#90 Nevada wasn’t always as big as it is.

Ok, for all you folks that moved here in recent years (and there are a lot of you) and don’t know much about the state you live in, or care, here is a brief overview of how Nevada evolved.

            President Buchanan signed Nevada into a Territory on March 2, 1861.  Two days later Lincoln was elected and commissioned James Nye as the Territorial Governor and Orion Clemens as the Territorial Secretary.  Clemens brought his younger brother, Samuel, with him as a private secretary.  Samuel you may know as Mark Twain.  Yet, that Mark Twain.  There is another whole story just in that

In 1861 Nevada (territory) was about one third the size of the state today.  The other two thirds belonged to Utah and to New Mexico territories.  There were parts of 10 Utah counties and 4 New Mexico counties overlaying what Nevada would later become.   By January 1862 the Utah counties had been reduced to six counties and the New Mexico counties were reduced to three.  New Mexico claimed the lower portion of Nevada while Utah claimed the eastern third of the future state of Nevada.

What would we be if New Mexico had kept that lower third?

By 1863 the Territory of Arizona was organized from the western portion of New Mexico Terr.  The lower portion of Nevada then became Mohave county of Arizona Terr.   October 31, 1864, Nevada became a state, but the lower portion remained within Arizona and the eastern third remained in Utah.  By 1865 Arizona cut Mohave county into Pah-Ute county and Mohave county.  In 1866 Nevada was given the eastern third that had been Utah counties but Arizona maintained the south third (where Las Vegas is today). 

So it was not till later in 1867 that the south area claimed by Arizona was taken over by Nevada.  Arizona did not accept that act and moved the county seat of Pah-Ute county to another town still within the area claimed now by Nevada.  Nevada did not become the state that it encompasses today until January 18, 1867.

 

PS:  Have you been to the new Storey County Slammer Museum in the Courthouse yet?

It is super and you are missing some great history of Storey County if you have not visited it yet.  8 to 5 in the courthouse.

 

Betcha didn’t know that stuff.

 

See ya on the hill !                                               

C.L.Y.