The Story of Nevada.
The Shoshone, Northern Paiute, and Washoe had lived in this basin-and-range landscape for thousands of years before Jedediah Smith became the first American to cross it in 1827, half-dead with thirst. They had adapted with precision to one of the most demanding environments on the continent — seasonal migrations, pinyon pine harvests, the fisheries of Pyramid Lake. Within a generation of American contact, the fish were mostly gone and the land was mostly claimed.
Everything changed in June 1859 when Henry Comstock stumbled onto a ledge of silver-and-gold ore in the hills above present-day Virginia City. The Comstock Lode was the richest single mineral deposit in American history. Within two years, Virginia City was the most sophisticated city between San Francisco and St. Louis — opera houses, gas lighting, a six-story hotel. Mark Twain arrived in 1861 to work as a reporter and left with the material for Roughing It. The silver funded the Union war effort and bought Nevada its statehood in October 1864, three weeks before the presidential election.
The Comstock played out by the 1880s and Nevada entered fifty years of slow depopulation. The state survived on ranching, a few remaining mines, and its peculiar willingness to permit what other states prohibited. In 1931, facing the Great Depression, Nevada legalized gambling and reduced the residency requirement for divorce to six weeks. That same year, construction began on Hoover Dam, which employed ten thousand workers and created the water supply that would eventually make Las Vegas possible.
The Cold War transformed Nevada’s empty desert into the most bombed landscape on earth. Between 1951 and 1992, the federal government detonated more than 900 nuclear devices at the Nevada Test Site northwest of Las Vegas — above ground until 1963, then underground. The fallout drifted east over Utah and Arizona. The “downwinders” who lived in small towns under the test clouds suffered elevated cancer rates for decades and filed claims that Congress eventually, partially, addressed.
Las Vegas grew from a railroad stop to the world’s entertainment capital in roughly forty years, fueled by mob money, corporate money, and the willingness of millions of Americans to leave their better judgment at home for a weekend. The gaming industry was eventually cleaned up, regulated, and institutionalized. Today Nevada is one of the fastest-growing states, driven by California refugees, a booming tech sector in Reno, and a tourism economy that generates more revenue per capita than almost anywhere in the country.
The Comstock Lode
The richest silver-and-gold deposit in American history is discovered near Virginia City. Within two years it funds the Union war effort and puts Nevada on the map.
Battle Born
Nevada is rushed into statehood on October 31, three weeks before the presidential election. Lincoln needs the electoral votes. Nevada’s constitution is telegraphed to Washington — the longest and most expensive telegram in history to that point.
The Railroad Crosses
The transcontinental railroad’s Central Pacific line runs through the length of Nevada, connecting the Comstock mines to San Francisco and driving the next wave of settlement.
Two Laws Change Everything
Nevada legalizes wide-open gambling and cuts the divorce residency requirement to six weeks. Construction begins on Hoover Dam. The state invents its modern identity in a single legislative session.
Hoover Dam
The largest dam in the world at completion. It creates Lake Mead, provides the water and power for Las Vegas’s expansion, and employs a generation of Depression-era workers.
The Test Site Opens
The first nuclear device is detonated at the Nevada Test Site. Over the next four decades, 928 more follow. The mushroom clouds are visible from Las Vegas hotel rooftops.
Howard Hughes Dies
The reclusive billionaire, who owned more of Las Vegas than anyone and once bought a television station to control his late-night viewing, dies on a plane en route from Mexico.
The Mob Exits
The last major organized crime influence is driven from Nevada’s gaming industry. Corporations take over what the mob built, and Las Vegas enters its era of megaresorts.
Burning Man Endures
The annual gathering on the Black Rock Desert — a temporary city of 80,000 in one of the most inhospitable playas in the country — becomes a cultural institution that Nevada can neither explain nor stop.
