70+ Fun Facts About Nevada: All About The Silver State
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Nevada is well known for the party city Las Vegas, but there's lots more going on in Nevada than you can imagine.
From the beautiful Sierra Nevada mountain range to the deserts, the physical features of Nevada are some of the most interesting in the United States. Here are all the Nevada facts you need.
From Nevada's state animal to the reason Las Vegas is famous for its hotel rooms, these Nevada facts for kids are going to make you fall in love with the Silver State, and start the case for Nevada to be your next family vacation.
If you love learning new facts about new places, you need to get stuck into these fun facts about Arizona, or train your brain with some interesting facts about the state of Minnesota.
Basic Facts About Nevada
This quick fact file about the state will give you all of the basic information you need to sound like a pro.
1. In 1864 Nevada became the 36th state. This makes the state officially 156 years old in 2020!
2. The capital of Nevada is Carson City, which is on the west side of the state.
3. The name Nevada comes from the Spanish word 'nevada', which means "snow clad." This is because of the snowy Sierra Nevada mountain range.
4. The area of Nevada is 110,572 square miles.
5. In 2020 the Nevada state population is 2,890,845.
6. The Nevada state bird and flower are the Mountain Bluebird and the Sagebrush.
7. Nevada's motto is "all for our country" and also"battle born".
8. The main industries in Nevada state are tourism, entertainment, manufacturing, agriculture and mining.
9. 87% of the land in Nevada is owned by the Federal Government.
10. The nicknames of Nevada are the Silver State, the Sagebrush State and the Battle Born State.
11. The nicknames for Las Vegas are The Entertainment Capital of the World and The City of Second Chances and Lost Wages.
Nevada History Facts
Get to know the history of Nevada with these cool Nevada truths.
12. Gambling has been legal in Nevada since March 1931.
13. Before the United States took over the state in 1848, Nevada was claimed by Mexico and Spain.
14. Nevada was the first state to say yes to the Fifteenth Amendment, which meant that everyone can vote, no matter what their race is.
15. Goldfield used to be the biggest city in Nevada, but now it's the second smallest county seat in the whole of the U.S.
16. There are 100 miles of underground tunnels on the Comstock mining area in Nevada.
17. In 1910, Nevada was the only state in the U.S. that allowed boxing matches.
18. The hard hats that we see construction workers wearing today were invented in 1933 for the workers on Hoover Dam.
Interesting Facts About Nevada State
It is definitely an interesting state, and we can tell you why with this crazy and fascinating fact list.
19. Nevada is one of the biggest gold producers in the world.
20. There is an air base that is near to Rachel in Nevada called Area 51. There is a famous myth that UFOs have been sighted there.
21. Every year tourists go to Area 51 in the hope that they will see aliens or UFOs because a man who used to work there claimed that it was used to study alien spacecrafts.
22. Las Vegas has more hotel rooms than anywhere else on the planet, boasting a whopping 150,000 rooms.
23. The Hoover Dam is one of Nevada's biggest tourist attractions because it's the biggest public works project in the history of the United States.
24. If you add up all the numbers on a roulette wheel in Las Vegas, you get 666.
25. The Hoover Dam contains more than 3.25 million cubic yards of concrete.
26. Nevada is one of the driest states in the United States.
27. There is only seven inches of rain on average each year in Nevada.
28. Most of the wild horse population of the United States is in the Nevada state.
29. Virginia City is supposedly the most haunted town in North America.
30. The oldest skeletons ever found of humans in the United States were discovered in the Hidden Cave in Nevada in 1949.
31. There is a 98 mile road in Nevada that is called the Extraterrestrial Highway, where lots of people claim to have seen UFOs.
32. The tallest freestanding observation tower in the United States is the Stratosphere in Las Vegas.
33. Carson City is one of the only two capital cities in North America that borders another state.
Facts About The Geography Of Nevada
With some of the most diverse geography in the whole of the United States, we have all the info that will tell you why you should put Nevada on your travel list.
34. The states that border Nevada to the north are Oregon and Idaho.
35. Nevada also borders Utah to the east and California to the west.
36. The final border to Nevada is Arizona to the south east.
37. Nevada is home to 23 designated areas of wilderness.
38. Nevada is the seventh largest state.
39. There are more than 44,000 acres of reservoirs made by humans in Nevada.
40. It is also one of the states with the most widely spread out population.
41. Nevada is in a region that has a lot of mountains, grasslands and sandy deserts.
42. Lots of Nevada is undeveloped because it is desert land.
43. The south of the state is in the Mojave desert.
44. The lowest point in Nevada is on the Colorado River which is 143 metres above sea level.
45. Most of Nevada is in the Great Basin section of the Basin and Range Province.
46. There are more than 30 different mountain ranges in Nevada.
47. This means there are more mountain ranges in Nevada than any other state.
48. Most of the mountain ranges in Nevada are more than 10,000 feet tall.
49. The highest point in Nevada is Boundary Peak, which is 13,147 feet tall.
50. The second highest point is Wheeler Peak, which is 13,065 feet tall.
51. The largest lake in North America is Lake Tahoe in Nevada.
52. Lake Tahoe is also the second deepest lake in the United States.
Cultural Information About Nevada
The party capital of the United States is full of culture, and we will prove it with this list.
53. Most of the people who live in Nevada live in urban areas and cities.
54. Half of the population of Nevada live in Las Vegas.
55. The first lady Patricia Ryan Nixon is from Nevada state.
56. Tennis player Andre Agassi is also from Nevada.
57. People in Nevada consume over 60,000 pounds of shrimp every day, which is more than in the whole rest of the country combined.
58. The Las Vegas Strip is 4.2 miles long.
Nevada Fun Facts
Learn some information that will make your family laugh and teach your friends something they didn't know about the desert state.
59. The town of Winnemucca has an average of 201 sunny days each year, which makes it one of the sunniest towns in Nevada.
60. Over 40 million people go to Las Vegas every single year.
61. Kangaroo rats, which are found in the Mojave Desert, can live their whole lives without even drinking a drop of water.
62. One of the most famous Nevadans is the tailor Jacob Davis from Reno. He invented Levis blue jeans.
63. Nevada is one of the seven states in the United States that doesn't have a lottery.
64. The Las Vegas Strip has over 75,000 miles of neon lights on it.
Wonderful And Weird Laws In Nevada
We love the wacky laws that are in place here, and you're going to love them too!
65. You are not allowed to hula hoop on Fremont Street. It is illegal because the street performers were blocking traffic in the area.
66. In Eureka, if you have a moustache you aren't allowed to kiss a woman. This law isn't enforced, but it's an old religious law from the 1800s that still exists.
67. You can't lie down on the sidewalk in Reno.
68. You can't pawn dentures in Las Vegas. We're quite glad about that one!
69. You can't put a seat on the street in Reno without getting permission.
70. To stop people thieving shopping carts, there is a law in Nevada that you can't spray paint a shopping cart and keep it in your basement.
71. You cannot ride a camel on the highway. Since the 1800s, camels were used to move things across the desert. They were a lot slower than cars, and caused traffic jams so a law was made against using them.
72. We all know the phrase "a dog is a man's best friend", and in Nevada the punishment for hurting someone's dog is extremely high. Shooting someone's dog can even be punishable by death.
73. You can't walk in the street in Elko without a mask on. This law is not Covid-19 related surprisingly, but was enforced in 1918 because of the influenza pandemic.
74. You are allowed to run a red light if you are the first car in a funeral procession.
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our fun facts about Nevada, then why not take a look at these facts about Texas for kids, or these funny facts about Maryland?
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An experienced Londoner, Emily loves to discover new and exciting places in the city, especially with her two younger brothers. She has a passion for fashion and design and is also involved in art charities that facilitate workshops for children with special needs and difficult home lives. Emily is a trained life coach and enjoys writing about general wellness, mindfulness, and healthy relationships.
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