This report details some of the events in northwestern Nevada history, and adds some of the impacts on the native plants of the area.

Map 1. From "Discovering Nevada: a Celebration of Nevada's Land and People"	Map 2. From "Discovering Nevada: a Celebration of Nevada's Land and People"

Between 1826 and 1844 only a handful of white explorers entered the area. They were fur trappers. Map 1 shows their routes through the area.

Notable among them was Col. John C. Fremont, who (along with Kit Carson) was among the first group of white men to see Lake Tahoe (in February, 1844). He also discovered Pyramid Lake and its native cottonwood, which is named for him (Populus fremontii).

Starting in 1844 with the Stephens party, an estimated 200,000 emigrants passed through northwestern Nevada on foot or in wagons en route to California (see Map 2 above). Before 1848 there was a trickle of emigrants, mostly farmers from the midwest U.S. searching for better land for farming in California. They took a number of trails, starting with those crossing what is now Donner Pass.

Much has been written about the "ill-fated Donner Party," which crossed the area in 1846. This party could only be described as "snakebit." 40 out of the original party of 87 died en route. The mortality rate overall was very low.

In 1848 two events occurred which turned the trickle into a stream. First, at the end of the U.S.-Mexican War, the U.S. bought what is now most of California, Nevada and Utah for $15 million, and Americans headed west to settle. Second, gold was found near what is now Colona, California, and miners rushed toward what they thought were certain riches. Gold was found in our area in 1850, spurring miners to head back over the Sierra Nevada to the area.

Map 3. Urbanized/suburbanized area superimposed on map of land ownership made by BLM (private land is in white)

The first trading post in the area was established in what is now Genoa in 1850. It was called at one time "Mormon Station." A year later the first permanent structure in Nevada was built at Mormon Station. These settlements were constructed to offer services to the flood of humanity passing through: the trip across several hundred miles of desert, and the prospect of a difficult crossing of the Sierra Nevada with few food sources made this a natural re-supply area. Besides, given adequate irrigation, the fertile valley provided food for both people and animals. A number of irrigation ditches were built, many of them still in existence today.

When Nevada was granted statehood in 1864, the Federal Government set aside most of the state as Federal land; in northwestern Nevada it is about 80 percent of the total.

After the Homestead Act was passed in 1862, the government gave homesteaders land. Most of this is in the valleys of the Carson, Humboldt, Little Humboldt, Truckee and Walker Rivers. It also gave to the Union Pacific Railroad half of the land (in a checkerboard pattern) for a 40-mile swath bisected by the Humboldt River, in order to copurage the railroaders to complete the Transcontinental Railroad. It gave various Indian tribes land for reservations.

Although the Federal Government retained ownership of most of northwestern Nevada, the Mining Act, passed in 1872, allowed people to buy land for $5 per acre (the price is the same today!), and allows miners to extract metal ores without royalties to the government. So some of the public land of northwestern Nevada is used for mining.

Map 3 shows the land ownership in the southwestern part of northwestern Nevada. This area is along transportation routes, is only a five-hour drive from the San Francisco Bay Area and has the Truckee and Carson Rivers for water supply. This is a natural place for a population center, which for the purposes of this website has been referred to as the "urbanized/suburbanized area" (the area outlined in black). There is more about this in its own section.

Overgrazing and its impacts on the woody plants of northwestern Nevada

The people passing through the area wanted not only feed for their livestock and grains and vegetables for themselves; they wanted beef and mutton. Here were hundreds of thousands of acres of seemingly rich grain for grazing; so ranching started in earnest to supply this need. The Federal government leased the public land to ranchers; today this is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

The food value of the native grasses was overestimated, though, and over the decades the grassy valleys and hills were overgrazed, until today they are covered with sagebrush, bitterbrush and rabbitbrush (none of which grazing animals seem to like), and very little native grass remains. Incidentally, the amount of beef produced annually by all of Nevada (110,000 square miles) equals the amount produced by Vermont (9,600 square miles).

When the native grasses were depleted, Cheat grass replaced it. While cheat grass has fair food value some of the year, it has many problems associated with it. A number of other plants also invaded pastureland, limiting or destroying their use for grazing. For example, Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) was possibly transported from its native Europe and Asia via ballast in sailing ships; it has medicinal uses. And Musk Thistle (Carduus nutans ) was possibly imported from its native Europe and Asia for use in flower gardens.  

This is all mentioned because overgrazing has caused a tremendous change to the appearance of the land of northwestern Nevada.

Square sets

Silver was found in 1858 in what is now Virginia City, causing its population to swell and causing deforestation of much of the Jeffrey Pine/White Fir/Sugar Pine forest around Lake Tahoe to provide mine timbers. To the right is a diagram of "square sets," structures of mine timbers. The silver ore was so pervasive in the native rock that miners essentially hollowed out huge caverns, and without buttressing the hills around Virginia City would have collapsed. The "square sets" had square timbers two to three feet square and perhaps 20 feet long; required a lot of huge

The silver was used to aid the Union army in the Civil War. Other, smaller mining districts proliferated. Because of its increasing economic importance and political pressures, Nevada became a territory in 1861 (with Carson City as its capital), and became a state in 1864, (with Carson City as its capital).

For a fascinating recounting of life as it was in not only Virginia City, but also of life in Carson City and the mining districts, read "Roughing It," by Mark Twain.

The Pony Express, a symbol of the West, was established to provide rapid mail service across the West. In the early 1850s, it took months for a letter to travel from the East Coast to the West Coast, either across the West or by ship around Cape Horn in South America. In the 1850s, St. Joesph, Missouri was the nominal starting point for mail from East to West, because the telegraph had reached there. From St. Joseph to San Francisco, for example, a stagecoach would travel the 2,000 miles to its destination in about 25 days.

When the Pony Express was established in April of 1860, it took over for the stagecoach, and the inaugural run took 10 days (less than half that of stagecoaches). This is because there were some 400 young and daring Pony Express riders (daring because of the danger of uncertain weather and potential Indian attacks) who would ride a number of miles on a horse, change it at a relay station, and ride until he was relieved by the next rider. Amazingly, the Pony Express was operational for only 18 months; it was made instantly obsolete by completion of telegraph lines across that 2,000 miles.

Reno was started in 1858 as "Lake's Crossing" across the Truckee River. It was a crossroad between the east-west travel of emigrants and the north-south travel of miners and farmers to Washoe Valley (home of many stamp mills), Virginia City and Carson City. With the decline of mining in later decades, both Washoe Valley and Carson City decreased in importance, but Carson City increased in importance.

The part of the Transcontinental Railroad from Sacramento through Reno was completed over the Sierra Nevada in 1867, enabling transportation of people and materials through the area. It passed through Reno, further enhancing Reno's importance as a transportation center.

Sixty years later, the Transcontinental or Lincoln Highway was completed from New York City to San Francisco. It was the first highway across the entire U.S., stretching some 3,000 miles as U.S. 50. It was split into two parts in Fallon (see Map 3 below for location): The Victory Highway goes northwest from Fallon to Wadsworth, and then follows a route very close to that of the Transcontinental Railroad to Verdi, where it is denoted as U.S. 40. the Lincoln Highway continues from Fallon to Carson City, then to Stateline alongside Lake Tahoe. The first bridge on the Lincoln Highway in Nevada was moved to a rest stop on the south side of Interstate 80 near Mogul, where it can be seen today.

To celebrate the completion of the highway, the "Transcontinental Exposition" was held in Reno, partly in Idlewild Park, which was developed in the mid-twenties (partially for this exposition). The California Building, in Idlewild Park in Reno, is the only building remaining from the exposition. 

The confluence of rail routes,the Lincoln Highway and what is now US 395 made Reno a transportation hub, which provides a significant contribution to its local economy.

In the first half of the Twentieth Century, three cultural changes (legalization of gambling, easing of divorce restrictions and legalization of prostitution) drew visitors to northwestern Nevada and established it as the center of the Nevada tourism industry. Tourism was furthered by the proximity of Reno and Carson City to the natural wonders and recreational possibilities of the Sierra Nevada, Lake Tahoe, Lahontan Reservoir and Walker Lake. The tourism industry led to people moving here wholesale.

Today, gambling is legal in one form or another in every state in the U.S., and divorce is prevalent all over the country. In addition, legalized prostitution is only permitted in rural areas of northwestern Nevada. On the other hand, property values are lower than those in the Bay Area or urbanized Southern California,there are no state income taxes, and the weather is benign enough for retirees to live comfortably. So the population continues to increase (between the 1990 and 2000 censuses, Nevada had the greatest percentage increase in population in the U.S.).

The urbanized/suburbanized area

The black outline in Map 3 shows the urbanized/suburbanized area of the southwestern part of northwestern Nevada. This is the area which has become the most densely populated of northwestern Nevada.

This area was drawn as the largest possible contiguous(or nearly so) area where future development would likely take place. Note that it is surrounded by public land and is constrained by mountains. The urbanized/suburbanized area includes the Arrowcreek and Galena areas southwest of the Reno city limits because the slope is gentle enough to build subdivisions. Map 4 shows some of the localities mentioned in this website, for orientation purposes.

Although Dayton, east of the middle of the area, is not connected to the rest of thearea, it is in the Carson River Valley and is separated from Carson City by only a couple of miles. It is a natural place for a bedroom community, only a 15-minute drive from downtown Carson city.

Map 5 shows how much of this area is already developed (i.e. subdivisions, stores and industrial areas) rather than farmland or ranchland. There is no reason to expect the area of development will stop increasing.