Nevada Territory’s 150th anniversary comes and goes

CARSON CITY -- Legislators celebrated an important birthday Wednesday that few Nevadans outside of elementary school history classes may have realized was worth noting.

Wednesday was the 150th anniversary of the signing of legislation by President James Buchanan that created the Nevada Territory.

Most people associate Nevada's founding with President Abraham Lincoln, who signed legislation that created the state on Oct. 31, 1864. Lincoln became president two days after Nevada became a territory. Portraits of Lincoln hang in the Assembly chambers and in the governor's office.

But Buchanan approved the bill carving Nevada out of the western portion of the Utah Territory in 1861.

Nevada had about 11,000 residents, mostly in the Virginia City-Carson City area. All Las Vegas had was a ranch that was in the Arizona Territory. The southern part of the state did not became part of Nevada until 1867.

State Sen. James Settelmeyer, R-Minden, and Assemblyman Lynn Stewart, R-Henderson, said in floor speeches Wednesday that March 2 was the birth of the place called Nevada.

"Too bad we didn't have money set aside for a celebration," historian Guy Rocha said. "But I am delighted that they recognized it. This is when Nevada became part of the Union. This is when Nevada gold and silver found its way into Union coffers."

Rocha, who has written articles on Nevada's founding for Nevada Magazine and the Nevada Historical Quarterly, said people living in the Virginia City-Carson City area had petitioned Congress as early as 1859 to create a territory called Sierra Nevada after the mountain range west of Reno and Carson City.

The House of Representatives' Committee on Territories took the petition and shortened the name to Nevada. Others wanted to call it Esmeralda, Washoe, Humboldt or other names.

The committee's chairman was Rep. William Smith from Virginia. After the Civil War erupted, Smith became a Confederate general and later governor of Virginia.

Smith favored slavery, but he supported the bill that created the Nevada Territory though it required the territory to be free, not allowing slavery.

It took a couple of years for the bill to pass, Rocha said, because representatives from the Southern states did not want Nevada admitted as a free territory. Some of those states had seceded from the Union by March 1861, so there was scant opposition to the Nevada Territory bill.

Rocha said Nevada's centennial birthday in 1964 was a big deal. Funds for the celebration were appropriated three years before the anniversary.

Because of Nevada's dismal economy, he doubts much emphasis will be given to the 150th anniversary of statehood. But in his inaugural address, Gov. Brian Sandoval vowed that by Oct. 31, 2014, Nevada would be Nevada again -- meaning a state with a vibrant economy.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.