Founding
independent city in and capital of the U.S. state of Nevada
Fetching the article from Wikipedia…
Carson City is an independent city and the capital of the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 58,639, making it the 6th most populous city in the state. The majority of the city's population lives in Eagle Valley, on the eastern edge of the Carson Range, a branch of the Sierra Nevada, about 30 miles (50 km) south of Reno. The city is named after the mountain man Kit Carson (1809–1868). The town began as a stopover for California-bound immigrants, but developed into a city with the Comstock Lode, a silver strike in the mountains to the northeast. The city has served as Nevada's capital since 1861, when it was still a territory. For much of its history, it was a hub for the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, although the tracks were removed in 1950.
Before 1969, Carson City was the county seat of Ormsby County. That year, after a referendum approved merging the city and the county, the state legislature issued a revised city charter that merged them into the Carson City Consolidated Municipality. With the consolidation, the city limits extend west across the Sierra Nevada to the California–Nevada state line in the middle of Lake Tahoe. Like other independent cities in the United States, it is treated as a county-equivalent for census purposes.
The Washoe people have inhabited the valley and surrounding areas for about 6,000 years.
The first European Americans to arrive in what is now known as Eagle Valley were John C. Frémont and his exploration party in January 1843. Fremont named the river flowing through the valley Carson River in honor of Kit Carson (1809–1868), the mountain man, explorer, and scout he had hired for his expedition. Later, settlers named the area Washoe in reference to the indigenous people.
By 1851, the Eagle Station ranch along the Carson River was a trading post and stop-over for westbound travelers and wagons on the California Trail's Carson Branch, which ran through Eagle Valley. The valley and the trading post received their name from a bald eagle that was hunted and killed by one of the early settlers and was featured pinned on a wall inside the post.
As the area was part of the larger Utah Territory (1850–1896), it was governed from the territorial (and later state) capital of Salt Lake City on the eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake, where the territorial government was headquartered there several hundred miles further east with Mormon (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) President Brigham Young (1801–1877), as first Governor of Utah. Early settlers bristled at the control by Mormon-influenced officials and desired the creation of the provisional Nevada Territory with Isaac Roop (1822–1869, served 1859–1861), as provisional Governor. A vigilante group of influential settlers, headed by Abraham Curry (1815–1873), sought a site for a capital city for the envisioned future separate territory. In 1858, Abraham Curry bought Eagle Station and the settlement was thereafter renamed Carson City. Curry and several other partners had Eagle Valley surveyed for development. Curry decided Carson City would someday serve as the capital city and left a 10-acre (40,000 m2) plot in the center of town for a capitol building.
After gold and silver ore were discovered in 1859 on the nearby newly named Comstock Lode, Carson City's population began to grow. Curry built the Warm Springs Hotel a mile to the east of the town center. When new territorial governor James W. Nye (1815–1876, served 1861–1864), traveled east to Nevada, he chose Carson City as the territorial capital instead of earlier Genoa, which had functioned temporarily as such for the past few years. Influenced by Carson City lawyer William M. Stewart (1827–1909), who escorted him from the port of San Francisco, California, where he arrived onboard a passenger steamboat liner, then journeying uphill past Sacramento to Nevada. As such, Carson City bested Virginia City and American Flat. Curry loaned the Warm Springs Hotel to the territorial Legislature as a temporary meeting hall. The Legislature named Carson City to be the county seat of Ormsby County and also selected the hotel as the territorial prison, with Curry serving as its first warden. Today, the property is still part of the state prison.
When Nevada became the 36th state in 1864 during the American Civil War (1861–1865), Carson City was confirmed as Nevada's permanent state capital. Carson City's development was no longer dependent on the mining industry and instead became a thriving commercial center. The Virginia and Truckee Railroad was built between Virginia City and Carson City. A log flume was also built from the Sierra Nevada mountain range into Carson City. The current Nevada State Capitol building was constructed from 1869 to 1871. The United States Mint also operated its branch of the Carson City Mint between the years of 1870 and 1893, which struck gold and silver coins of United States currency. People came from China during that time, many to work on the transcontinental railroad being constructed. Some of them owned businesses and taught school. By 1880, almost a thousand Chinese people, "one for every five Caucasians", lived in Carson City.
Carson City's population and transportation traffic decreased when the Central Pacific Railroad built a branch line through Donner Pass to connect with the Carson and Colorado Railroad. The new branch also bypassed the Virginia & Truckee line and ran too far north to benefit Carson City. The city was slightly revitalized with the mining booms in nearby Tonopah and Goldfield. The United States federal building (now renamed the Paul Laxalt Building) was completed in, 1890 as was the Stewart Indian School. Even those developments could not prevent its population from dropping to just over 1,500 people by 1930. Carson City resigned itself to small city status by advertising itself as "America's smallest capital". The city slowly grew after World War II (1939/1941–1945); by 1960, it had reached its former 1880 mining boom-town era population size of 80 years before.
In 1931, gambling was legalized in Nevada, which increased tourism to Carson City.
As early as the late 1940s, discussions began about merging Ormsby County and Carson City. By this time, the county was little more than Carson City and a few hamlets to the west. By the 1960 census, all but 2,900 of the county's residents lived in Carson City. However, the effort did not pay off until 1966, when a statewide referendum approved the merger. The required constitutional amendment was passed in 1968. On April 1, 1969, Ormsby County and Carson City officially merged as the Consolidated Municipality of Carson City. With this consolidation, Carson City absorbed former town sites such as Empire City, which had grown up in the 1860s as a milling center along the Carson River and current U.S. Route 50. Carson City could now advertise itself as one of America's largest state capitals with its 146 square miles (380 km2) of city limits.
In 1991, the city adopted a downtown master plan, specifying no building within 500 feet (150 meters) of the Capitol would surpass it in height. This plan effectively prohibited future high-rise development in the center of downtown. The Ormsby House is the tallest building in downtown Carson City, at a height of 117 feet (36 m). The structure was completed in 1972.
Most of the city proper resides in the Eagle Valley. The Carson River flows from Douglas County through the southwestern edge of both the valley and Carson City. Since the consolidation, the city limits today include several small populated areas outside of this valley. Today the city limits include several peaks in the Sierra Nevada, small portions of both the Virginia Range and the Pine Nut Mountains and portions of Marlette Lake and Lake Tahoe. The highest elevation in city limits is Snow Valley Peak at an elevation of 9,214 feet (2,808 m). Carson City is one of two state capitals that border another state, the other being Trenton, New Jersey.
Carson City features a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen: BSk, Trewartha: BSak) with cold winters and hot summers. The city is in a high desert river valley approximately 4,802 feet (1,464 m) above sea level. There are four fairly distinct seasons. Winters see typically light to moderate snowfall, with an average of 14.0 inches (0.36 m), with the most snowfall being 82.1 inches (2.1 m) from July 1951 to June 1952 and the least 3.1 inches (0.079 m) from July 2002 to June 2003. Most precipitation occurs in winter and spring, with summer and fall being fairly dry, drier than neighboring California. The wettest “rain year” was from July 1937 to June 1938 with 19.36 inches (491.7 mm) and the driest from July 1971 to June 1972 with 3.48 inches (88.4 mm). The most precipitation in one month occurred in December 1955 when 10.39 inches or 263.9 millimetres, fell and the most snowfall 34.5 inches or 0.88 metres in March 1952. The most precipitation in one day has been 3.12 inches or 79.2 millimetres on November 19 of 1950.
There are 39.5 afternoons of 90 °F (32.2 °C)+ highs annually, with 100 °F (37.8 °C)+ temperatures occurring 1.2 afternoons per year. The hottest month has been July 2021 with an average of 77.6 °F (25.3 °C), the hottest temperature 107 °F (41.7 °C) on July 19, 1931, and the highest minimum 75 °F (23.9 °C) on August 1, 2022.
There are 125 mornings with lows below freezing, but afternoon maxima top 50 °F or 10 °C on all but 52 days, and top freezing on all but five. Temperatures below 0 °F or −17.8 °C are very rare, occurring about twice per winter and frequently not occurring at all. The coldest temperature in Carson City has been −27 °F or −32.8 °C on January 21, 1937, the lowest maximum 5 °F or −15 °C on December 12, 1932, and December 22, 1990, and the coldest month January 1949 with a mean temperature of 12.6 °F (−10.8 °C), although January 1937 at 14.9 °F (−9.5 °C) is the only other month below 21 °F or −6.1 °C.
The average temperature in Carson City increased by 4.1 °F (2.3 °C) between 1984 and 2014, a greater change than in any other city in the United States.
Carson City is the smallest of the United States' 366 metropolitan statistical areas.
As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 58,639. The median age was 43.9 years. 19.2% of residents were under the age of 18 and 22.1% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 105.6 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 106.1 males age 18 and over. 94.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 6.0% lived in rural areas.
The racial makeup of the city was 68.0% White, 1.9% Black or African American, 2.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 2.4% Asian, 0.2% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 12.1% from some other race, and 12.9% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 25.4% of the population.
The most reported ancestries in 2020 were Mexican (19.6%), English (17%), German (15.3%), Irish (14%), Italian (5.5%), and Scottish (3.8%).
There were 23,419 households in the city, of which 26.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them and 28.2% had a female householder with no spouse or partner present. About 31.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 24,564 housing units, of which 4.7% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 59.0% were owner-occupied and 41.0% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.0% and the rental vacancy rate was 5.2%.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Carson City, Nevada”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.