Page 64 - 2004 DT 9 Issues

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Featured Article
Nevada’s Statehood..............................1
Special
Anniversary Mine..................................5
Departments
Octob e r 2 0 0 4 News & Notes.......................................2
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Nevada’s Statehood . . . Territory stripping Utah of much land.
There has been some dispute about
the reason why Nevada was admitted
“Battle Born” and seldom peaceful. by Chuck Kleber to the Union long before Utah, Ari-
zona, and New Mexico. A popular
evada’s flag shows a yellow independence from Spain in 1821. view is that Nevada’s vast gold and
ribbon with the words, Peace didn’t last that long as the silver resources would help the Union
N“Battle Born” over a white expanding United States pushed west- in its battle with the Confederacy. An-
star against a deep blue background. ward into the inevitable conflict with other view claims the main drive came
It recognizes the fact that Nevada came Mexico in 1846. When the war ended from the need for votes in the coming
into the Union on October 31, 1864, in 1848, Mexico relinquished all Presidential election. Nevada was the
while the Civil War raged on. How- claims to Texas north of the Rio only territory to clearly support Lin-
ever, there wasn’t much peace in Grande and territories that included coln, despite the presence of strong
Nevada’s history before or after its California, New Mexico, Utah, Colo- Southern sympathies. Even though
admission as the 36 state. When the rado, Arizona, . . . and Nevada. Nevada lacked the necessary popula-
th
Spanish explorers first looked upon the When the Utah Territory was cre- tion, Lincoln proclaimed Nevada’s
serene beauty of the mountains they ated in 1850, it included a huge chunk statehood on October 31, 1864, just
called the Sierra Nevada, it must have of eastern Nevada. In Utah, they called before the election. This was bad news
evoked a feeling of peaceful magnifi- that area Washoe after the native for Utah and Arizona. In 1866-67,
cence. It might have people. Utah had no intention of let- Nevada’s present borders were essen-
become the state’s ting it go, but tially established. Significantly, this
name, but in time, great events included taking a substantial area of
the area to the east would soon the southern tip away from Arizona,
became known by have an enor- land that included Clark County with
the simple name of mous impact its dusty little settlement of Las Ve-
Nevada (snow on the West, as gas. Utah lost what are now Elko, Ely,
capped). North and Wells, and Pioche. Utah was unhappy.
As part of the South finally So was Arizona.
sprawling empire reached the There were those who felt Nevada
that was Spain’s breaking had no business being a state. In the
presence in what is point. South eyes of many, Nevada was a des-
now the southwest- Carolina se- perado, given to violence. As David
ern United States, Nevada remained ceded from the Union just before Thomson notes in his excellent book,
nearly unsettled, except for the native Christmas, 1860—joined soon after- In Nevada, it was a place of outlaws
tribes, until well into the 1800’s. Still, ward by other Southern states. Three and outcasts, “worse than California.”
it was an enormous area and claimed months later, conscious of the need to
by Mexico, along with far more solidify its presence in the West, the
tantalizing lands like California, after U.S. Government created the Nevada Statehood, continued on page 6