The following article was written by my good friend, Bill Dollarhide, and is taken from his book, Nevada Censuses & Substitute Name Lists, 1855-2015
Prologue: The highlighted events of this historical timeline for Nevada are focused on the early settlements and jurisdictional changes that evolved. The goal here is to give genealogists a sense of the jurisdictions in place at the time an ancestor lived there. The events involve Spanish, Mexican, and American jurisdictions, as follows:
1540. The first Spanish exploration of the area took place in 1540 when Melchi Diaz and party traveled through the southern part of present Nevada. Like most Spanish explorers for the first 200 years of New Spain, Diaz was looking for the “seven cities of gold,” which the clever natives had continually insisted were real, and kept the Spanish from staying in one place long enough to cause anyone harm. All the Indians had to do was tell the Spaniards that the cities of gold were just a few miles further on, and off they would go again. Diaz found no gold in Nevada, but had he considered moving his expedition a bit further north, and changed his thinking to “mountains of silver,” he might have had much more success there.
1776. No further activity was recorded in Nevada until 1776, when Spanish Padre Garces, on a search for mission sites along the Old Spanish Trail from Santa Fe to Los Angeles, crossed the Colorado River into southern Nevada.
1821. Mexico developed a little more interest in Nevada after independence from Spain, but only as a means of getting to California. Like the Spanish, the Mexicans made no attempts to colonize the area. Apparently, Nevada was just a bit too dry and too far away from Mexico or California to attempt colonization – neither the Spanish nor Mexicans ever founded a single pueblo, mission, or presidio in Nevada. In fact, the first white settlements in the area came from the Americans, well after the Spanish and Mexican eras.
1826. Mountain man Jedediah Smith was the first American to cross Nevada’s northern mountains, blazing a major section of a route that would become the primary California Trail.
1828. Peter Ogden was the first to discover the Humboldt River, and immediately saw it as a route for traveling further west. A dozen explorers over the next several years tried to find the final destination of the Humboldt, which as it turned out, ran out of water (by evaporation in the desert), ending at the Humboldt Sink, some 60 miles east of present Reno.
1829. Antonio Armijo, a notable Mexican trader, led a party from Santa Fe to Los Angeles. He began traveling on what was to become known later as the Old Spanish Trail. Looking for a shortcut by passing through southern Nevada, his party found an abundance of artesian spring water that allowed travelers to cut directly through the vast desert to Los Angeles. The traders named the desert oasis Las Vegas, Spanish for “The Meadows.”
1833. Captain John C. Fremont, leader of several map-making expeditions for the U.S. Army, was very influential in the early discoveries of Nevada, particularly for the immigrant routes that would follow. In 1833, Fremont’s expedition of about 25 men discovered a large fresh water lake, some 30 miles north of present Reno, which he named Lake Pyramid. John Fremont and his guide, Kit Carson, were the first Americans to see Lake Tahoe, and together they used their Pyramid Lake camp as a mustering point for later expeditions across the Sierra-Nevada Mountains into northern California and southern Oregon. Moving on to California, Fremont became a player in the events leading up to the war with Mexico, and was a leader of the first attempt to declare California and Nevada as part of the United States.
1841. The first wagon train to California passed along the Humboldt River route through Nevada. This was the Bidwell party departing from Independence, Missouri. With the aid of John Fremont’s maps, they crossed Nevada by way of the Humboldt, Carson Sink, and Walker River. Nevada and California were still part of Mexico – but Americans began to covet the area, based on the “manifest destiny” attitude of the time. As it turned out, the war with Mexico, 1846-1848, was to be Nevada’s admission ticket to become part of the United States.
1847. The Mormons played a big role in early Nevada history, and contributed to the success of the American takeover of the Southwest. In 1847, the Mormons took possession of the Great Salt Lake Valley of Utah. At the time, they were in Mexican territory. But, before leaving Iowa in 1846, Brigham Young had made a special arrangement with the United States government to supply a battalion of soldiers to march from Iowa to San Diego during the Mexican-American war, keeping them in alliance with the United States.
1848. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war with Mexico. As part of the Mexican Cession, the area of Utah (which included present Nevada) was added to the United States; along with present California, Arizona, New Mexico, and western Colorado.
1848. Discharged soldiers of the Mormon Battalion in California had to find all new trails to rejoin their families, now in Utah. In doing so, they established some of the first routes through the Sierra-Nevada Mountains into the Carson Valley of Nevada.
1849-1852. The California Gold Rush brought thousands of prospectors through Nevada. One estimate was that in 1849, 24,000 people crossed the Sierra-Nevada mountains via the Carson Valley of Nevada. In 1850, some 45,000 people made the trek; and up to 52,000 in 1852. Yet, Nevada gained none of these folks – Nevada was seen only as a mustering point to cross the mountains and get to the gold fields of California. But, many of the same people who had ignored Nevada were to find themselves clamoring to get back there within just a few years.
1850. Sept. 9th. The State of California, New Mexico Territory, and Utah Territory were all created on the same day. Utah Territory had a census day for the 1850 federal census as April 15, 1851. Although present Nevada was included in the area of Utah Territory, there was no white settlement there yet.
1851. Mormon Station. Brigham Young decided the Mormons should take advantage of the business opportunities from the thousands of prospectors crossing into California via Nevada. In June 1851, Mormon settlers from Salt Lake established a trading post in the Carson Valley, which was called Mormon Station (later the town of Genoa), the first permanent white settlement in Nevada.
1854. Carson County, Utah Territory was established, and encompassed all of what subsequently became the counties of Douglas, Lyon, Ormsby (now Carson City), Storey and portions of Washoe, Pershing, Churchill, Mineral, Esmeralda, and Nye, now in Nevada.
1855. Mormon Fort. Brigham Young repeated the Mormon Station exercise and sent a party of 30 men who founded Mormon Fort, at the time a part of New Mexico Territory, and later became the town of Las Vegas, Nevada.
1859. Comstock Lode. The largest known deposit of silver in the world was discovered, an extremely rich four-mile-long lode near present Virginia City, Nevada. The frenzy to mine the Comstock Lode essentially ended the California Gold Rush, because many of the California miners hurried back to Nevada to get in on the bonanza. The population of the Carson Valley exploded with thousands of prospectors arriving in a matter of a few weeks, and the rush continued for several more years.
1860. June. Federal Census. Western United States. Jurisdiction changes since 1850 federal census: 1) On Sept 9th 1850, the State of California, Utah Territory, and New Mexico Territory were all created; 2) In 1854, both Nebraska Territory and Kansas Territory were created, leaving just the unofficial “Indian Territory” remaining from the old Unorganized Territory; and 3), in 1859, Oregon was admitted to the Union, the remaining part of old Oregon Territory was transferred to Washington Territory. As shown on the 1860 map above, the area of present Nevada (boundaries in white) was mostly within Utah Territory, except for the approximate area of modern Clark County (including the current city of Las Vegas), which lay in old New Mexico Territory. Map Source: Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses, 1790-1920, page 51.
1860. June. Federal Census. As shown on the map above, Nevada was part of two territories: Utah Territory included seven counties as part of the Nevada country. Of these, three organized Utah counties had enumerated ranches and settlements in the Nevada area: St. Mary’s, Humboldt, and Carson Counties. Most of the Nevada area population was in Carson County, the scene of the Comstock Lode and associated mining camps. New Mexico Territory had four unorganized counties that extended into the southern Nevada area, but with no population enumerated. (Mormon Fort/Las Vegas had a small population, but the census taker responsible for that area apparently did not want to undertake the 630-mile journey to get there from Santa Fe via the Butterfield Overland Stagecoach). Map Source: Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses, 1790-1920, page 211.
1861. Nevada Territory. As a direct result of the new population attracted to the Comstock Lode, Nevada was organized as a territory in 1861, with Genoa as the first territorial capital. Nevada Territory’s total population was recorded at 14,404 persons, of which about 4,581 persons resided in and around Virginia City, site of the Comstock Lode mines.
1861-1864. The new territorial legislature authorized their first census in 1861. The Nevada State Archives in Carson City has all original territorial censuses with dates of 1861 (statewide tally, no names); 1862 (all counties, all white inhabitants by name, their residences, ages, and sex), 1863 (Lander, Lyon, and Churchill counties only), and 1864 (Nye and Churchill counties only).
1861-1865. During the Civil War, the wealth of the Comstock Lode exercised a far-ranging political and economic influence. Seeking to bolster the Union with another free state, and to ensure his reelection, President Lincoln encouraged Nevada Territory to seek statehood at such a rapid pace that the proposed state constitution had to be telegraphed to Washington. Lincoln was able to convince Congress to waive the minimum population requirement so that Nevada Territory could be considered for statehood.
1864. Oct. Nevada Statehood came a matter of days before the 1864 presidential election. President Abraham Lincoln had promised a quick ratification of any state constitutions submitted from Nebraska Territory, Colorado Territory, or Nevada Territory. Nebraska and Colorado turned him down, but Nevada’s instant statehood added enough voters to provide a comfortable winning margin for Abraham Lincoln’s 2nd term.
1870. June. Federal Census. A few anomalies for southern Nevada exist, due to the poorly surveyed boundaries between Nevada, Utah Territory, and Arizona Territory. Several communities of Washington County, Utah Territory were enumerated, but actually lay in Lincoln County, Nevada. Old Pah-Ute County (of the original Arizona Territory) was abolished and the area legally in Nevada in 1870, but was still enumerated as part of Arizona Territory.
1875. State Census. The state of Nevada took its only state census in 1875. The originals survive, now located at the Nevada State Archives in Carson City.
Further Reading:
Nevada Censuses & Substitute Name Lists, 1855-2015 (Printed Book), softbound, 79 pages, Item FR0265.
Nevada Censuses & Substitute Name Lists, 1855-2015 (PDF eBook), 79 pages, Item FR0266.
Online Nevada Censuses & Substitutes: A Genealogists’ Insta-Guide™, 4-page, laminated, 3-hole punched, Item FR0335.
Online Nevada Censuses & Substitutes: A Genealogists’ Insta-GuideTM (PDF version), 4-page, Item FR0336.