's. Democrat
Bill Clinton won the state in the
1992 and
1996 presidential elections and Republican
George Bush won Nevada in
2000 and
2004. In 2004, George Bush narrowly won the state's 5 electoral votes by a margin of 2 percentage points with 50.5% of the vote. Las Vegas' Clark County, which contains the vast majority of the state's population, was the only county to vote Democratic, however results show that all but five of Nevada's counties, including
Clark and
Washoe counties, the two largest in the state, are trending Democratic.
The most populous city is
Las Vegas.
| Rank | City | Population
within
city limits | Land Area
sq. miles | Population
Density
per sq mi | County |
|---|
| 1 | Las Vegas | 553,807 | 113.3 | 4,222.5 | Clark | | 2 | Henderson | 255,646 | 79.7 | 2,200.8 | Clark | | 3 | Paradise | 221,051 | 47.1 | 3,947.3 | Clark | | 4 | Reno | 206,629 | 69.1 | 2,611.4 | Washoe | | 5 | Sunrise Manor | 195,581 | 38.2 | 4,081.8 | Clark | | 6 | North Las Vegas | 177,751 | 78.5 | 1,471.0 | Clark | | 7 | Spring Valley | 176,552 | 33.4 | 3,519.4 | Clark | | 8 | Sparks | 88,518 | 23.9 | 2,773.6 | Washoe | | 9 | Carson City | 58,350 | 143.4 | 366 | Carson City | | 10 | Pahrump | 44,614 | 297.9 | 82.7 | Nye |
| Rank | County | Population
within
county limits | Land Area
sq. miles | Population
Density
per sq mi | Largest city |
|---|
| 1 | Clark | 1,715,337 | 7,910 | 174 | Las Vegas | | 2 | Washoe | 383,453 | 6,342 | 54 | Reno | | 3 | Carson City | 56,146 | 155.7 | 366 | Carson City | | 4 | Douglas | 47,803 | 710 | 58 | Gardnerville Ranchos | | 5 | Elko | 46,499 | 17,179 | 3 | Elko | | 6 | Lyon | 44,646 | 1,994 | 17 | Fernley | | 7 | Nye | 38,181 | 18,147 | 2 | Pahrump | | 8 | Churchill | 26,106 | 4,929 | 5 | Fallon | | 9 | Humboldt | 17,129 | 9,648 | 2 | Winnemucca | | 10 | White Pine | 8,966 | 8,876 | 1 | Ely |
Note: table was compiled using Nevada State estimates from 2004 for population and Census 2000 for area and density
10 richest places in NevadaRanked by per capita income
#Incline Village-Crystal Bay, Nevada $52,521#Kingsbury, Nevada $41,451#Mount Charleston, Nevada $38,821#Verdi-Mogul, Nevada $38,233#Zephyr Cove-Round Hill Village, Nevada $37,218#Summerlin South, Nevada $33,017#Blue Diamond, Nevada $30,479#Minden, Nevada $30,405#Boulder City, Nevada $29,770#Spanish Springs, Nevada $26,908
Colleges and universities*Sierra Nevada College
*Nevada System of Higher Education
**University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV)
**University of Nevada, Reno (UNR)
**Nevada State College at Henderson
**Community College of Southern Nevada (CCSN)
**Great Basin College
**Truckee Meadows Community College
**Western Nevada Community College
*Touro University - Nevada*Las Vegas Gladiators, Arena Football League
*Las Vegas 51s, minor league baseball
*Las Vegas Wranglers, East Coast Hockey League
*Reno Silver Sox, Golden Baseball LeagueNevada's nickname is "The Silver State" or "The Sagebrush State", and the state's motto is "All for Our Country". "Home Means Nevada" by Bertha Rafetto is the state song. The phrase "Battle Born" is on the state flag; "The Battle Born State" is the official state slogan, as Nevada was admitted into the union during the American Civil War.
Although the name is derived from the Spanish word nevada meaning "snowy", the local pronunciation of the state's name is not (in IPA) , but . Residents often regard the pronunciation as a test of whether visitors such as presidential candidates, have informed themselves about the state. In 2005, the state issued a new series of license plates that list the name of the state as Nevăda to help with the pronunciation problem.
Several United States Navy ships have been named USS Nevada in honor of the state.
Nevada is the only state with legalized prostitution.
Nevada is home to Nellis Air Force Base, a major testing and training base of the United States Air Force. Nellis is reputedly the home of Area 51, a top-secret installation of which the U.S. federal government has always denied existence. Area 51 is supposedly located in Groom Lake.
The paranormal radio talk show host Art Bell formerly lived in Pahrump, Nevada.
In Finnish language there is a very well known concept "Huitsin Nevada", which refers to some far away place in spoken language (in a same way as a saying "from here to Timbuktoo"). The origin and history of the saying is unknown. "Nevada" refers to the name of this US state and "Huitsin" is a slang word meaning "very" or "utter".State symbols | Digitally colored elevation map of Nevada |
*State animal: Desert Bighorn Sheep
*State artifact: Tule Duck Decoy
*State bird: Mountain Bluebird
*State colors: Silver and Blue
*State fish: Lahontan cutthroat trout
*State flower: Sagebrush
*State fossil: Ichthyosaur
*State grass: Indian ricegrass
*State march: "Silver State Fanfare" by Gerald Willis
*State metal: Silver (Ag)
*State motto: "All for our country"
*State precious gemstone: Virgin Valley black fire opal
*State semiprecious gemstone: Nevada turquoise
*State song: "Home Means Nevada" by Bertha Raffetto
*State reptile: Desert Tortoise
*State rock: Sandstone
*State soil: Orovada series
*State tartan: A particular tartan designed for Nevada by Richard Zygmunt Pawlowski
*State trees: Single-leaf Piñon and Bristlecone pine
A fictional history (with a great deal of fact) titled Nevada was written by Clint McCullough.*List of cities in Nevada
*List of Governors of Nevada
*List of law enforcement agencies in Nevada
*List of mountain ranges of Nevada
*List of Nevada counties
*List of Nevada rivers
*List of Nevada state prisons
*List of people from Nevada
*List of radio stations in Nevada
*List of television stations in Nevada
*List of United States Senators from Nevada
*List of ZIP Codes in Nevada
*Scouting in Nevada
*Official state website
*Nevada state symbols
*Nevada State Library and Archives — Why Did Nevada Become a State?
*Photos of Nevada - Terra Galleria
*US Census Bureau
*Nevada Employment State and County Data
*County Maps of Nevada Full color maps. List of cities, towns and county seats
*Nevada State Facts
* The Archaeology of Hidden Cave, Nevada - Electronic article published by the Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History.
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