Nevada Lore Series: the Making of a State, Part 1

The greatest day of the year is close at hand: Nevada Day. The day in which the capitol of Nevada, Carson City, practically shuts down to celebrate our statehood, which took place on October 31, 1864.

While the majority of the United States don’t celebrate their Statehood, those that do participate don’t have quite the same gusto for the celebration that Carson City does.

What does it mean to be a Nevadan? What does it mean to be Battle Born?

The area we know today as Nevada has gone through many changes throughout time, and had been given multiple different names under different authorities until it finally came to rest as the State of Nevada.

From New Spain, to an Outpost of Zion, to the Territory of Washoe, and more, here is the making of Nevada.

The Early Days of Nevada

Europeans did not arrive in the Great Basin until the late 18th century. Before that, the area was controlled by the neighboring tribes of the Paiute, Shoshone, Koso, Panamint, Ute, Walapai, and of course, Washiw, from which the area derives its name of Washoe.

Petroglyphs and archaeological data have been found from Nevada’s earliest inhabitants dating to over 12,000 years ago. By 10,000 BCE, native people were living in the Black Rock Desert.

The first European in Nevada, that we know of, was Franciscan Missionary Francisco Garces, of Spain. Nevada became a portion of the northwestern territory of New Spain.

In 1804, Nevada then became a part of Alta (Upper) California when the Californias were split in half.

In 1821, the Mexican War of Independence won Alta California as a territory of Mexico.

In 1848, Mexico lost Alta California after the Mexican-American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

The first known settler in Carson Valley was James Henry Rollins, sent to California on a Mormon expedition in pursuit of gold. In 1849, he used his profits to build a few cabins, a stockade and corrals in the Carson River in what we now call Genoa.

The Mormons began establishing permanent communities in Nevada as early as 1849, and first staked their official claim to Nevada in 1851. The area was absorbed into the Utah Territory, but in 1861 it became a territory by its new name, Nevada.

The Struggle to Become a U.S. Territory

The first semblance of organized authority in Nevada came to be with the creation of the “Washoe code,” and a provisional government in 1851, which was established by the settled Mormons and non-Mormon ranchers and gold prospectors who decided they needed a legal way to deal with land claims.

A meeting was held in Mormon Station (Genoa) and officers were elected, and the area officially began to be called Washoe. A five-person committee was appointed, and after several hours of deliberation, a petition was drafted to Congress for the creation of a new territory, but was never actually sent to Washington.

In the Washoe Code, amendments were made over the years, including the stipulation that all timber with the exception of shade or ornamental trees were decreed common property, and water sharing would depend on how much land each farmer was cultivating, not how much land they owned.

Over the next decade, dissension between the Mormon and non-Mormon populations began to intensify. Ranchers and farmers wrote letters to Congress stating they opposed polygamy and that they would never “submit to a government within the Government of the United States that so mixes together church and state that a man cannot obtain justice in any of its courts.”

They also claimed that if the U.S. Constitution wouldn’t protect them through peaceful measures, then the ranchers would take their protection into their own hands.

Congress failed to reply, and so the representatives of Washoe asked the California Senate to petition to have Washoe annexed into the California Territory to get them out of Utah and the Mormon’s legal jurisdiction.

Utah responded by creating Carson County, which enveloped the entirety of western Utah under its control. Soon, Mormons began flooding into the area from Salt Lake City, and were just about to have complete control over the area when an order came down that Salt Lake City needed “fighting men” to help defend the Mormon Kingdom. By 1857, a massive exodus of Mormons from the Carson Valley back to Salt Lake City left the area open for ranchers and prospectors to assume control.

During the squabbling between Congress, Utah, and California, as to who owned the area and whether or not it should become a true United States territory, the murder of a Honey Lake Valley rancher and the stealing of his cattle was the breaking point for Washoe citizens.

In 1858, rancher Henry Gordier was murdered and his cattle stolen, and a vigilante committee was formed to create their own justice.

Rancher “Lucky Bill” Thorrington and William Edwards were arrested by the committee for the crime and sentenced to hang.

Utah Governor Alfred Cumming assigned John Child the judge of Carson County, which threw the Vigilance Committee into hysterics. An election was held, and the Utah-backed candidates won after Judge Child declared votes from four of the six districts invalid.

The Vigilance Committee informed Child they did not recognize his authority, and continued on ruling Washoe under their seized control.

After several more years of infighting, a provisional Territory of Nevada constitution was drawn up, and further elections were held. Isaac Roop, a self-taught lawyer, was elected the provisional territory’s governor.

Then in 1859, gold was discovered in Nevada, and suddenly the east turned its eyes to the area.

A massive immigration of miners, prospectors, gamblers and drifters surged into the territory, and all previous disputes between the established ranchers disappeared as they banded together against the wave of newcomers.

In 1859, the issues between white settlers and Native Americans finally came to a head after Honey Lake Valley ranchers over grazed their cattle on Paiute territory, leaving Paiute cattle to starve. In January, during a hard winter, a white settler was killed.

Newly elected Governor Roop was called upon to enact retribution against the Paiutes, and so he sent two commissioners to talk to Paiute Chief Winnemucca.

Winnemucca offered to sell Honey Lake Valley to the white settlers for $16,000. As the newly founded territory had no money to speak of, Roop instead asked for a huge amount of ammunition, arms, and soldiers from the U.S. Department of the Pacific, which was not sent.

A full war erupted in 1860 after four settlers were killed at Williams’ stage station, and a militia of drunken, angry ranchers armed with knives and pistols marched into an ambush near Pyramid Lake which left half of them dead and the rest wounded.

The war came to a halt after California’s governor sent a militia force to back up the white Washoe settlers, and the two groups ended their skirmishes.

In 1861, Nevada finally became a territory to the surprise of everyone in the West, but it wasn’t because Congress finally accepted their need for protection and representation.

Naturally, it was a political move, as the secession of the Southern states had left the Republican Party in control of Congress, and the territories of Colorado, Dakota and Nevada were created practically overnight. They believed the new territory areas would be more inclined toward following the Republican Party, thus cementing their control against the Democrats in Congress.

Check back tomorrow for Part 2.

— The Nevada Lore Series focuses on the legends of Nevada and the surrounding areas that help build our culture, from ancient Washoe stories, to Old West ghostly visions, to modern day urban legends.

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