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A state of the western United States. It was admitted as the 36th state in 1864. Part of the area ceded by Mexico to the United States in 1848, it became a separate territory in 1861 after an influx of settlers drawn by the discovery (1859) of the Comstock Lode. Carson City is the capital and Las Vegas the largest city. Population: 2,500,000.
Nevadan Ne·vad'an or Ne·vad'i·an adj. & n.
For more information on Nevada, visit Britannica.com.
Nevada was the fastest growing state in the United States during the last half of the twentieth century. Its population increased from a mere 160,000 in 1950 to just over 2,000,000 in 2001. It was the thirty-sixth state to be admitted to the Union, its official statehood proclaimed on 31 October 1864, with Carson City designated as its capital.
Early History and Exploration
The area that became Nevada was first inhabited between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago, and small stone dart points, called Clovis points, have been found among rock shelters and caves, indicating that early peoples gathered and hunted their food. Around 300 B.C., the culture of the Anasazis appeared; the Anasazis dominated the area for more than a thousand years, living in caves and houses made with adobe and rock and eventually developing a more agriculturally based culture. Migrating tribes replaced the Anasazis, and by the time Europeans first entered the area it was dominated by three Native American tribes—the Paiutes, the Shoshones, and the Washoes. Spanish explorers ventured into areas of Nevada in the late eighteenth century but never established settlements in the mostly arid environment. In 1821, Mexico laid claim to the territory after a successful revolt against Spain, and in 1848 the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago ceded the land to the United States.
Much of the Nevada territory had by that time been explored, primarily by Peter Skene Ogden of Canada and the Hudson's Bay Company and Jedediah Smith of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. Smith, on his way over-land to California, entered Nevada in the late summer of 1826 (near present-day Bunkerville). In 1827, he traveled east and north from California, across the Sierras and into the central part of Nevada, the first white man to cross the territory. Ogden made three important expeditions, in 1828, 1829, and 1830, discovering the Humboldt River (he called it the Unknown River) and tracing its path from its source to its sink, where the river empties into marshy flats and evaporates.
In 1843 and 1844, John C. Frémont explored the area from the northwestern corner of the state south to Pyramid Lake and then southwest across the Sierras to California, calling it the Great Basin. His publicized expeditions and mappings of the territory helped establish settlements and routes for westward-bound settlers and miners, especially after the discovery of gold in California in 1849.
Statehood and Economic Boom
In 1850, the federal government created the Utah Territory, which included almost all of what is now Nevada. Much of it was Mormon-dominated territory after 1851, but the discovery of gold in the late 1850s drew non-Mormons into western Nevada, including a flood of miners from California who came upon hearing the news of the Comstock Lode silver strike, the richest deposit of silver in American history. After the Comstock, small towns sprang up and Virginia City became an important crossroads, trading post, and mining camp.
The importance of the Comstock silver helped gain approval from the federal government for the creation of the Territory of Nevada in 1861. In 1863, a constitutional convention was held in Carson City and a state constitution was drafted. A bitter battle between those who favored small mining interests and the political power of the large San Francisco mining companies ensued, and ratification of the newly drawn state constitution was hotly contested. Although the majority of residents favored statehood, in early 1864 voters rejected the constitution, effectively ending their chances for admission into the Union. However, the U.S. Congress and President Abraham Lincoln, waging the Civil War (1861–1865) and in need of additional support for the Thirteenth Amendment, strongly desired Nevada's admission into the Union. A second constitution was ratified in March of 1864 and, in spite of not meeting the population requirements for statehood, by October, Nevada was a new state. Its entry into the Union during the Civil War earned it the nickname "The Battle Born State."
The early years of statehood were dominated by economic issues of the mining industry, specifically the silver industry. In 1873, the federal government discontinued the minting of silver coins and the Comstock declined. The 1880s and 1890s were marked by economic depression and a consequent population decrease, but a revival of the mining industry, spurred by silver and copper ore discoveries in southwestern and eastern Nevada, brought in new investment capital, and the completion of the transcontinental railroad caused another boom.
The Twentieth Century
Nevada politics in the twentieth century were dominated by land-use issues. In the early part of the century, federal irrigation projects helped stimulate agriculture, expand farmland, and encourage cattle and sheep ranching. Hoover Dam and the creation of Lake Mead in the 1930s was welcomed for the economic stimulus provided, but other federal projects have been greeted with less enthusiasm. In the 1950s, the Atomic Energy Commission conducted aboveground nuclear tests at Frenchman Flat and Yucca Flat—events that met with little protest at the time but that nonetheless chafe many Nevadans in retrospect. During the 1970s, Nevadans led other western states in an attempt to regain control of the land from the federal Bureau of Land Management. In 1979, the state legislature passed a law requiring the return of 49 million acres of federally owned land to the State of Nevada. The movement, dubbed the "Sagebrush Rebellion," caused a brief controversy and ultimately lost in the federal courts, and the issue remains a sore point for many Nevadans. In 1987, the Department of Energy named Yucca Mountain as its primary high-level nuclear waste depository, a decision the State of Nevada continued to fight at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Economic changes also took place throughout the twentieth century. The 1930s saw a transformation in the Nevada economy. In 1931 gambling was legalized throughout the state, with the exception of Boulder City, where housing had been built for government employees working on Hoover Dam. Earlier in the state's history, as with much of the United States, gambling had been legal. In the early 1900s, however, gambling prohibition swept the country, and in 1910 gambling was outlawed in Nevada. In spite of severe restrictions, illegal gambling still thrived in many parts of the state, especially in Las Vegas. During the Great Depression the need for state revenues and economic stimulus led Nevadans to approve the return of legalized gambling, and Nevada passed some of the most liberal gambling laws in the country.
World War II (1939–1945) brought military air bases to Las Vegas and Reno, and federal agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service, which managed more than 85 percent of Nevada's land, brought public employees and some measure of prosperity to the more urban regions of the state. But it was the tourism industry that was shaping Nevada's economic future. During the 1940s, as other states cracked down on legalized gambling, Nevada's embrace of the gaming industry drew developers and tourists and boosted the state's economy, but it also drew organized crime. Criminal elements from the east coast and from nearby Los Angeles were instrumental in the development of some of the more famous casinos, including The Flamingo, opened in 1946 by New York mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel.
After World War II, the gaming and entertainment industries were expanded, especially in Reno, Las Vegas, and on the California border at Lake Tahoe. T he tourism industry benefited from low tax rates, and legal gambling and top entertainers brought in visitors as well as new residents. Although organized crime played a significant role in the early development of Nevada's urban centers, especially in Las Vegas, the federal government pressured the state to strengthen license regulations and by the 1960s the stigma of gangster-owned casinos was on the wane.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Las Vegas and the surrounding area in Clark County grew tremendously and soon became the home of a quarter of the state's residents. Several large hotels and casinos opened and became internationally famous, including The Dunes (1955), The Tropicana (1957), and The Stardust (1958). The 1960s saw the boom continue with the openings of The Aladdin (1963), Caesar's Palace (1966), and Circus Circus (1968). The glamour and legal legitimacy of casinos and hotel resorts began to draw corporate development from beyond the gambling industry, and by 1970 Las Vegas was more associated with billionaire Howard Hughes than with gangsters such as Bugsy Siegel.
Although Nevada's population continued to increase during the 1980s, a sluggish economy meant a decline in casino and resort development. In 1988, voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment prohibiting state income tax. The 1990s saw a burst of development in the Reno-Sparks area and, more dramatically, in Las Vegas and Clark County. Las Vegas reshaped itself as a destination for families, not just gamblers, and many of the old casinos from the 1950s and 1960s were closed and demolished. They were replaced by bigger, more upscale hotels and theme casinos such as The Mirage (opened in 1989), The Luxor (1993), The Monte Carlo (1996), New York-New York (1997), and Paris, Las Vegas (1999). In 1996 The Stratosphere casino was opened in Las Vegas, inside the tallest building west of the Mississippi.
Although much of Nevada is open land, the population is predominantly urban. The state's total area is about 110,000 miles, but because much of the eastern side is federal land designated for military use or grazing and mining territory, the population centers are on the western side, near the California border to the south and west and the Arizona border to the south and east. The city of Las Vegas at the time of the 2000 census had a population of nearly 500,000, but the metropolitan area, including part of northern Arizona, had a total population of over 1.5 million. The Reno-Sparks metropolitan area had a population of 339,486 in 2000.
More than 75 percent of the state's population were born outside Nevada. The 2000 census reported that more than 75 percent of the population identified themselves as white, 6.8 percent as African American, and 4.5 percent as Asian. Those who identified themselves as being of Hispanic ancestry increased from just over 10 percent to more than 19 percent.
Although the service industry, through casinos and resorts, employs most Nevada residents, there is some manufacturing (gaming machines, aerospace equipment, and products related to irrigation and seismic monitoring) and a significant number of employees of the federal government, especially the military. U.S. military installations in Nevada include Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, the Naval Air Station in Fallon, and the Army and Air National Guard Base in Carson City. Perhaps Nevada's most famous military base is the so-called secret or underground base known as "Area 51," located north of Las Vegas near Groom Lake. Self-proclaimed "ufologists" have perpetuated a rumor for decades that Area 51 is the location of nefarious U.S. government schemes that include secret spy planes and an alleged craft from outer space, said to have crashed near Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947.
The state flag, modified in 1991 from the original design approved in 1929, features a cobalt blue background behind a five-pointed silver star that sits forming a wreath between two sprays of sagebrush. Across the top of the wreath it reads "Battle Born" in black letters, with the state name in gold letters below the stars and above the sagebrush. Besides the Battle Born moniker, Nevada is also called "The Silver State" and "The Sagebrush State" (sagebrush is the state flower), and the state motto, of undetermined origin, is "All for Our Country."
Although it consists mostly of mountainous and desert terrain with altitudes between 1,000 and more than 13,000 feet (the state's highest point, Boundary Peak, is 13,145 feet), Nevada also has rivers and lakes. These include the Humboldt, Colorado, and Truckee Rivers and Pyramid Lake (the state's largest natural lake) and Lake Mead (the state's largest artificial lake, backed up by Hoover Dam on the Colorado River), and 5 million acres of designated national forestland.
Bibliography
Elliott, Russell R. History of Nevada. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1973.
Farquhar, Francis Peloubet. History of the Sierra Nevada. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965.
Laxalt, Robert. Nevada. New York: Coward-McCann, 1970.
Smith, Grant H. The History of the Comstock Lode, 1850–1997. Reno: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, 1998.
The Official State of Nevada Web Site. Home page at http://silver.state.nv.us/.
Facts and Figures
Area, 110,540 sq mi (286,299 sq km). Pop. (2000) 1,998,257, a 66.3% increase since the 1990 census. Capital, Carson City. Largest city, Las Vegas. Statehood, Oct. 31, 1864 (36th state). Highest pt., Boundary Peak, 13,143 ft (4,009 m); lowest pt., Colorado River, 470 ft (143 m). Nickname, Silver State. Motto, All for Our Country. State bird, mountain bluebird. State flower, sagebrush. State tree, single-leaf piñon. Abbr. Nev.; NV
Geography
Most of Nevada lies within the Great Basin of the Basin and Range region of North America. The rivers in the southeast belong to the Colorado River system, while those of the extreme north drain into the Snake. Like the Humboldt, most Nevada rivers go nowhere, ending instead in desolate alkali sinks—except where they have been diverted for irrigation and reclamation, as by the Humboldt project, the Newlands project, and the Truckee River storage project.
The alkali sinks and arid stretches clothed with sagebrush and creosote bush typify Nevada's landscape. Its mountain chains generally run north and south, further segmenting the state. On the California border stand the lofty Sierra Nevada [snowy range]. In the driest state in the nation, days and nights are generally clear. The mean elevation is c.5,500 ft (1,676 m). In the north and west winters reach extreme cold, while in parts of the south the summers approach ovenlike heat.
Carson City is the capital; Las Vegas is the largest city, and Reno the second largest. Outside the cities, visitors are attracted to Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, with its facilities for fishing, swimming, and boating; Lake Tahoe and Death Valley National Park, both on the California line; Lehman Caves National Monument; Great Basin National Park; and restored mining ghost towns like Virginia City.
Economy
Many of the high plateau areas are excellent for grazing, and cattle and sheep raising are important industries. Because of the prevailing dryness and the steep slopes, agriculture is not highly developed, but is devoted mainly to growing hay and other feed for cattle; however, potatoes, onions, and some other crops are also cultivated.
Nevada's riches do not grow from its land; rather, almost incredible wealth lies below its surface. Although copper mining is now much less dominant than before, Nevada is the nation's leading producer of gold, silver, and mercury. Petroleum, diatomite, and other minerals are also extracted. The state's manufactures include gaming machines and products, aerospace equipment, lawn and garden irrigation devices, and seismic monitoring equipment. Warehousing and trucking are also significant Nevada industries.
Nevada's economy, however, is overwhelmingly based on tourism, especially the gambling (legalized in 1931) and resort industries centered in Las Vegas and, to a lesser extent, Reno and Lake Tahoe. Gambling taxes are a primary source of state revenue. The service sector employs about half of Nevada's workers. Liberal divorce laws made Reno “the divorce capital of the world” for many years, but similar laws enacted in other states ended this distinction. Much of Nevada (almost 80% of whose land is federally owned) is given over to military and related use. Nellis Air Force Base and the Nevada Test Site have been the scene of much nuclear and aircraft testing; Yucca Mountain is slated to be the primary depository for U.S. nuclear wastes.
Government and Higher Education
Nevada's constitution was adopted in 1864. The legislature is composed of 21 senators and 42 assembly members. The governor is elected for a four-year term; Bob Miller, a Democrat in office since 1989, was succeeded by Republican Kenny Guinn, elected in 1998 and reelected in 2002. Another Republican, Jim Gibbons, was elected governor in 2006. The state elects two U.S. senators and two representatives and has four electoral votes. Nevada's leading institution of higher education is the Univ. of Nevada, at Reno and at Las Vegas.
History
Early Exploration
In the 1770s several Spanish explorers came near the area of present-day Nevada but it was not until half a century later that fur traders venturing into the Rocky Mts. publicized the region. Jedediah S. Smith came across S Nevada on his way to California in 1827. The following year Peter Skene Ogden, a Hudson's Bay Company man trading out of the Oregon country, entered NE Nevada. Joseph Walker in 1833–34 followed the Humboldt R. and crossed the Sierra Nevada to California.
Later many wagon trains crossed Nevada on the way to California, especially during and after the gold rush of 1849. Travelers going to California over the Old Spanish Trail also crossed S Nevada, and Las Vegas became a station on the route. Guided by Kit Carson, John C. Frémont had explored much of the state between 1843 and 1845, and his reports gave the federal government its first comprehensive information on the area, which the United States acquired from Mexico in the Mexican War. These accounts may have aided Brigham Young when he was shepherding the Mormons west to build a new home in the mountains and valleys of Utah.
The Lure of Minerals
When in 1850 the federal government set up the Utah Territory, almost all of Nevada was included except the southern tip, which was then part of New Mexico. Non-Mormons had been averse to settling in Mormon-dominated territory, but after gold was found in 1859 non-Mormons did come into the area. A rush from California began and multiplied manyfold as news of the Comstock Lode silver strike spread. Most of the newcomers preferred to consider themselves as still being within California, and a political question was added to the general upheaval. Meanwhile, miners came helter-skelter, raising camps that grew overnight into such booming and raucous places as Virginia City.
Partly to impose order on the lawless, wide-open mining towns, Congress made Nevada into a territory in 1861 as migrant prospectors and settlers poured in. The territory was then enlarged by increasing its eastern boundary by one degree of longitude in 1862. It was rushed into statehood in 1864, with Carson City as its capital. President Lincoln (in order to get more votes to pass the Thirteenth Amendment) had signed the proclamation even though the territory did not actually meet the population requirement for statehood.
In 1866 Nevada acquired its present-day boundaries when the southern tip was added and more eastern land was gained from Utah. Communications with the East, which had been briefly maintained by the Pony Express, were firmly established by the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. The state continued to be dependent on its precious ores, and its fate was affected by new strikes such as the “big bonanza” (1873), which enriched the silver kings, J. W. Mackay and J. G. Fair, and the discoveries of silver deposits at Tonopah (1900), of copper at Ely, and of gold at Goldfield (1902).
Resting on such an undiversified base, the economy was seriously shaken by mining depressions and by fluctuations in the market prices of the minerals. Naturally the political leaders of Nevada were vociferous in favor of the free coinage of silver. From the 1870s to the 1890s the people of Nevada were strong supporters of the “cheap money” advocates and were thus linked with the discontented farmers of the Midwest in favoring the Bland-Allison Act and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act (although both were considered insufficient measures). They enthusiastically endorsed the silver program of William Jennings Bryan and the Democrats in 1896, and even after its resounding defeat they continued to clamor for government purchase and coinage of silver.
The Federal Government and Population Growth
In the 20th cent. the federal government has played a major role in Nevada's development. Some federal works, like the Newlands Irrigation Project (1907)—the nation's first federal irrigation project—and the Hoover Dam (completed in 1936), have been generally welcomed. Others have aroused opposition. The Atomic Energy Commission began conducting nuclear tests in Nevada at Frenchman Flat and Yucca Flat in the 1950s. In 1987 the Department of Energy chose Yucca Mountain for the storage of high-level nuclear wastes; the state has continued to fight that decision. Federal activities in general gave impetus to the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, which demanded that the U.S. government give Nevada lands “back” to Nevadans.
Nevada's population, sparse since the time when the Paiute and other tribes eked out a meager living from the land and animals, increased by more than 1200% between 1950 and 2000. One of the fastest-growing U.S. states (and many years the fastest-growing), Nevada is increasingly home to retirees and to workers in new, especially technological, industries.
Bibliography
See R. R. Elliott, History of Nevada (1973); R. G. Lillard, Desert Challenge: An Interpretation of Nevada (1942, repr. 1979); H. H. Bancroft, History of Nevada, 1540–1888 (1982); H. S. Carlson, Nevada Place Names: A Geographical Dictionary (1985); R. R. Elliott and W. D. Rowley, History of Nevada (1987); D. Thomson, In Nevada (1999).
State in the western United States bordered by Oregon and Idaho to the north, Utah and Arizona to the east, and California to the south and west. Its capital is Carson City, and its largest city is Las Vegas.
Local Time: May 16, 1:18 PM
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| State of Nevada | |||||||||||
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| Official language(s) | English | ||||||||||
| Capital | Carson City | ||||||||||
| Largest city | Las Vegas | ||||||||||
| Area | Ranked 7th | ||||||||||
| - Total | 110,567 sq mi (286,367 km²) |
||||||||||
| - Width | 322 miles (519 km) | ||||||||||
| - Length | 490 miles (788 km) | ||||||||||
| - % water | 0.7 | ||||||||||
| - Latitude | 35° N to 42° N | ||||||||||
| - Longitude | 114° 2′ W to 120° W | ||||||||||
| Population | Ranked 35th | ||||||||||
| - Total (2000) | 1,988,258 | ||||||||||
| - Density | 18.21/sq mi 7.03/km² (43rd) |
||||||||||
| - Median income | $46,984 (16th) | ||||||||||
| Elevation | |||||||||||
| - Highest point | Boundary Peak[1] 13,140 ft (4,005 m) |
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| - Mean | 5,499 ft (1,676 m) | ||||||||||
| - Lowest point | Colorado River[1] 479 ft (146 m) |
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| Admission to Union | October 31, 1864 (36th) | ||||||||||
| Governor | Jim Gibbons (R) | ||||||||||
| U.S. Senators | Harry Reid (D) John Ensign (R) |
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| Congressional Delegation | List | ||||||||||
| Time zones | |||||||||||
| - most of state | Pacific: UTC-8/-7 (DST) | ||||||||||
| - West Wendover | Mountain: UTC-7/-6 (DST) | ||||||||||
| Abbreviations | NV US-NV | ||||||||||
| Web site | www.nv.gov | ||||||||||
Nevada (IPA: /nɨˈvæːdə/) is a
state located in the western region of the
Much of Nevada is desolate wilderness, from the Mojave Desert in the south to the Great Basin in the north, and about 86% of the state's land is actually controlled by the US federal government under various jurisdictions including military.[2] As of 2006, the population of the state was about 2.6 million, with over 85% residing in the metropolitan areas around Las Vegas and Reno.[3] The state is well known for its easy marriage and divorce proceedings, legalization of gambling and, in some counties, prostitution. It also has some of the country's strictest drug laws.
Although the name is derived from the Spanish word Nevada, which is the feminine form of "covered in snow", the local pronunciation of the state's name is not IPA: [nəˈvɑ.də], but IPA: [nəˈvæ.də]. In 2005, the state issued a specialty license plate via the Nevada Commission on Tourism that lists the name of the state as Nevăda to help with the pronunciation problem.
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 mild 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 state's highest recorded temperature
was
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 feet ( m), harbor lush forests high above desert plains, creating sky islands for endemic species. The valleys are often no lower in elevation than feet ( m).
The eastern parts of the state receive more summer moisture and have a slightly more verdant terrain. Sagebrush grows everywhere and some rivers and streams break the desert terrain.
The southern third of the state, where the Las Vegas area is situated, is within the Mojave Desert. The area receives less rain in the winter but is closer to the Arizona Monsoon in the summer. The terrain is also lower, mostly below feet ( m), creating conditions for hot summer days and cool to chilly winter nights due to inversion.
Nevada and California have by far the longest diagonal line (in respect to the cardinal directions) as a state boundary at just over miles ( km). This line begins in Lake Tahoe nearly miles ( km) offshore (in the direction of the boundary), and continues to the Colorado River where the Nevada, California, and Arizona boundaries merge miles ( km) southwest of the Laughlin Bridge.
The largest mountain range in the southern portion of the state is the Spring Mountains, just west of Las Vegas. The state's lowest point is along the Colorado River, south of Laughlin.
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"). Eight days prior to the presidential election of 1864, Nevada became the 36th state in the union. Statehood was rushed to the date of October 31 - coincidentally Halloween - to help ensure Abraham Lincoln's reelection and post-Civil War Republican dominance in Congress. [5] As Nevada's mining-based economy tied it to the more industrialized Union, it was viewed as more politically reliable than other Confederate-sympathizing states such as neighboring California. It is a common misconception that one of the reasons Nevada was granted statehood was its large deposits of silver and gold. This is merely a myth, however, and would have been illogical in that Congress had unlimited control over these resources when Nevada was a territory and only limited control after Nevada became a state.
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, essentially all of present day Nevada south of the 37th parallel. The transfer was prompted by the discovery of gold in the area, and it was thought by officials that Nevada would be better able to oversee the expected population boom. This area includes most of what is now Clark County.
Mining shaped Nevada's economy for many years (see Silver mining in Nevada). However in the late 19th century, Nevada found it increasingly more difficult to compete with states such as Colorado and Utah in the mining industry. There was even talk of stripping away statehood, the only time in American history such an action was discussed in Congress[citation needed]. However, the rich silver strike at Tonopah in 1900 is thought to have saved the state from near collapse. This was followed by strikes in Goldfield and Rhyolite, lasting well into the 1910s and making Nevada a dominant player in mining once again.
Unregulated gambling was common place in the early Nevada mining towns but outlawed in 1909 as part of a nation-wide anti-gaming crusade. Due to subsequent declines in mining output and the decline of the agricultural sector during the Great Depression, Nevada re-legalized gambling on March 19, 1931, with approval from the legislature. 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, and the industry has become Nevada's primary source of revenue today.
In 1931, construction began on Hoover Dam near Boulder City. Thousands of workers from across the country came to build the dam, and providing for their needs in turn required many more workers. The boom in population is likely to have fueled the relegalization of gambling, alike present-day industry. Both Hoover Dam and later war industries such as the Basic Magnesium Plant first started the growth of the southern area of the state near Las Vegas. Over the last 75 years, Clark County has grown in relation to the Reno area, and today encompasses most of the state's population.
The Nevada Test Site, miles ( 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 square miles ( km²) of desert and mountainous terrain. Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site began with a one-kiloton of TNT (4 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. The location is known for the highest amount of concentrated nuclear detonated weapons in the U.S.
Over 80% of the state's area 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 desert 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. This debate continues to be argued among some state historians today.
| Historical populations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1860 |
—
|
||
| 1870 | 526.2% | ||
| 1880 | 45.0% | ||
| 1890 | -23.9% | ||
| 1900 | -10.6% | ||
| 1910 | 93.4% | ||
| 1920 | -5.5% | ||
| 1930 | 17.6% | ||
| 1940 | 21.1% | ||
| 1950 | 45.2% | ||
| 1960 | 78.2% | ||
| 1970 | 71.3% | ||
| 1980 | 63.8% | ||
| 1990 | 50.1% | ||
| 2000 | 66.3% | ||
According to the Census Bureau's 2006 estimate, Nevada has an estimated population of 2,495,529, which is an increase of 92,909, or 3.5%, from the prior year and an increase of 516,550, 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. According to the 2006 census estimate, Arizona has replaced Nevada to become the fastest growing state in the country, percentage-wise. Nevada is now the second fastest growing out of the fifty states, having been in 1st place for about 60 straight years.[6]
The center of population of Nevada is located in southern Nye County [3].
| Demographics of Nevada (csv) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| By race | White | Black | AIAN | Asian | NHPI |
| AIAN is American Indian or Alaskan Native - NHPI is Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander | |||||
| 2000 (total population) | 86.11% | 7.67% | 2.17% | 5.67% | 0.83% |
| 2000 (Hispanic only) | 18.78% | 0.44% | 0.45% | 0.25% | 0.11% |
| 2005 (total population) | 84.25% | 8.58% | 2.15% | 6.87% | 0.92% |
| 2005 (Hispanic only) | 22.31% | 0.69% | 0.51% | 0.30% | 0.12% |
| Growth 2000-2005 (total population) | 18.23% | 35.25% | 20.23% | 46.27% | 33.72% |
| Growth 2000-2005 (non-Hispanic only) | 11.17% | 31.96% | 16.39% | 46.36% | 33.55% |
| Growth 2000-2005 (Hispanic only) | 43.57% | 88.97% | 34.74% | 44.46% | 34.84% |
The largest reported ancestry groups in Nevada are: German (14.1%), Mexican (12.7%), Irish (11%), English (10.1%), Italian (6.6%), Filipino (5.2%), and American (4.8%). Nevada also has a sizable Basque ancestry population. In Clark and Pershing Counties, a plurality of residents are of Mexican ancestry; Nye County and Humboldt County have a plurality of German-Americans.
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 16.19% of the population aged 5 and over speak Spanish at home, while 1.59% speak Filipino [4].
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.
From about the 1940s to 2003, Nevada was the fastest growing state in the country percentage-wise. 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 live 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.
The religious affiliations of the people of Nevada are:[citation needed]
The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that Nevada's total state product in 2003 was $88 billion. Resort areas such as Las Vegas, Reno, Lake Tahoe, and Laughlin attract visitors from around the world. Per capita personal income in 2003 was $31,910, 19th in the nation. Its agricultural outputs are cattle, hay, alfalfa, dairy products, onions and potatoes. Its industrial outputs are tourism, mining, machinery, printing and publishing, food processing, and electric equipment. Prostitution is legal in parts of Nevada in the form of brothels but only counties with populations under 400,000 people can legalize it, and those counties may choose to outlaw it if they wish. Prostitution is illegal in Clark County (where Las Vegas sits), Washoe County
