Nevada Territory Information & Nevada Territory Links at HealthHaven.com

	Territory of Nevada
	Organized incorporated territory of the United States
	The Nevada Territory in 1861, with the Utah and New Mexico territories.
Capital	Genoa (1861); Carson City (1861-1864)
Government	Organized incorporated territory
Governor	James W. Nye
History
- Organic act	March 2 1861
- Statehood	October 31 1864

The Territory of Nevada was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until October 31, 1864, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Nevada.

Prior to the creation of the Nevada Territory, the area was part of western Utah Territory and was known as Washoe, after the native Washoe people. The separation of the territory from Utah was important to the federal government because of its political leanings, while the population itself was keen to be separated because of animosity (and sometimes violence) between mainstream Christians in Nevada and Mormons from the rest of the Utah Territory.

Despite the silver wealth of Nevada, and the ever-increasing population of miners that came to exploit it, Nevada was not quite populous enough to warrant statehood, but the Union's need for silver and the generally anti-slavery bent of its people trumped the population problem and led to statehood.

The eastern boundary of Nevada Territory had been defined as the 116th meridian, but when gold discoveries were made to the east the Nevada territorial delegation to Congress requested the boundary moved to the 115th meridian, which Congress granted in 1862. The border was shifted further east, to the 114th meridian, in 1864, in part due to the discovery of more gold deposits. These eastward shifts took land away from Utah Territory. The southern border of Nevada Territory had been defined as the 37th parallel, but in 1866 Nevada asked Congress to move the border south to the Colorado River. Congress granted the request in 1867, giving Nevada all of the western end of Arizona Territory. Arizona strongly protested, but found little sympathy in Congress due in part to Arizona having aligned with the Confederacy during the Civil War.^[1]

The exact location of the California-Nevada border, between Lake Tahoe and the intersection of the 35th parallel with the Colorado River, was contentious and was surveyed and re-surveyed well into the 20th century.^[2] Congress transferred some of the lands west of the Colorado River including Pah-Ute County, Arizona Territory to the State of Nevada on May 5, 1866. This southern tip of Nevada was renamed Clark County and today contains the city of Las Vegas.

The territorial capital was moved from the provisional capital of Genoa to Carson City. James Warren Nye succeeded Isaac Roop, the first provisional territorial governor, and became the only territorial governor. The secretary of the territory was Orion Clemens, older brother of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain).

[edit] See also

Nevada portal

History portal

California Trail
Great Basin
Historic regions of the United States
History of Nevada
Territorial evolution of the United States
- Territories of Spain that encompassed land that would later become part of the Territory of Nevada:
  - Gran Cuenca
  - Nueva California, 1768-1804
  - Alta California, 1804-1821
- Territory of Mexico that encompassed land that would later become part of the Territory of Nevada:
  - Alta California, 1821-1848
- U.S. territories that encompassed land that would later become part of the Territory of Nevada:
  - Mexican Cession, 1848
  - State of Deseret, 1849-1850 (extralegal)
  - Territory of Utah, 1850-1896
- U.S. state created from the Territory of Nevada:
  - State of Nevada, 1864
- U.S. territories from which land was annexed to the State of Nevada:
  - Western portion of the Territory of Utah annexed May 5, 1866
  - Northwestern portion of the Territory of Arizona annexed January 18, 1867

[edit] References

^ Stein, Mark (2008). How the States Got Their Shapes. HarperCollins. pp. 176–177. ISBN 978-0-06-143138-8.
^ Brean, Henry (2009-04-27). "Four Corners mistake recalls long border feud between Nevada, California". Las Vegas Review-Journal. http://www.lvrj.com/news/43760307.html. Retrieved 2009-04-27.

[edit] External links

Collecting NT stocks & bonds

[0] Stein, Mark (2008). How the States Got Their Shapes. HarperCollins. pp. 176–177. ISBN 978-0-06-143138-8.

[1] Brean, Henry (2009-04-27). "Four Corners mistake recalls long border feud between Nevada, California". Las Vegas Review-Journal. http://www.lvrj.com/news/43760307.html. Retrieved 2009-04-27.

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