Aside from its spirited nightlife, the city of Nevada is bejewelled with a great deal of great history, and because some of the its trivia is lesser known, we felt the need to familiarize our readership with it. In addition to its reliable concierge service, 702 ENT wanted to provide its current and future clientele with 10 interesting historical facts about the Silver State.
1. Nevada was named after the mountain range “Sierra Nevada,” and although it translates to “snow-covered” in Spanish, ironically, it is the driest state in the U.S.
2. The Hoover Dam is the largest public works project to ever take place in the U.S. It actually has more structural volume than Egypt’s largest pyramid.
3. On March 1, 1869, Nevada was the first state to approve the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution. This amendment prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on their race, colour or previous condition of servitude.
4. A total of 928 nuclear tests were conducted at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, between 1951 and 1992.
5. The state of Nevada has voted for the winning presidential candidate 96% of the time, ever since the lower 48 states first voted in the election of 1912.
6. In 1949, the oldest skeletons of early men ever found in the U.S. were discovered in Hidden Cave.
7. Mark Twain’s writing career began with a position as a reporter at the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise.
8. Nevada’s Berlin-Icthyosaur State Park houses the largest known Shonisaurus popularis ichthyosaur fossils. These extinct marine reptiles ranged from 2 feet to over 50 feet long in size and swam in the ocean that covered central Nevada 225 million years ago during the Triassic Period.
9. Discovered near Virginia City in June 1859, the Comstock Lode produced about $36 million worth of silver ore each year from 1876 to 1878. By 1882, the Comstock had produced more than $300 million in both gold and silver – No wonder it’s called the ‘Silver State’!
10. Although legal between 1869 and 1910, gambling was banned in Nevada in October 1910. Much like the national prohibition on alcohol that soon followed, the law was largely ignored as machines, wheels and tables simply moved to more discreet locations. On March 19, 1931, in the midst of the Great Depression, gambling was re-legalized.
Any history buff would agree that Vegas isn’t only about the glitz, glam and living the high life. Nevada offers a wealth of history for anyone who is interested in facts about this fantastic city. Want to find out more?
Contact 702 ENT to help you discover even more historical places of interest you might not have known or considered before booking your trip. Benefit from our Las Vegas concierge services, where we could help you book all your excursions to the best sites and much more!
