Nevada Territory

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The Nevada Territory with the Utah and New Mexico Territories (1861).

The Nevada Territory was a historic territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861 through October 31, 1864. At that time, the territory became the 36th state named Nevada to join the union. The territorial capital was Genoa first and was then relocated to Carson City .

history

Before the creation of the Nevada Territory, the area was the western portion of the Utah Territory and known as the Washoe (Washoe is a native tribe to the western United States). The separation of the Territory from Utah was important to the federal government because of the intense tension between the Christian- majority population in Nevada and the Mormons in the rest of the Utah Territory.

The rich silver deposits in Nevada resulted in a steady influx of miners , but that was not enough for the required statehood .

James Warren Nye was the sole territorial governor of the Nevada Territory. Before that, Issac Roop was the first provisional territorial governor. The Secretary of the Territory was Orion Clemens , older brother of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain).

border

The eastern border of Nevada Territory was defined by 116th longitude , but when gold was found in eastern Nevada, the territorial delegation in the US Congress requested that the border be moved to 115th longitude, which was finally approved in 1862. When even more gold deposits were found later, the border was shifted again to the 114th degree of longitude in 1864. These eastern border shifts were at the expense of the Utah Territory.

The southern limit of the Nevada Territory was defined by the 37th parallel , but in 1866 Nevada asked the US Congress to move the border south to the Colorado River . The US Congress approved the request in 1867 and gave Nevada the entire western end of the Arizona Territory . Arizona protested strongly, but found little sympathy, as this part of Arizona was on the side of the Confederate States during the American Civil War .

The exact location of the California- Nevada border, between Lake Tahoe and the intersection of the 35th parallel with the Colorado River, was controversial and was measured several times, most recently in the 20th century . The US Congress transferred a small piece of land west of the Colorado River, including Pah-Ute County , which was part of the Arizona Territory, to the State of Nevada on May 5, 1866. This southern tip of Nevada was then renamed Clark County and includes today's city of Las Vegas .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Nevada Territory  - collection of images, videos, and audio files