How the States Got Their Shapes by Mark Stein

Author:Mark Stein
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: State & Local, U.S. States - Historical Geography, United States Geography, Historical Geography, United States - Boundaries - History, Travel, U.S. States, General, United States, U.S. States - Boundaries - History, History
ISBN: 9780061431395
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2008-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

NEVADA

Is there any question as to why Nevada has the borders that it has? Aren't they obviously just straight lines that follow the lines established by its neighboring states? (Guess again.)

Nevada's Northern Border

Nevada acquired its northern border even before the United States acquired the land that would become Nevada. In 1790, England and Spain negotiated the Nootka Convention, which divided their territorial claims west of the Rocky Mountains along the 42nd parallel. (To find out why the 42nd parallel was chosen, see DON'T SKIP THIS.) Thus, when the United States acquired the land that includes present-day Nevada as part of its conquests in the Mexican War (1846-48), the 42nd parallel was already in place as its northern border.

Nevada's Western Border

When California became a state in 1850, just over a year after coming into American possession from the Mexican War, its controversial eastern border was established as two straight lines encompassing all of the gold-filled Sierra Nevada. (For more on this, go to CALIFORNIA.) The United States divided the remainder of its Mexican War acquisitions into the territories of Utah and New Mexico, the western borders of which were the California border.

During the first decade of its American existence, few people were interested in living in the western regions of the Utah Territory, the part that would become Nevada. It was mostly desert, called the Great Basin. But in 1859, a vast network of silver deposits, known as the Comstock Lode, was discovered in the western mountains of the Utah Territory. Soon after, more discoveries were made, not only of silver but also of gold. At the same time, the nation's conflict over slavery was erupting into war. As Americans began to pour money and lives into the Civil War, here in these barren hills in the western reaches of the Utah Territory was an untapped treasure of silver and gold.

Washington worried about the Utah Territory. Mormons constituted its main population, and their relations with the government had always been strained over the issue of polygamy—and, in a larger sense, over the issue of authority. To preserve possession of these silver deposits, Congress created the territory of Nevada in 1861. California, which had been the western border of the Utah Territory, was now the western border of Nevada.

Nevada's Eastern Border

The borders specified in the legislation creating the Nevada Territory were designed to separate the silver and gold mines from the Utah Territory. But discoveries of gold were continuing to be made. Within a year, it was evident that considerable gold remained just beyond Nevada's eastern boundary, the 116th meridian. Nevada's territorial delegation to Congress proposed that its eastern border be relocated one degree farther east. Congress complied. (Figure 110)

When Nevada was granted statehood in 1864, its eastern border was relocated yet another degree farther east to the 114th meridian. It had turned out there were more gold deposits east of Nevada's revised boundary, but this time there had been something else. Rivers.

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