Nevada's Path to Statehood: History, Explorers & Growth

Introduction: Three Layers of Historical Knowledge

The history of any particular region or state is commonly made up of three different kinds of information. The first category consists of true stories compiled by people who have researched the area of interest. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, but when researching the settlement of the Old West, the most common themes are hard work, hardship, hard winters, hard heads, and hardy people. The true stories of those who settled the state of Nevada are filled with exactly these kinds of experiences.

The second type of information found when researching history consists of stories that are loosely based on truth but have been significantly embellished over the years. When settlers headed west during the gold rush, tales of enormous riches awaited them — riches that supposedly required little work to obtain. Many of the forty-niners died en route to their fortunes, and many more settled in western towns working the same kinds of jobs they had left behind in the East after discovering that the gold rush was more rush than gold.

Finally, when investigating a region's history, general principles come to light that help the student understand the overall picture — social, economic, and political trends that shape a region's or state's identity. These trends are generalities, not necessarily hardened scientific facts. They help explain migration and the eventual settlement of the West, and give the student a means to understand the larger picture and directions to consider when learning about a state.

What is known about Nevada's progress toward statehood is a combination of these three pools of information.

When Frederick Jackson Turner wrote at the turn of the twentieth century, he was looking ahead to the future and back to the past in order to give a growing nation tools with which to understand itself. Turner's general perspective on the settlement of the West broke the process into four periods:

Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis

First, a period of Native American Indian dominance. Second, a period of exploration. Third, a period of settlement. Fourth, a period of big business, which ultimately established a reason for large numbers of people to permanently call the area their home.

There are those who argue with Turner's theories, pointing out holes in his process and contending that his view is too general and does not accurately represent events as they unfolded. Although these stages overlap at times, Turner accurately identified the process that brought Nevada from a barren wasteland to bustling statehood.

Turner conceived of the West not as a particular geographic place but as a frontier process — a series of "Wests" on a receding frontier line, the point where savagery meets civilization. For Turner, American history was largely a tale of people leaving settled areas for the frontier and struggling to survive in new lands. According to Turner, this epic struggle explained American development: the frontier reproduced American democracy and individualism, required Americans to develop new institutions, and demonstrated that "free land makes free men."

Ultimately, Turner claimed that in 1890 the frontier had closed, ending the first stage of American development. He argued that civilization is a process in which society becomes ever more complex — and as complexity increases, opportunities become more limited, and civilization inevitably subordinates individuals to society.

Native American Dominance

Prior to the appearance of Jedediah Smith, Nevada was a barren wasteland, home to a few wandering Indian tribes that followed animal herds in and out of the low foothills. Author Robert Laxalt described the land this way:

"Sagebrush that rolled over the vast plateaus and brutal desert mountains like an endless gray sea, ringing the few scattered hamlets and towns of Nevada so that they were like islands in that sea. Sagebrush growing down to the banks of rare streams and rivers so that water seemed to be captive to the bigger desert sea." (Laxalt, 1977)

During this time, the Mojave, Hopi, and Paiute Indians, along with indigenous peoples who had ventured north from Mexico, called this barrenness their home. A few scattered monks also passed through the region — among them Fray Francisco Garcés, who in 1776, accompanied by another monk, set out to create a trail connecting the colonies established along the west coast between California (founded 1769) and Monterey (founded 1770). Garcés established the westward route from the Colorado River, which became the western section of the famous Old Spanish Trail, eventually connecting Santa Fe to the missions along the Pacific Coast.

These were the first white men to venture into the hostile territory, along with roving mountain men who worked for fur-trading companies back East. Their scattered influence on the region could hardly be considered big business; they were explorers. As their stories filtered back to settlements along the Mississippi River and in the Missouri Territory, they stirred the interests of hardy souls who would become the next wave of explorers. The territory remained largely in the hands of its indigenous inhabitants until the early 1820s.

Conclusion

Bowers, Michael. The Sagebrush State. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2002.

Hulse, James. The Silver State. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1991.