Nevada |
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| Entered the Union: October 31, 1864 (36) |
State Symbols
Bird: Mountain Bluebird Tree: Bristlecone Pine Flower: Sagebrush Mammal: Desert Bighorn Sheep |
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| Capital: Carson City | ||
| Origin of Name: Spanish for "snow-covered" | ||
| State Motto: All for Our Country | ||
| State Nicknames: Sagebrush State • Silver State • Battle Born State | ||
| State Song: “Home Means Nevada" | ||
| National Forests: 2 • State Parks: 27 | ||
| Famous for: Gambling Casinos, Major Resorts: Lake Tahoe • Reno • Las Vegas, Gold & Silver Mining, Wild Mustangs | ||
| Famous Nevadans: Andre Agassi • Jack Kramer (tennis), Michele Greene (actress), William Lear (aviation inventor), Thelma "Pat" Nixon (first lady), Lute Pease (Pulitzer Prize winner), Patty Sheehan (golfer), George Wingfield (mining millionaire) | ||
| Native Animals and Birds: Click on photos of the animals and birds on this page to find out more about them and to hear the sounds they make. | ||
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| Trappers and traders, including Jedediah Smith and Peter Skene Ogden, entered the Nevada area in the 1820s. The U.S. obtained the region in 1848 following the Mexican War. | |||||||||||||||
| Nevada was made famous by the 1859 discovery of the Comstock Lode, the richest known U.S. silver deposit. | |||||||||||||||
| Nevada is the largest gold-producing state in the nation, accounting for the great majority of U.S. output. | |||||||||||||||
| Nevada is the gambling and entertainment capital of the United States. | |||||||||||||||
| Las Vegas has more hotel rooms than any other place on earth. | |||||||||||||||
| Most of the state is desert but the Sierra Nevada mountain range near Reno and the Ruby Mountains near Elko have snow for half the year. | |||||||||||||||
| Nevada has more mountain ranges than any other state, with its highest point at the 13,147 foot top of Boundary Peak near the west-central border. | |||||||||||||||
| Camels were used as pack animals in Nevada as late as 1870. | |||||||||||||||
| Shrimp consumption in Las Vegas is more than 60,000 pounds a day -- higher than the rest of the country combined! | |||||||||||||||
| The Virgin Valley in northern Nevada is the only place in North America where the Black Fire Opal is found in any significant quantity. | |||||||||||||||
| The Stratosphere is the tallest, free-standing, observation tower in the US and the tallest structure west of the Mississippi River. | |||||||||||||||
| About 150 couples get married in Las Vegas each day. | |||||||||||||||
| A 1910 law made it illegal to gamble in Las Vegas. In 1931, the state created two industries, divorce and gambling. | |||||||||||||||
| In 1899 Charles Fey invented a slot machine named the Liberty Bell. In 1999 Nevada had 205,726 slot machines, one for every 10 residents. | |||||||||||||||
| Construction worker Hard Hat's were first invented specifically for workers on the Hoover Dam in 1933. | |||||||||||||||
| In Death Valley, the Kangaroo Rat can live its entire life without drinking a drop of liquid. | |||||||||||||||
| Area 51 (Air Force Flight Test Center) is a remote tract of land in southern Nevada. It is owned by the United States Department of Defense and the United States Air Force, containing an airfield whose primary purpose is believed to be the operation / analysis of enemy aircraft and enemy weapons systems, secret development and testing of new military aircraft. It is famed as the subject of many UFO conspiracy theories. | |||||||||||||||
| Nevada's Ethnic Roots: German 14.1%, Mexican 12.7%, Irish 11%, English 10.1%, Italian 6.6%, Filipino 5.2%, American 4.8% | |||||||||||||||
| Religion in Nevada: 66% Christian (44% Catholic, 21% Protestant, 1% Other), 20% No Religion, 12% LDS | |||||||||||||||
| Tule Duck decoys created nearly 2,000 years ago were were discovered by archeologists in 1924 during an excavation at Lovelock Cave. The 11 decoys are each formed of a bundle of bullrush (tule) stems, bound together and shaped to resemble a canvasback duck. | |||||||||||||||
At a Glance
Nevada Quick Facts
| Entered the Union | October 31, 1864 (36) |
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| Capital | Carson City |
| Nickname | Sagebrush State • Silver State • Battle Born State |
| State Bird | Mountain Bluebird |
| State Flower | Sagebrush |
| State Tree | Bristlecone Pine |
New for 2026
More Nevada Facts & Photos
Great Basin National Park, created in 1986, is home to Lehman Caves, Nevada's longest cave and a protected national monument since 1922. Its marble passages hold more than 300 rare shield formations.
Nevada designated the ichthyosaur its state fossil in 1977. Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park preserves the most abundant concentration of the giant marine reptiles ever found, including remains of Shonisaurus up to about 50 feet long.
Valley of Fire, dedicated in 1935, is Nevada's first state park. Its 46,000 acres of red Aztec sandstone formed from shifting sand dunes about 150 million years ago, and its rocks carry petroglyphs cut some 2,500 years ago.
In July 1986, Life magazine branded Nevada's stretch of U.S. Route 50 "The Loneliest Road in America." The state embraced the insult and issued "I Survived Highway 50" survival kits to travelers.
Voices of America
In Their Own Words
“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We’ve staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity…to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Command-ments of God.”
(1778)
We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
Oct. 11, 1798
Last updated: July 2026