Nevada: Silver State
CAPITAL: Carson City
JOINED UNION: October 31, 1864
STATE BIRD: Mountain Bluebird
STATE FLOWER: Sagebrush
MEANING OF STATE NAME: Spanish word for "snow-clad"
1992 POPULATION: 1,327,387
RANK FOR POPULATION: 38
LAND AREA: 109,806 square miles
RANK IN SIZE IN UNION: 7
ECONOMY: Gambling, marriage and divorce, tourism, mining
HISTORY: Home to Paiute and Shoshone Indians, the Spanish explored Nevada
in 1776, but it was not until 1820 that white settlers and traders discovered the area.
Kit Carson explored the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin in the 1840s and, in 1848, the U.S.
acquired Nevada after the Mexican-American War. In 1849, Mormon Station became the first
settlement. Discovery of large veins of silver in 1858 gave rise to a Silver Rush in towns
like Virginia City. A rush of a different
kind occurred after 1931, the year that gambling and quick divorces became legal. Cities
like Las Vegas and Reno draw millions of tourists and conventioneers each year with top
entertainment acts and gambling. Similarly, many people go to Nevada for quick marriages
and for quick divorces. A very dry state with low annual rainfall, Nevada has few
inhabitants and has become a dumping ground for government and industrial toxic waste --
something many Nevada residents
are fighting.
This Volcano Is No Mirage 1931
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA
In 1931, Nevada legalized gambling. Soon after, Las Vegas became to that activity what
Hollywood is to motion pictures -- the capital. The state of Nevada has 151,362 slot
machines, with almost 100,000 of them in Clark County, home to Las Vegas. In 1992, Nevada
reported gambling gross income of over $5.7 billion, of which $4.2 billion came from Clark
County.
With so much money coming in, casino and hotel owners have catered to tourists' fantasies
when designing their buildings. Circus Circus Hotel-Casino is a circus-tent-shaped complex
with an entertainment park and a miniature Grand Canyon complete with river rapids. The
Mirage Hotel features a dolphin pool, manmade volcano that spits fire and water and a
tiger habitat. The Excalibur Hotel seeks to represent a medieval castle with turrets,
court jesters, and a showroom with jousting knights.
To crown all this non-textbook architecture, the city of Las Vegas lights up at night,
thanks to many, many miles of neon tubing. It is probably fair to say that Las Vegas is
the neon capital of the world...with Tokyo's Ginza and New York's Times Square muttering
protests.
With all this gambling, liquor, and party behavior, it is interesting that Las Vegas was
originally established as a Mormon settlement in 1855. With the Mormon ban on alcohol and
other "vices," it is remarkable that the city has made a 180-degree turn from
its roots.
