Home Means Nevada: Learn the history of our state song in time for Nevada Day
Schoolchildren all across the Silver State learn early on the words to Nevada’s official state song, Home Means Nevada. But for 68 years, our home had no state song to speak of.
Home Means Nevada was written by Bertha Raffetto in 1932, and was officially adopted a year later as the official state song by the Nevada Legislature.
At the time, Raffetto was a well-known poet who wrote a popular poetry column in the Nevada State Journal.
By the summer of 1932, Raffetto had already attempted a few stabs at crafting the perfect Nevada song, but had never finished. However, the Nevada Native Daughters asked her to sing a Nevada song of her choice at their annual picnic, and so Raffetto got to work.
The day before she was set to perform, she wrote the song we’ve come to know as Home Means Nevada.
After she sang the song, former Nevada Governor Roswell K. Colcord told her, “Honey, that’s the prettiest Nevada song that I have ever heard. It should be the state song of Nevada!”
And soon after, it was made just that.
Do you know Home Means Nevada by heart?
Here are the lyrics to refresh your memory.
Way out in the land of the setting sun,
Where the wind blows wild and free,
There's a lovely spot, just the only one
That means home sweet home to me.
If you follow the old Kit Carson trail,
Until desert meets the hills,
Oh you certainly will agree with me,
It's the place of a thousand thrills.
Home means Nevada,
Home means the hills,
Home means the sage and the pines.
Out by the Truckee's silvery rills,
Out where the sun always shines,
There is the land that I love the best,
Fairer than all I can see.
Deep in the heart of the golden west
Home means Nevada to me.
Whenever the sun at the close of day,
Colors all the western sky,
Oh my heart returns to the desert grey
And the mountains tow'ring high.
Where the moon beams play in shadowed glen,
With the spotted fawn and doe,
All the livelong night until morning light,
Is the loveliest place I know.
Home means Nevada,
Home means the hills,
Home means the sage and the pines.
Out by the Truckee's silvery rills,
Out where the sun always shines,
There is the land that I love the best,
Fairer than all I can see.
Deep in the heart of the golden west
Home means Nevada to me.