When telegrapher James H. Guild sat down in Carson City on Oct. 26, 1864, he had no idea he was about to create a massive logistical bottleneck for the federal government. He began transmitting a 16,543-word document destined for Washington, a staggering dispatch that forced the War Department to suspend all military telegraph traffic for more than five hours. The transmission cost more than $4,300, cementing its place as the longest telegram in the National Archives’ holdings. The subject of that expensive wire was the constitution of a state that did not yet exist.
That improbable delivery helps explain why Nevada, which turns 162 on Saturday, celebrates its birthday with such gusto. The state’s official Nevada Day Parade steps off at 10 a.m. Saturday in Carson City under the theme “Pumpkins, Pioneers and Tall Tales.” At 1 p.m. Thursday, the Nevada State Archives will display original 1863 and 1864 drafts of the Nevada Constitution at 100 N. Stewart St. in Carson City.
Rushed to the Union for Wartime Politics
The story of why Washington waited on a wire from a remote territory, and what that territory became, starts long before the telegraph. People lived in what is now Southern Nevada as far back as 11,000 years ago. The Western Shoshone, Goshute, Ute, Paiute and Washoe living in the Great Basin today descend from people who have been there for hundreds to thousands of years. Outsiders came late and mostly passed through the region.
Settlers arrived in numbers only after 1859, when Irish miners Peter O’Riley and Patrick McLaughlin made the strike that became the Comstock Lode. A heavy blue clay that fouled their gold recovery turned out to be rich silver ore.
The discovery turned the territory into a political prize. On March 21, 1864, in Washington, President Abraham Lincoln signed an enabling act authorizing Nevadans to draft a constitution. Nevada Territory had roughly a fifth of the population usually needed for statehood, but Congress accepted the proposed state constitution anyway. Lawmakers rushed the process to secure electoral votes for Lincoln’s reelection and to add to Republican majorities in Congress. Lincoln also wanted a reliably Union state to help pass proposed antislavery amendments, tap Nevada’s mineral wealth for the war effort and block possible Confederate moves toward California.
The Missing Paperwork and the Longest Telegram
The final page, No. 175, of the telegraphed copy of the Nevada Constitution is attested by Gov. James W. Nye and Territorial Secretary Orion Clemens, brother of writer Mark Twain, and dated Oct. 17, 1864.
From Silver Busts to Modern Neon Spectacles
Its mines produced about 7,000 metric tons of silver and 225 metric tons of gold from 1862 to 1953, with 80% of it in the first 20 years, according to the London Bullion Market Association, which cites the Western Mining History website. A rich find in 1873 known as the Big Bonanza made four mining partners, the so-called Silver Kings, among the richest men of their era. Annual output from the Comstock mines peaked at $36 million in 1878. Virginia City swelled to an estimated 25,000 people in the mid-1870s; the 2020 census counted 787 residents. The bust came nearly as fast as the boom. In the 1870s, the federal government limited silver’s role in the monetary system. Silver prices fell, and mines closed. Nevada’s population dropped from 62,000 in 1880 to 47,000 in 1890.
After 1900, new strikes revived the state: silver near Tonopah, copper near Ely and gold at Goldfield. Nevada Gold Mines, a joint venture owned 61.5% by Barrick Mining Corp. and 38.5% by Newmont Corp., launched July 1, 2019. It produced about 2.6 million ounces in 2025, a 3% drop from 2024, and tops Mining.com’s list of the world’s largest gold mines. The venture accounted for more than two-thirds of Nevada’s gold in 2024.
Las Vegas began as springs and meadows. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated Boulder Dam, which Congress renamed Hoover Dam in 1947. Lake Mead, the reservoir behind the dam, honors Elwood Mead, who was commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The atomic age added a final ingredient to the Las Vegas area: spectacle. On Jan. 27, 1951, at Frenchman Flat, the Nevada Test Site hosted its first atmospheric nuclear test, a one-kiloton device called Able dropped from an Air Force B-50 bomber. The tests drew tourists to Las Vegas, about 65 miles from the site.
Federal Land and Modern Tourism Pressures
The state received about 8,500 acres of federal land for Valley of Fire State Park in the 1920s, Civilian Conservation Corps crews built its first campgrounds in 1933, and on Easter Sunday 1934 it opened as Nevada’s first state park. On Nov. 16, 1990, in Washington, Congress established Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, west of Las Vegas. The Bureau of Land Management manages it, and a 1994 law more than doubled its size, from 83,000 acres to 196,000. Far from the Strip, Nevada keeps its only national park. On Oct. 27, 1986, in Washington, Congress established Great Basin National Park. It covers more than 77,000 acres, including Wheeler Peak, Nevada’s second-highest peak; bristlecone pines that survive more than 4,000 years; and Lehman Caves. The federal government owns 79.8% of Nevada, the highest share of any state, according to a Congressional Research Service report. As a condition of statehood, the 1864 enabling act required Nevada to “forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands” within its borders.
Las Vegas drew 38,545,700 visitors in 2025, down 7.5% from 2024, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported. Reuters called it the sharpest annual decline outside the COVID-19 pandemic, Fox News reported. This year has been uneven. Through July, Las Vegas had 22,754,200 visitors, up 0.5% from the same period in 2025, while Clark County gaming revenue totaled $8.13 billion, up 2.3%.
