^TEVADA, sixth in size among the States of the Union, is bounded •*- ^ on the north by eastern Oregon and the western half of Idaho, on the east by Utah and the northern section of Arizona, and on the west and south by California. Although its boundaries were fixed within five years after it became a State, its territorial history is bound up with that of four other States—New Mexico, Arizona, California, and above all, Utah.

At that, more than half the itory of Nevada, both territorial and State, is found in the histories of gold and silver mining. The Spanish, arch-conquerors of peoples who revealed the presence of silver and gold, long ignored this region whose natives had a Stone Age culture. The first large bands of people to cross Nevada, and know it to a limited degree, were the hordes seeking the shortest path to huge gold lodes in California, The first great influx of immigrants to Nevada was the result of the discovery of silver, and the increases in population of the next twenty years came with new discoveries of silver and gold. The sharp decline in population toward the end of the ninetenth century was the result of the falling price of silver and of failure to find new, rich deposits of the precious metals. And the rapid increase in population in the first decade of the twentieth century came with spectacular new discoveries, first of silver and then of gold.

Explorers and Trappers

The territory that was to become Nevada was slow to attract the attention of explorers, and the first white men to enter it, so far as the record shows, were concerned merely with finding a way across it In 1774 the Spanish priests and the viceroy of New Mexico became interested in finding a travel route between the New Mexico missions and the ranching chain being developed in upper California, Captain Bautista de Anza and Father Francisco Tomas Garces made a preliminary trip toward the Colorado, and later Father Garces made a second trip in the same direction, during which he may have entered

die southern tip of Nevada—the records are confused on this point. After discovery of the deserts and other handicaps in the way of a more or less direct route westward, the next exploring expedition, that led by Fathers Francisco Atanasio Dommgues and Silvestre Velez de Escalante, attempted to discover a roundabout course north of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. This group first traveled as far north as Utah Lake, then sharply south. Reaching the chaotic mountainous area along the Colorado, they found the region impassable because of snow and abandoned the journey.

Although this expedition probably did not reach Nevada it produced a map that was to help draw attention to the territory, since it indicated a large river reaching westward and labeled the San Buenaventura, which may have been the Green and the Sevier, incorrectly united. The Escalante map, and others showing California streams flowing into the Pacific, led later cartographers and explorers to assume that some stream crossed the Great Basin and cut its way through the Sierra Nevada. The A. Finley map of 1826, then considered reliable, not only marked the course of the Buenaventura, but also that of another stream, called the Rio San Felipe, both flowing through the mountains of eastern California to the Pacific Ocean. The Chapin map of 1839 repeated the error. So strong was the belief in this westward- flowing river that Fre'mont searched for it diligently in 1844 and was not convinced of its non-existence until he had examined nearly every stream on the west slope of the Sierra,

For nearly half a century after the expedition of Dominguez and Escalante no one, so far as the records show, made another attempt to penetrate the forbidding region along the Colorado west and northwest of the Virgin River. But Santa Fe traders in time began to make annual expeditions to Utah over the general route of the Escalante expedition. In 1830, eight years after the American trade with New Mexico began, a group of traders, led by William Wblfskill, followed the lower part of this Santa Fe-Utah trail and then turned westward, crossing Nevada on a course that ran in the neighborhood of Las Vegas. Their success in reaching Los Angeles started other traders over the route, and every year thereafter caravans went overland to buy up jacks and jennies on the California mission and other ranches. The route was called the Old Spanish Trail because it was an extension of one the Spanish had discovered.

The real exploration of Nevada did not begin until 1825, when the fur trade was moving to its peak and tiappers and traders were pcne-

trating every valley of the west in their search for beaver streams. How many trappers explored the territory, and where, is unknown, for they were concerned only with fur and few recorded their wanderings.

In the spring of 1825 Peter Skene Ogden led Hudson's Bay Company trappers from Fort Vancouver up the Columbia and Snake rivers and by way of the Owyhee, a Snake tributary, down into northeastern Nevada. For four years Ogden visited tie Humboldt Basin and one year went as far west as the Big Bead (near Winnemucca). In the following years this stream was generally called Ogden's River, though Ogden had suggested it be called Paul's River for one of his men who had died near it Fre'raont in 1845 igaored the name and decided to call it the Humboldt, in honor of the German scientist and explorer.

In 1826 Jedediah S. Smith, a partner in a fur-trading company, and fifteen trappers who had left St. Louis with him in the early spring, went south from the Great Salt Lake and crossed the southeastern corner of Nevada on their way to San Gabriel Mission in California, which was reached in December. During this trip of 1826 Smith entered Nevada just to the east of the site of Panaca in Lincoln County, found Meadow Valley Wash and followed its rocky, winding course, plodding for ten days before coming to an Indian village at Moapa. There he rested for a couple of days before continuing down the Muddy River to the Virgin. Near the junction of these streams, Smith took a trail along the Virgin to the Colorado.

One very curious expedition of the fur-trading period was that led down the Humboldt and across to California by Joseph Walker in 1833. An abbreviated and vague story of this expedition was first given to the world in 1837 by Washington Irving in his Adventures of Captain Bonneville. Irving explained that he had purchased the manuscript of Captain Eulalie Bonneviile's adventures and had merely given it literary polish; and the story the captain chose to tefl was that he had taken a two-year leave from the army in 1832, had raised funds to make a try at fur trading, gone to western Wyoming, and penetrated a certain distance into Oregon. According to his account he had sent Walker and about three dozen men to explore and trap in the vicinity of the Great Salt Lake, and he indicated considerable annoyance because the men had made a long frivolous expedition across to California and had had a very gay time on the plazas there. Bonnevilk's adventures were entertaining, but he seemed to have very bad luck as a trapper—though he was efficient in bringing aH has meat safely through the two and a half years in the west. Moreover, he always had pknty of supplies—

enough to entertain passing traders and trappers bountifully, especially if they were British. Later historians have been much puzzled by the story, particularly since the discovery of a simple journal kept by one of the men on the expedition and published soon after his return in an obscure Western Pennsylvania newspaper; the diarist, Zenas Leonard, made it quite clear that several members of the party had joined Bonne- ville with die understanding that they would be detailed to the California expedition, and that the party was fully—even elaborately— equipped for it Obscurities in Bonneville's story were explained by some historians as the result of Bonneville's having been dropped from the army for overstaying his leave and by his attempts to re-enter, which were going on at the time the story was written.

The mystery was explained in the 1930*8 when the Government began to sort out its vast accumulation of papers. Evidence was found to prove that Captain Bonneville had not been dropped from the army for overstaying his leave, but because the army had believed him dead; further, that Bonneville eventually received pay and subsistence for himself and "servants" for a period that ended a year after his leave was supposed to have expired; and that in 1831 Bonneville—a captain— had written a letter to the General-in-Chief of the United States Army referring to the coming expedition and explaining that he had "made arrangements to collect information" as agreed. The British were sharing Oregon at the time, and the Mexicans had title to everything south of Oregon and west of the Rockies, so an army officer and his employees "collecting information" in either area were somewhat de trop. Although Bonneville's reports—which must have contained some account of Nevada—have never been found, the War Department apparently considered his services valuable, since he became the first American military commander on the Columbia after the United States had wrested the territory from the British. It was he for whom Bonneville Dam was named.

The next American expedition to enter Nevada was led by John Charles Fremont—and he came within an ace of being called back before he i cached it Fremont was the son-in-law of Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, who thundered day in and day out on the "manifest destiny" of the United States to have both Oregon and the Mexican Southwest Fremont's first expedition took him merely to the Rockies, but the second was planned to go into Oregon and work discreetly southward. While Fremont was outfitting for this expedition in 1843, near what became Kansas City, he received an urgent message from hit

wife in St. Louis, telling him to leave immediately, without questions. Fremont obeyed. Mrs. Fremont, caring for his mail, had opened a letter from the War Department ordering him to return at once to Washington. Sharing her husband's interests, she was very proud of the acclaim created by his first report—most of which she had written for him—and she attributed die order to jealousy and the desire of the commander to send his son on the expedition. It is probable, however, that the War Department had learned that Fremont was taking a small cannon with him for protection from the Indians and feared that the act would increase the already tense feeling between Mexico and the United States. This cannon was dragged with much difficulty on the roundabout course through Oregon, down into Nevada along Pyramid Lake, across the Humboldt Sink, along the Truckee and Carson rivers, and up the steep Sierra, only to be abandoned near the crest at a spot where it was discovered many years later—and from which it was taken to Virginia City for use in celebrations. On the return trip Fremont crossed the Mojave, cut up along the trail used by the Santa Fe traders and made one camp at a place they used—Las Vegas.

In August, 1845, Fremont again started west, this time to explore Nevada more thoroughly. Entering near Pilot Peak at the end of October, he soon divided his party; one section under command of Joseph Walker went down the Humboldt and the other, under Fremont's leadership, made a central crossing to what Fremont named Walker Lake, where he waited for the other party to join his. The united company continued to Owen's Valley and through Walker Pass on the way to coastal California, where Fremont seriously endangered his army position by participating in the Bear Flag Revolt.

Western Utah

Fremont's reports greatly stimulated interest in the West, already whipped high by various propagandists—expansionists, demagogues, missionary and other real-estate developers, romanticists, and political schemers. The propaganda had found fertile soil in the great unrest blanketing the country since the economic collapse of 1837, brought on by unsound banking and wild speculation in public utilities. The Fremont reports were particularly valued because they contained the first accurate maps of the West and detailed accounts of the terrain.

Interest at the time was chiefly centered on western Oregon, which the missionaries had painted as a paradise with fertile meadowlands and brief mild winters. Every Eastern fanner worried by low priaet

and the decline in production occasioned by early exhaustion of virgin soil, eveiy workman thrown out of a job by the closing of factories and decrease in construction, every restless and dissatisfied di earner, had begun to look on the country beyond the Mississippi as offering a new chance for getting ahead. The Great Basin had no appeal whatsoever to the average emigrant, for he judged the value of new land by the lushness and greenness of its gross*

A few Yankees had already wandered into California and managed to obtain ranching lands there, but they were having trouble with the Mexican courts and had started a publicity campaign to induce other Yankees to join them, in order to form a bloc that could force recognition of American expansion.

The icsult of the various publicity campaigns was that in the spring of 1841 five hundred emigrants gathered on the banks of the Missouri. The great majority, however, fell away for one reason or the other and only about an eighth started ofi with California as the goal; the leader was John Bidwell. Bidwell's plan had been to leave the Oregon Trail near Fort Hall and cut across to the Humboldt, taking a direct route to California. But the party split when the time came for leaving the well-known trail and only half took the Humboldt route. Many of those who reached California were to return dissatisfied with the dry hot country they found. In 1842 about one hundred people went to Oregon. In 1843, with conditions still very bad in the East, nearly nine hundred started for the West Coast, most of them for Oregon. One party decided to go to California over the Humboldt route with Joseph Walker as their guide. In 1844 nearly fifteen hundred left the Missouri j of these, only the Townsend-Murphy party was sure it wanted to go straight to California and accepted the guidance of agents sent by Captain Sutter to induce would-be settlers to choose the country he was interested in developing. In 1845 three thousand started west, with Oregon as at least the first objective. In 1846, after a year in which there had been a revival of business, only two thousand left the Missouri. Among these emigrants were the Donners (see Tour ia), who traveled with a party that misguidedly took the Great Salt Desert route so much misrepresented by Lansford Hastings (see Tour la); their journey ended with a tragedy that was to discourage travel along the Humboldt for two years.

In the bitter winter of 1845-6 the Mormons were driven from Nauvoo, Illinois, after having lost their leader, Joseph Smith. Early in 1847 Brigham Young, one of the most able statesmen of American

history, took command of the scatteied forces and led a small band west along the Platte and over the Divide to find a spot where the Latter-day Saints could build up a state in peace. Young was armed with Fremont's reports and maps, and he had already considered the possibility of settlement in the Great Basin. At the time Young left the Missouri the Great Basin belonged to Mexico, and the fact that it was beyond the bordeis of the United States, where the Mormons had endured so much persecution, was important in turning his attention to it. After crossing the Divide he had a long talk with the old scout, Jim Bridger, considered the ablest of all the mountain-men though he never received the publicity accoided Carson and Walker. Jim agreed that there were many fertile spots in the Basin, particularly near the Great Salt Lake, and he also said that the mountains of the region held gold and silver. The conference with Bridger settled the question for Young and before fall the Saints were busily putting in crops and digging irrigation ditches by the great inland lake.

When the Saints were driven from Nauvoo they were able to save very little property and the problem of meiely providing foodstuffs was overwhelming. Young conceived numerous plans for obtaining the necessities, including agricultural equipment and stock. Some of his followers were left near the Missouri to make what profit they could by selling crops from various little plots of land hastily put to seed; others were told to join a battalion for war on the southwestern border, their army pay to swell the community fund. Yet others were assigned to running a ferry to cany the swelling stream of Oregon-bound travelers across the Upper Platte. Some were sent to work land in various isolated spots; and numbers were stationed along the overland trails to trade with travelers, exchanging one good ox or horse for several jaded ones that might be fattened up to increase the trading and working stock. At one time Young even had a couple of his men at Independence Rock to satisfy the emigrant passion for immortality by carving names high on that landmark, at from two to five dollars a name, according to the difficulty of the position. The carvers did a very good business.

Some of the men who had joined the Mormon Battalion followed the Old Spanish Trail eastward when they were demobilized, then switched to the Escalante Trail to reach the colony by the Great Salt Lake. This combined route was to become known as the Mormon Trail. After the gold rush to California began, numerous people, particularly those who had started west late in the season, availed them-

selves of Mormon guide-service over this trail, which could be used in the winter and was now in the United States. By the treaty of February 2, 1848, Mexico had reluctantly given up all claim to New Mexico. Upper California, and lands north of them.

One party of 1849, starting southwest over the Mormon Trail under guidance of Jefferson Hunt was particularly headstrong in its belief that the circuitous route was unnecessary. At Mountain Meadows in Utah about one hundred wagons left the train to cut west over an uncharted course, leaving only seven with Hunt. After a few days of extreme hardships most of the deserters returned to the Mormon Trail at the place they had left it and from there they followed Hunt to California without mishap. The rest of the headstrong contingent, including two families with children and a group of young men, the Jay- hawkers, continued westward across Nevada. Some of the wagons were stranded in the mountains, a few found their way through the dry sandy valleys, and two got as far as the great depression the rash adventurers were to name Death Valley. Somehow, most of the party eventually reached the Coast, though all had given up hope before they found a place where they could cross the Panamints.

It was not until March 18, 1849, that Young formally announced the organization of the State of Deseret, which included Nevada.

With the discovery of gold in California in 1848 the route along the Humboldt became important. Thr fortune-hunters, many of them half mad in their dreams of quick riches, were utterly heedless of how they reached California as long as they did it quickly. The trip overland, however, was not a poor man's expedition. Joel Palmer, who went west in 1845, had published a book in which he advised that four yoke of oxen for every wagon was the minimum for safety and that one or two horses were also needed, for hunting and other purposes. He strongly urged against the carrying of more tools and household equipment than were absolutely necessary, and estimated that one wagon- load of the essential goods, largely composed of foodstuffs, would weigh twenty-five hundred pounds. Palmer said that in making up the estimate of the necessary food supply he was assuming that travelers would supplement it with game along the route; this was practical only until 1849, when the great numbers on the trail—twenty thousand left the Missouri in April alone—soon killed every bird and animal in a wide band along the routes.

While some forty-niners ra«hly attempted further to shorten the dif- tance westward by coming down to the Great Salt Lake and crossing

the dreadful Salt Desert to reach the Humboldt, the great majority turned up toward Fort Hall and Soda Springs and then south to the river. Yet others went north around the Great Salt Lake, avoiding the worst of the Salt Desert but still experiencing hardships.

Thus it was that when the forty-niners reached the Humboldt they and their animals were already exhausted and their food supply was usually low. The first wagon trains, moreover, exhausted all the wild hay near the river and many later trains lost animals through starvation. The Humboldt, with its twists through canyons cut in mountains that had to be crossed on steep rocky slopes, was not a stream to meet the travelers' approval. By the time they reached the alkaline pools and sinks at its lower end most of them were in a state of exasperation with the whole region, particularly if they had passed through it during the hottest season. It took some time before more than a very few pioneers were aware of the fertile pockets along the overland road in Nevada, and even longer before numbers came to realize that other land of the region was valuable.

Trading posts soon appeared along the Humboldt Road, one of the first at Ragtown (later Leeteville) by the Carson River. In June, 1849, H. S. Beatie, one of the traders sent out by Brigham Young, built a log stockade and a corral for hoises and cattle at the base of the Sierra by the trail. This place, first called Mormon Station, later became Genoa. In 1850 the United States Government, ignoring Young's State of Deseret, announced the creation of the Territory of Utah, which included Nevada, then called Western Utah. At the same time southern Nevada was placed in the Territory of New Mexico. Within three years a sprinkling of farms surrounded Mormon Station and extended into the neighboring Washoe and Eagle valleys.

In 1851 George Chorpenning and Absalom Woodward won the contract to carry mail between Salt Lake City—which already had service from the East—and Sacramento. The first eastbound mail, carried from Sacramento on mule-back, reached Carson Valley on May 17, 1851, but as the trade: s and settlers of that year had not yet arrived there was no one on hand to cheer the riders on their way. The difficulties the contractors met were enormous and service was far from regular; in winter the mail was sometimes taken south over the Mormon Trail. In 1853 mail service over the Sierra was provided by men on snow- shoes. Three years later & powerful man who gained the affectionate nickname of "Snowshoe" Thompson began to carry the mail back and forth, and during deep snows it was sometimes the only means of com-

munication between Carson Valley and the outside world. At first the mail route between Carson Valley and Salt Lake City followed the Humboldt throughout and then Goose Creek, but in 1855 it was shifted south to avoid the snows and other impediments north of the Rubies. In 1854 * road was cleared across the Sierra and a four-mule team began to haul mail and passengers between Salt Lake City and California. By 1857 there was tri-weekly passenger service across the mountains and travelers could use stages the whole way from the Missouri to the West Coast. In the meantime the Government had begun to explore again, looking for the best route to the coast, and in the summer of 1854 the Forty-Second Parallel Expedition had reached the western part of Western Utah.

Settlers in Carson Valley noted these advances in transportation facilities with interest, and wondered whether the clamor of Californians for a railroad would ever be satisfied. But they took little part in the agitation, being much too busy with the construction of irrigation ditches and the building of simple shelters for themselves and their stock. Moreover their primaiy concern was for a government of their own kind. Even the Mormons, though accustomed to church government, felt at a disadvantage with the seat of territorial government five hunched miles away across mountains and desert.

After Brigham Young, Governor of Utah Territory, heard that the settlers of Carson and neighboring valleys were beginning to agitate to have the area east of the Sierra Nevada attached to California, he erected most of Western Utah into huge Carson County and sent out Orson Hyde, one of the Twelve Apostles, to preside over the county court. Hyde arrived in 1855 and made Mormon Station the county seat, renaming it Genoa. Soon afterward he laid out Franklown in Washoe Valley, built a saw mill, and prepaied to build up a second Salt Lake City close to the S.eira.

Young continued to scatter his colonies over the Basin wherever there was water for irrigation; Las Vegas was settled by the Saints in 1855-

Then in 1857 Young recalled all Saints to Salt Lake City in order to mass his forces in the conflict with the national government—a call to which nearly all responded. The settlers looked on their departuie with glee and bought up the Mormon farms and other possessions for as little as competition would permit. Orson Hyde later cursed them heartily (see Tour 4) for the prices they paid. The remaining farmeis and traders vainly petitioned Washington for a new goveimnent ,* if

California would not accept them they wanted an independent territory erected.

Nevada Territory

In 1857 residents of Genoa and Carson, led by Isaac Roop of Susan- ville—which was in California but was then believed to be in Utah Territory—convened at Genoa, adopted a constitution for what they called the Territory of Nevada, and asked Congress to recognize their independence. The plea was ignored. After the Mormons and the Federal government called a truce in 1858 an effort was made to reestablish Utah territorial government here, but in the absence of the Mormon settlers Utah officials could not find any respect for their orders.

A second effort to obtain official territorial government for Nevada was matle in 1859. On September 7, just after the stampede to Washoe began, Roop was elected governor. He met with a rump legislature on December 15, 1859, and theoretically continued with the duties of governor of the provisional government after adjournment.

A year before the goldrush to California began a member of the Mormon Battalion who had worked for Sutter after demobilization panned some gold near the Carson River while on his way home to Deseret. Later other travelers did the same, but reports of these discoveries attracted no attention; they were too insignificant to compete with the vast treasure being uncovered on the western side of the Sierra.

After a few years there was a semi-permanent camp near a canyon at the southern end of the Virginia Range; here men disappointed in Calif01 nia would stay for a few weeks or months on their way back home, panning and prospecting, though with little real hope of uncovering wealth comparable to that which they had missed beyond the mountain. Only a few Chinese, who had come from California to dig an irrigation ditch, had the patience to pan steadily for small returns. The camp of the whites moved slowly up the canyon, followed by the Johntovvn of the Chinese. None of the returning forty-niners knew any metal but gold and it did not occur to them that there might be other values. Though one Latin-American did recognize traces of silver no one understood what he was trying to tell until the Grosch brothers (see Tour 8) arrived in 1856; they worked secretly and apparently found silver. Both died, however, before they could realize on their discovery.

The long and secretive activity of the Grosch boys had aroused the

curiosity of Henry Comstock, an old trapper and trader of Carson Valley. After the boys were gone he tried vainly to discover what had held their interest—he believed it was gold. When in 1859 two miners found an unusually good outcrop of gold he immediately insisted that the claim belonged to a friend, and then arranged to share it himjelf. Other claims were staked and profits began to mount, though the gold was mixed with some "black stuff" that made recovery difficult. Finally one man sent out a sample of the strange ore for assay, and almost overnight all California knew that silver of unbelievable richness had been found in Washoe.

Immediately the stampede back over the mountains was on; it seemed as if every man who had rushed into California in the course of ten years took part in it—miners, prospectors, lawyers, middlemen, engineers, all mixed up with the dregs of the California camps, which had become less hospitable to them. The result was chaos. No government with any authority existed and the newcomers outnumbered the old-timers of the valleys ten to one in a short time. The discovenes had been made on public land and there were no mining laws, except those laid down by rule of the camp. As the ground began to give up millions, claims and counter-claims grew hotter, and in the absence of responsible authority men enforced their rights with guns if need be—and the need was always there, the rowdies and hoodlums being uncontrolled. For five long years this situation went on, with every man having to gamble on the safety of any investment he chose to make in development. The returns were so high, however, that many took the risk.

The presence of thousands of newcomers who were killing their game, burning down their pine nut trees, and driving them from their accustomed resorts, had the Indians in turmoil by 1860. In the spring the natives of the whole region, largely Paiutes, gathered at Pyramid Lake for a war council. This was still going on when the post of James Williams, a trader living about twenty-five miles east of Carson, was burned by Indians; three white men were shot and two others were burned to death. The generally accepted story on the cause of the attack is that one or more of the men had stolen a couple of young Bannock squaws and thirty other Bannocks had joined the husbands in recapturing the women and punishing the captors. The news of this attack sent fear up and down the valleys; no one bothered to ask whether the Indians had acted under provocation. One hundred and five men hastily volunteered to go after them and popular William M. Ormsby

of the Carson unit The Indians in council

were undoubtedly as disturbed as the whites by what had happened and noted the approach of the volunteers with alarm. The whites had almost reached the lake before a single Indian was seen; when the tvtfJ groups met, however, the Indians determined to take the offensive and the whites suffered heavy losses. Among those killed wer« Ormsby and another prominent leader, Henry Meredith.

The return of the survivors threw the whole white population of the Far West into panic. Volunteers from Nevada gathered and were soon joined by others from Downieville, California. San Francisco raised money and arms and the Governor of California sent muskets and ammunition. The commander of the Presidio in San Francisco ordered cavalry at Honey Lake to undertake a punitive expedition. On May n the cavalry met about five hundred and fifty volunteers at the Big Bend of the Truckee and scouts were sent ahead toward Pyramid; they reported about three hundred Indians advancing, and the regulars and volunteers went forward to meet them. A three-hour battle took place. The Indians fled at dusk after a loss estimated at forty-six men; three white men were killed and four were wounded* The main force later followed the Indians but all had disappeared. After this the Indians staged various raids on the Pony Express and stage stations, and Pony Express service from San Francisco was interrupted for ten days. As a result of this outbreak Fort Churchill (see Tour 7) was established along the trail near Carson. Further trouble came in eastern Nevada in 1862, at the time when Indians all over the country were seizing the Civil War as an opportunity to drive out the whites. The outbreak resulted in the establishment of Fort Ruby (see Tour lA). The majority of the Indians fled into the deserts, where they nearly starved.

Throughout 1860 Congress paid no attention to pleas that a sepaiatc territorial government be set up for Nevada, but early in 1861 a territorial organic act was passed, and on March 2, 1861, a day before the end of the session, President Buchanan signed it. All that part of Utah Territory west of the ii6th meridian became Nevada Territory. The authorized boundaries included a section of California, but that State refused to transfer the land involved. A year later an act of Congress conveyed a further piece of Utah to the new Territory, pushing its boundary eastward by one degree of longitude. In 1869, a third piece of Utah was added, fixing Nevada's eastern boundary on the H4th meridian; at the same time the State acquired from Arizona the triangular southern area below the 3?th parallel.

One of President Lincoln's earliest acts on taking office in 1861 was

to commission James W. Nye, a New York politician, as governor. Nye at once proceeded to the Territory by sea and on July n proclaimed establishment of the Territorial Government. In November the legislature convened at Carson City, which was made the capital.

In Roughing It, Mark Twain, whose brother had been made territorial secretary, gave a burlesque account of the trials of setting up a government in a vast region that only two years before had had less than a thousand people and at the time probably had only about twenty thousand—exclusive of large numbers of transients. But his account could not have been far from fact; the legislators and most of the territorial officers had had no experience in statesmanship and there were problems that would have puzzled Solomon. This was a new kind of community; only a very small minority of the population had homes and farm lands—the kind of property owned by most law-framers. No one knew who really owned the mines, since they were on public lands, and no way of acquiring this type of land legally had as yet been worked out. One of the first acts of the territorial legislature was establishment of a prison to meet the much crying need of the time.

The legislature organized nine counties at its first session—Ormsby, Storey, Esmeralda, Humboldt, Churchill, Douglas, Lyon, Lake, and Washoe. Lake was renamed Roop County, but this was no advantage to it, because when the survey was run to establish the boundary between California and Nevada part of the county was give,i to California, including the farm of Isaac Roop, and little land of value was on the Nevada side. Roop County soon became part of Wachoe.

Although Governor Nye was personally popular, within a year the territory was in revolt against other members of the Territorial Government. Practically all had been given their jobs for party service, not for fitness, and their salaries were extremely low in a land of very high prices. Judicial procedure became a farce and men despaired of getting justice; even the juries were flagrantly in the business of selling their verdicts—juries selected by some occult procedure satisfactory to the judges. William Stewart, ablest of all silver-rush lawyers, took an active part in exposing these conditions and stirring up sentiment for statehood, which would make the executive and judiciary dependent on approval of the electorate.

The national and international situation was responsible for most of the curious events of Nevada's political history during the next three years. With the outbreak of the Civil War the mining of silver and gold became of vital importance to the country, and it was exceedingly

important to keep valuable producers loyal to the Union, Southerners were in a minority in Nevada, but that minority was vociferous and clashes between Unionists and "Rebs" were sometimes violent Washington listened anxiously. The North was not by any means united and the administration was anxiously looking about for supporters. A movement was initiated to give statehood to Montana, Colorado, and Nebraska, as well as Nevada, after Nevada had held a poll on the question in September, 1863. Only Nevada came in during the war. That the territory at most had less than a sixth of the population then required for a single representative in Congress was brushed aside by advocates of statehood.

Once Nevada had demonstrated its Union sentiment there was a further reason, carefully guarded, why President Lincoln worked hard to have it admitted. One of England's leading industries was cotton spinning and weaving, and England was practically dependent on the South for raw materials. With production wrecked by the war, with shipments irregular or cut off by the blockade, one cotton mill after the other was closed. As the clamor of mill-owners and mill-workers increased in bitterness, Her Majesty's government began to show a partisan attitude, and before two years had passed it was apparent that Britain might come out openly with aid for the South. President Lincoln was deeply concerned, because the South might win independence if powerful foreign aid reached it. In an attempt to ward ofi the danger a friendly demonstration to the United States Government by the Tzarist government was arranged, a visit by Russian ships to New York Harbor. Another move was the Emancipation Proclamation of January i, 1863. Although Lincoln was opposed to slavery he had wanted to abolish it by some means that would not wreck the economy of the South; but Britain had abolished slavery and British public opinion was strongly against it. To that time the war issue had been States' rights; the effect of the proclamation was to make the issue slavery. But a presidential proclamation was not completely satisfactory, since it was questionable whether a president could abolish enormous property rights, even as a war measure. A constitutional amendment was absolutely necessary. The proclamation had made Britain pause and the firm stand of the American Government against furtive help was having temporary effect. The problem then was where a sufficient number of senatorial votes could be obtained to pass the amendment Lincoln dispensed patronage liberally but did not quite reach the required number

of senators. The admission of one more State of proper sentiment met

the need nicely.

Proponents of the enabling act to set up the State of Nevada argued that though the Nevada population was small this must be a temporary condition, since the Territory was producing twenty-four million dollars a year and under a stable government would undoubtedly do much better. The act was passed on March 3, 1863, under executive pressure.

The Nevada constitutional convention met eight months later, and the make-up of the convention gave an enlightening view of the population. Only four members had not been in California and moie had come originally from New York than from any other State. Although the passionate interest of everyone in Nevada was the mines, the delegates included eight lawyers, five merchants, one hotel keeper, one physician, one banker, one notary public, one sign-painter, and two farmers. The average age was thirty-nine and only half the members were married.

The section of the constitution that caused most argument concerned taxation; William Stewart said one clause, seemingly innocent, would soon kill mining in the Territory by taxing every mine whether it was producing or not. After Stewart failed to have the section modified— perhaps because of the non-mining make-up of the convention—he took to the field to prevent approval of the constitution by the electorate. His success in January, 1864, forced attention to the taxation question and arrangements for a new enabling act were made in short order. Additional worries made for unity; some congressmen in Washington, faced with additional war levies, had hit on the idea of the Government forcing the mine claimants to operate on lease, the royalties they paid to go into the Federal treasury. Another act authorizing a constitutional convention was introduced in Congress and after much debate was passed; it was signed by the president OH March n, 1864. This time the convention members were elected, assembled, and through with their work in four months. A date in October had been set for submitting the new constitution to the electorate for ratification, but when it was discovered that this would leave too little time to organize election districts for the coming presidential election, Congress was persuaded to set a date in September. With this agreed to, a territorial Republican convention was held in August Judiciary corruption had reached a peak at this time and nearly everyone was anxious to hurry establishment of a government responsible to the people of Nevada. So great was the haste for admission to th* UIMMI &at the entire eon*

stitufaon was telegraphed to Washington—a feat that cost $3,416.77. Nevada was proclaimed a State on October 31. Six weeks later the first legislature met to set up house—and also to clean it up.

The territorial period had been one of continuous mining development, with new districts being organized all over the region and camps appearing in almost every section. Also, settlement had been progressing in the more fertile valleys. As a territory Nevada had raised a regiment of infantry for the Union Army in 1861, and later enlisted six troops of cavalry and six companies of infantry, none of which, however, was ordered to the front. The Gridley sack of flour (see Austin) was the Territory's most notable contribution to the war. When R. C. Gridley of Austin lost an election bet, he had to carry a fifty pound sack of flour on his shoulders down the main street. The sack was then ofiered at auction for the benefit of the United States Sanitary Commission, predecessor of the American Red Cross. The purchaser returned it for sale and it was auctioned off later on the Corn- stock, and in many places on the Pacific Coast and in the eastern states, pioducing two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars for the aid of the war wounded.

The State of Nevada

During the long struggle for an elected government, channels of communication had been increasing rapidly in number and efficiency. The Pony Express had hardly begun its career when Congress took a step that eventually made it unnecessary, ordering a call for bids on construction of a telegraph line from the Missouri River west. Aftei the rush to Washoe a line had been strung across the Sierra to Carson and this had soon been extended to Fort Churchill. As construction progressed westward Salt Lake City was for a time the terminal and the Pony Express filled the gap between it and the post. By 1862 Ben Holladay had taken over and reorganized stage service between the Missouri and the Coast, and his Overland Stage company had begun to send off daily coaches, a service that continued until 1869, when the first transcontinental railroad was completed and began carrying the mail.

Agitation for the building of a railroad between the Mississippi and the West Coast had been going on for years, with Senator Benton, Fremont's father-in-law, as one of the strongest proponents. The greatest barrier had been the question of its course; the southern faction controlling Congress had insisted on a southern route and north-

erners had been divided in opinion between a central and a northern route. Surveys had been made and only a decision was needed. Soon after the Civil War removed the objecting southern senators, the Omaha-Sacramento route was adopted. Construction did not actually begin until after the war was over. Though Congress had handed out princely grants of land and made the Government first mortgagee, this was not enough to satisfy the financiers who wanted to enter the game and later the grants were greatly increased. Two companies undertook the work—the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific.

The original provisions ended Central Pacific construction at the California-Nevada Line. Theodore Judah, who organized the Central Pacific, died while in the East, and Leland Stanford, Collis P. Hunt- ington, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker then took charge. Under pressure, the original provisions were amended to permit the Central Pacific to build one hundred and fifty miles eastward across Nevada, then amended again to permit each company to build as far as it could to meet the other. This provision produced the race that was to absorb national attention. The chief incentive for the struggle lay in the vast Government grants of bonds and lands alloted on a mileage basis. The Union Pacific company, angry about the change, which gave not only land but also the rich Comstock freighting to the Central Pacific, determined to reach the Salt Lake first in order to ensure the profitable Mormon trade to itself.

By the end of 1868 the Central Pacific was out of the Humboldt Valley and the Union Pacific was at the foot of the Wasatch Range, each racing for Ogden. The Union Pacific entered Ogden first, with some of its track laid on the hard snow. The two roads met at last on April 18, 1869, a* Promontory, Utah, 690 miles from Sacramento and i,080 miles from Omaha, with rival locomotives facing each other on a single track. On May 10 the last rail was ceremoniously laid on a poli,°hct? block of California laurel and fastened with a spike of solid gold.

Nevada's enthusiasm over the Central Pacific soon gave way to controversies over rates and fares. The company was properly accused of "charging all the traffic would bear." This source of friction did not decrease until the Interstate Commerce Commission was created in 1887. Establishment of the State Railroad Commission in 1907 ended the trouble. In 1885 control of the Central Pacific had passed to the Southern Pacific Company.

T — u^« ^* rwral Pacific was completed, freighting was an important business in the territory and by the time the railroad arrived long lines of teams were in service to bring ore and bullion to it

As large mining camps developed to the north and the south of the Central Pacific numerous plans for branch roads were proposed. But only a few of importance were ever built The Virginia & Truckee, tapping the Comstock, was completed in 1869. White Pine production declined before plans crystallized for a road to serve that temporarily important district The branch that reached Eureka in 1875 saved the town's existence when mineral production fell a few years later by making it a distribution center for the east central part of the State. The branch tapping Austin, unfortunately for the builders, was not completed until 1880, when the richest silver deposits had b««n exhausted and the mining of lower-grade ores had become unprofitable. The third important branch road, serving the Ely district, was not constructed until 1906.

At the period when Nevada's belief in a long period of mining prosperity was highest, a movement had begun that was to kave serious effects on the State's history. The problem of a sound monetary system, which had been a factor in the American Revolution, had never been solved. It was, however, inextricably tied up with international monetary problems. England had first adopted the gold standard in 1816, though the rest of Europe had retained silver as the basis of its currency. The United States had been using both silver and gold as legal tender, and had, in 1834, fixed the value of gold at sixteen times that of silver. But this arbitrary rating had not settled the matter. The value of gold and silver bullion on the London market, which determined prices all over the world, fluctuated with the supply.

From the beginning the money question was a political foot-ball in the United States, with debt-burdened fanners fighting deflation by the holders of bonds and mortgages, who wanted to have a national bank and a strictly controlled currency system backed by a fixed percentage of a single metal. And the fanners had been in control until Ac Civil War, as the southern plantation owners were powerful representatives of the debtor class. Early in the Civil War the Republicans had abolished die State banks, which had largely contributed to inflation by their note issues, and had established t national banking system. Then the great costs of the war had forced the Republicans to inflation; they helped authorize the printing of great quantities of greenbacks unsupported by metaL After the war, deflation became an acute problem, and the crisis in

the United States coincided with international troubles over the same question. In an attempt to bring about the adoption of an international monetary standard in the interests of world trade a conference was held at Paris in 1867, and it adopted gold as the basis for its proposed system. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1 forced France, a leader in the conference, from the adopted standard, by turning over the great French gold stores to Germany in the form of indemnities. The United States, however, adopted the gold standard in 1873 and in 1875 Congress enacted a law providing for resumption of specie payment at the end of four years. At the time the silver-producing States paid little attention to the first act, which they later referred to as "the Crime

of '73."

In 1873 silver was valued at $1.29 an ounce in London; by 1879 it brought only $1.12. With a decline of fifteen cents by 1876 the silver- producers began to unite politically with the debtors, and they demanded unlimited coinage of silver; though they failed in their objective, in 1878 they did manage to have the Bland-Allison Act passed, ensuring the purchase and coinage of not less than two million dollars worth of silver annually by the Treasury and a possible purchase and coinage of four million.

This measure failed to save Nevada. The great deposits of ore rich in silver had been mined and the gold still being found was either limited in quantity or so mixed with other minerals as to give little profit. The result was an exodus of population from the camps in Storey, Lander, Eureka, and Lincoln counties, and the gradual closing of the great mines of the Comstock.

In the meantime cattle-raising had gained considerable importance in the State, though it did not add materially to the size of the human population for it was carried on largely by big outfits and employed relatively few people. These outfits waged deadly war with one another for some years, then more or less united to drive out newcomers who wanted to share the public grazing lands. With the decline of mining the cattle barons took control of the State. They met their Waterloo in the late i88o's, when an unusually severe winter found them with little hay. Cattle lay dead all over the Nevada range that year and many former cattle barons faced the spring penniless.

On top of this calamity came others. Low prices and decreased industrial production lessened demand for all Nevada products—cattle and minerals—after the financial difficulties that began with the British Baring Brothers late in 1890. Then, in 1893 President Cleveland

called a special session of Congress and forced repeal of the silver purchase act. Again there was a sharp drop in Nevada population and the older political parties practically disappeared in the State, to be replaced by the Silver Party, which co-operated with the Populists and elected a senator previously Republican in politics. A "silver member" was also elected to the House of Representatives. But in 1896, when William Jennings Bryan held the Democratic Convention spell-bound with his "Cross of Gold" speech and became the convention's nominee for the presidency, the Silver Party of Nevada merged with the Democratic Party.

There was hardly a Nevadan who did not feel that Bryan was speaking for him when he cried:

"There are two ideas of government There are those who believe that if you will only legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous their prosperity will leak through on those below. The democratic idea, however, has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous their prosperity will find its way through every class which rests upon them.

"You come to us and tell us that the great cities are in favor of the gold standard; we reply that the great cities rest upon our broad and fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country.

"Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the labor interests, and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."

By 1902 silver had ceased to be an intra-statc issue; Republicans and Democrats alike bore the silver label in Washington and the parties have more or less alternated in control of the State.

Except for the silver issue, few public questions have stirred Nevadans, but occasionally strong sentiment has been manifested, as on the Chinese exclusion question and on that of establishing a permanent lottery in the State. Although the exclusion of Chinese could be accomplished only by national legislation, the State in 1889 expressed its view by voting to exclude them, with 17,259 for the measure and only 183 opposed. A bill to allow a lottery, passed by the legislature in the i88o's, was vetoed by the government In 1893 the legislature adopted a resolution amending the state constitution to permit organization of a

lottery, but the amendment was never submitted to the voters, since a consitutional amendment must be passed at two successive sessions before being submitted to the people at a general election and when tht time came for the legislature to act a second time, public disapproval of the measure was so strong that it was dropped.

During the twenty-five years in which Virginia City controlled State politics, senators were chosen by the legislature and senatorial elections were the principal source of political excitement, with charges of bribery common.

After the discovery and mining of great silver deposits at Tonopah (M Tour 5) in 1900, and the uncovering of Goldfield's wealth in 1903, the ebbing tide of population turned and many thousands of men and women eame into the State. Although the price of silver had dropped to 63 cents in 1894 and the average price by 1909 was 52 cents, the ores of Tonopah were so rich that huge profits were possible even at the low price. The Tonopah discovery stirred prospectors to new activities and the whole State was again fine-combed for promising outcrops, with the result that many new camps appeared and a few had some years of profitable production. In the long run the most important strike of the period was made near Ely, where vast quantities of copper were found. When the great silver and gold deposits were exhausted Ely copper moved to the front as the State's leading mineral product. The mining revival started much new railroad-building. Minor roads had been built to tap the souths-stern part of the State but the region did not have real service until after the Tonopah boom. In 1903 construction was begun to connect Salt Lake City and Los Angeles by way of Las Vegas; this Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad was eventually absorbed by the Union Pacific. Former Senator W. A Clark of Montana early began to build the Las Vegas and Tonopah, but the Tonopah and Tidewater, backed by the F. M. Smith borax interests, was constructed, and was extended to Goldfield before Clark's railroad reached the area; this extension was achieved by purchase of the little Bullfrog and Goldfield Railroad. When Clark's road was abandoned soon after the World War ended, it had already paid for itself. The Tonopah and Tidewater was abandoned in 1939. The Tonopah and Goldfield, bt- tween Mina and Goldfield, is still in operation.

The Western Pacific Railroad Company, which built the third trunk line across the State, had iti genesis in the mind of Walter Bartnett, a young lawyer of San Francisco; the road was constructed across the Sitrra Nevada and then extended with tht support of Gtorge Gould

and the Missouri Pacific. It is now the western unit of the system that includes the Denver & Rio Grande and the Missouri Pacific. For most of its distance in Nevada it closely parallels the Southern Pacific main line.

The Virginia & Truckee now operates only between Reno and Min- den with service to Virginia City abandoned; the Eureka & Palisade ended its career in 1938. The Nevada Central Railroad, which served the mines of the Austin District, has also ceased operation. But the Nevada Northern still serves the copper producing region around Ely. The Nevada Copper Belt line from Wabuska to Ludwig serves the Yerington and Mason districts, and several short branches of main lines reach smaller communities.

Development of the extensive stock industry of Nevada has been largely dependent on railroads and the new roads lessened the need for long cattle drives by southern stockmen and gradually localized operations. The stock business, like copper mining, has become exceedingly important in supplying an industry independent of gold and silver mining with its great fluctuations in production.

An unusual political event of the revival period took place in 1910, when young Key Pittman, who had come to the State during the Tonopah rush of 1902, ran for election as the Democratic candidate against Republican George S. Nixon, an old timer and banker who had already held the seat for one term. At that time senators were still being chosen by the legislature. During the pre-election campaign the rival candidates stumped the State and reached a public agreement to submit their names to the electorate, though neither the Federal nor State constitution provided for such a course. Nixon won the popular vote but the Democrats won a majority in the legislature, which had to meet in joint session for selection of a senator. Pittman accepted defeat and asked his backers to make Nixon's re-election unanimous. Moved by this act, the Republican faction then proposed a resolution in which, carefully labeling itself the minority party, it "resolved . . . to congratulate the Democratic members for the way they had bowed to the will of the people"; further resolved to congratulate the loser on the "unequivocal manner in which he carried out his part in the 'gentlemen's agreement* "; and finally resolved that "the election of a Republican who was chosen by the popular vote, as against a candidate for the same office, with a Democrat majority in control of the Legislature, emphasizes an epoch in American politics of which the Senate of the United States may well take heed"

Nixon died in June, 1912, and Judge W. A. Massey, a Democrat long in politics, was appointed to fill his place until the next meeting of the legislature, when Pittman was elected. In May, 1912, the Federal amendment calling for the election of senators by popular vote had been "proposed to the legislatures of the several States." Nevada had already shown its mind.

The second mining boom had begun to decline with the exhaustion of the richest mines when, in 1914, the declaration of war in Europe started a third great boom with demand for copper, tungsten, zinc, and other minerals needed for munitions. The mines employed five thousand eight hundred men in addition to those in reduction plants.

Since the 1860*8 labor has had an important role in Nevada life. In general early mining was carried on by Cornish, Irish, Scottish, and English workers; canal-building by Chinese and French; railroad construction by Chinese and Mexicans; lumbering by Chinese and Irish; stock raising by men of mixed American blood; and sheep herding by Basques.

Miners' unions were organized in all early mining camps of the State, and on the whole maintained fair hours, fair wages, and safety measures. But the locals have not operated continuously because of fluctuations in production.

Since 1861 wages have necessarily been higher than in some other States because of high living costs, result of the need for importing most food stuSs and lumber. In Virginia City miners at first received from thiee and a half to four dollars a day; laborers "on top"—around the surface workings—were also paid four dollars a day. The ten- hour day was considered the standard working period until the 1870*8 when an eight-hour day for some mine laborers was established by law. In the 1870*5 farm laborers received from forty to fifty dollars a month with board and room, while the Chinese, at the bottom of the wage scale, received thirty-five dollars a month for railroad grade-work and boarded themselves.

Nevada has had relatively few periods of labor violence but in 1879 a battle between charcoal burners and officers of the law occurred at Eureka; five charcoal burners were killed and six others badly wounded, The second notable trouble came during the second great boom. At Tonopah in 1906 labor was organized as the Tonopah Mine Operators' Association and set up a scale of wages and working hours for all mine laborers that was accepted by all operators in the Tonopah district; underground laborers were limited to eight hours a day, and surface-

men, including ore sorters, blacksmiths, carpenters, engineers, electricians, and machinists to nine hours a day. Wages ran from four dollars to five and a half. The Tonopah agreement did not cover Gold- field, where in 1907 a serious labor clash took place; before it was settled the Governor of Nevada asked, and received, aid from Federal troops to protect property.

In 1939 the mining wage scale was higher than it had been during the three preceding years and reports of January, 1940, showed the average earnings above those of the previous year. In general the 1939 wage of an experienced miner was five dollars and a half for an eight-hour shift; muckers and trammers received from fifty cents to one dollar less. The scale is linked with the price of metals and varies from product to product Thus, the price of copper was so low in 1937 that producers in the big new Mountain City District shut down for several months, but by 1939, when quotations rose, miners were being paid on a higher scale than when the mines first resumed production. A drop of three or four cents a pound necessarily curtails employment, and hence the annual income of the workers.

On the whole, mining wages are higher in the southern part of Nevada than in the northern and central regions, since another factor that determines the pay rate is the cost of transportation to smelters.

Most mining has no seasonal fluctuations, the chief variable, in addition to price, being the amount of ore available, a factor inevitable in the industry. Mechanical and other inventions promoting greater efficiency have affected mining employment very little in recent years, though there had been a large reduction when new machinery was installed at Ruth and McGill.

There is no set wage scale in ranching operations. The chief seasonal employment is for haying and grain harvesting and the same groups of workers return year after year. The large stock outfits maintain a permanent staff the year round in addition to the harvest crews. The permanent workers average fifty dollars a month with board, sometimes a trifle less. Haymen in some instances receive slightly more, the average man getting two to two dollars and fifty cents a day with room and board, while stackers obtain three to three dollars and fifty cents; mowers, rakers, and wagon men draw an intermediate wage. During the World War stackers received five to six dollars a day. Pay is slightly higher on ranches around Reno, Fallon, and Carson City than in the more thinly settled southern region. The ranchers of the Moapa and Virgin River country harvest their asparagus, tomatoes,

and other crops co-operatively, and little outside labor, if any, is employed, members of the association dividing the work as well as the profits.

Although haying machinery and shearing methods have improved, the changes have had little effect on the wage scale. The machinery has, however, reduced the demand for labor. In the Elko ranching district, for example, it is estimated that one tractor with two men can now do the work formerly done by twenty horses and seven men. Machine men, who must be trained in the operation of such intricate equipment as threshers, draw higher pay than the general hands. In threshing, where the pay varies from two to five or six dollars a day, according to the locality and demand, a man owning a threshing machine handles grain by contract, taking along with him a crew consisting of a separator-tender, an engineman, and a sack-sewer. Although ranch wages have improved over those of 1930-35, in 1939 they were approximately one-fourth less than in 1929.

As latt M 1937 herders for the sheep outfits were receiving only sixty dollars a month, but in 1939 there was a substantial increase.

American Federation of Labor affiliates predominate in the mining field though the Committee for Industrial Organization has gained a foothold in Ely and Pioche. Workers in other industries are also organized, including the office and restaurant employees of Reno.

Nevada is still governed under the constitution adopted when it became a State in 1864 but the clause requiring officials to take oath they had never fought a duel was repealed in 1914. In 1904 the referendum was introduced and in 1912 the initiative. An amendment giving women suffrage was ratified at the election of 1914, many years before the Federal amendment was made. Nevada became dry a few months before the national Prohibition Amendment was adopted. The government is headed by a governor and has the usual State officials and legislature of two houses, which meets every two years for a period limited by law.