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BY SAM OBRIEN NEVADA: A BOOM AND BUST EXPERIENCE

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BEGINNINGS Nevadas name is Spanish, meaning snow- capped mountains. The term is derived from the bordering Sierra Nevada mountain range and originally was part of the Spanish Alta California claim that became Mexico during the Mexican Independence of 1810.

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NATIVE AMERICANS Washoe, Shoshone, and Paiute camped along the banks of the Truckee River hundreds of years before there were white settlers in the Reno area. During the Reno Train Trench dig in the summer of 2004, Ed Stoner and a team of archeologists found over 25,000 artifacts dating from several hundred years ago to 4,500 years ago.

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MOUNTAIN MEN AND EARLY EXPLORERS Jedediah Smith, was the first white man to enter what later become the Nevada Territory. Like many who traveled to Nevada he was in search of a fortune in the form of beaver skins in 1827, but unfortunately for him, riches eluded him although he met friendly Paiutes and opened up the way for future travelers.

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JOHN FREMONT Credited as the first American to see Lake Tahoe; John Fremont, a pathfinder for the U.S. Army Topographical Engineers, led a 1844 expedition through the Black Rock Desert to Pyramid Lake and the Truckee River, searching for the mythical Buenaventura, an alleged river flowing from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Fremont named the Truckee Salmon Trout River, due to the abundance of fish with pink flesh. The River was later renamed Truckee after Chief Truckee, grandfather of Sarah Winnemucca, and a trusted Paiute guide of Fremonts party.

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UTAH TERRITORY Nevada was originally part of the Mormon Territory, and later became an official territory of the United States in 1861. The population was only 20,000 people, which was 1/6 of the required number for even a single representative in Congress. Although this was of little concern due to Nevadas Comstock Lode.

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COMSTOCK LODE The Rush to Washoe officially began in 1859 and ran in earnest to 1882; netting $305,779,612.48. The boom brought people of all ethnicities and many foreign miners. At the height of the Comstock Lode, mines were paying $4 a day, which dwarfed the average miners pay elsewhere which was $1 a day.

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http://www.collectsource.com /image16.gif Miner working in the Comstock Lode. Working space is quite often very claustrophobic. This picture was taken Timothy OSullivan in the Comstock mine of Virginia City circa 1867-1868

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This photo of 3 miners prepared to descend into the Savage Silver Mining Works at Virginia City, NV. While 2 cars were coming out of a mine shaft This 1868 photo by Timothy OSullivan is one of the first flash lit photos ever made.

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It was estimated that Virginia City used more than 200,000 cords for heating and 25 million board feet in mining timber a year during its height.

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CARSON CITY AS CAPITAL William Stewart, a prominent lawyer during the Comstock Lode, and later one of Nevadas first senators; is thought to have convinced Nevadas first Territorial Governor, James Nye, to make Carson City the state capitol, and not the rich Virginia City, which seemed the logical choice at the time.

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EARLY RENO Charles Fuller built a bridge across the Truckee River and charged a fee for anyone on their way to Virginia City. In 1861, Fuller sold the bridge to Myron C. Lake; who from the money from the tolls bought more land and when the Central Pacific reached Lakes Crossing in 1868 he shrewdly ceded land to Charles Crocker (an organizer of Central Pacific Railroad) and the rest is history.

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EARLY RENO The City of Reno was incorporated on May 9, 1868 and Charles Crockett, CPRR Construction Superintendent, named the newly formed town after the Civil War General who died at the Battle South Mountain. Pictured below is Myron C. Lake, commonly referred to as the Father of Reno.

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Original Reno Plat Map, 1868

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Virginia Street, Reno, 1882.

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1915 Reno postcard: A Solid Young Metropolis.

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Morrill Hall, University of Nevada, Reno, 1880s

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RENO: SIN CITY Reno earned a reputation of Sin City due to several legal brothels, an underground gaming industry (although the state legalized gaming in 1931 to help combat the Great Depression), and quick and easy divorces. Timeline of Reno Divorces: 1864-1899: Nevada