Test yourself! Take this Nevada History Quiz | U.S. States & Cities

Answer: Francisco Garces

Francisco Garces was a Spanish-born priest who is best remembered for spreading Christianity in New Spain, specifically much of what is now the southwestern United States. He first visited what is now Nevada in the 1770s and the area became part of New Spain. Garces was killed in 1781 during a Native American uprising caused by the Spanish failure to adhere to Spanish-Native American treaties.

Answer: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War by ordering Mexico to cede large parts of the now American Southwest to the United States. This land included much of New Mexico, Texas, California, Nevada, Colorado, Utah and other states.

The treaty also set the U.S.-Mexican border along the Rio Grande and gave Mexican citizens living in the new American territories U.S. citizenship if they wanted it. In addition, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo exacerbated the debate between free and slave states in the United States as the issue of the new territories being slave or free areas was of constant, intense debate.

Answer: Mormons

Mormons are considered the first Americans to establish a permanent presence within Nevada in 1851. Most of these Mormons were moving westward toward California during the gold rush. However, Mormons clashed with the outnumbered non-Mormons and religious tensions were high and often ignored by the rest of the country. During this time, Nevada was called Washoe and the agreements between Mormons and non-Morman cattle ranchers were called the Washoe Code, which was only loosely enforced.

Answer: Virginia City

The Comstock Lode was discovered in 1859 and quickly sparked a silver boom. Miners came to Virginia City from all over the United States, hoping to capitalize. Many miners became wealthy and the Comstock Lode brought about new mining technology called the Washoe Process. The boom brought a number of settlers to Nevada and the population began to grow exponentially.

Answer: Northern Club

The Northern Club (which was renamed La Bayou in 1999 until it closed in 2016) was built in 1920 and operate more or less as a speakeasy, offering illegal alcohol and gambling. The word "northern" in the name of the establishment was a secret code word that workers understood meant the place served alcohol during prohibition.

It became a legal casino in 1931. Legalized gambling was only supposed to be in operation temporarily to solve Nevada's budget crises but it remains legal and popular to this day.

Answer: Flamingo

The Flamingo is considered the first luxury/expensive casino and hotel founded in Las Vegas. Prior to Bugsy Siegel, Las Vegas only has a couple of thousand people living there. The Flamingo is the hotel that is said to start the casino industry in Las Vegas and other mobsters and businessmen flocked to Las Vegas to open their own casino/hotels.

The Flamingo is built outside of the then city limits because government officials were uncomfortable having Siegel in town. The Flamingo was the first hotel built on the famous Las Vegas Strip.

Answer: Pat McCarran

Pat McCarran was a big proponent of aviation studies and pushed hard for the U.S. Government to open military bases, specifically air bases, in Nevada during World War II. He was successful in those efforts and also successfully pushed to make the Air Force a separate branch of the U.S. Military. McCarran is memorialized at the Las Vegas Airport which is named after him.

Answer: Nuclear bomb testing

Frenchman Flat is located within the Nevada Proving Grounds which was a nuclear test sight in the 1950s. It is a dry lake bed in the then sparsely populated Nye County. Nevada's dry desert was considered prime for nuclear testing and thousands of tests were conducted in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Answer: Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter S. Thompson met with Oscar Zeta Acosta to discuss the killing of journalist Ruben Salazar in Los Angeles. Thompson and Acosta took a road trip to Las Vegas because Los Angeles was in the middle of race tensions at the time. Thompson later loosely adapted his trip into the novel "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas".

Answer: Yucca Mountain

Yucca Mountain is located along the border of California and Nevada. The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste facility is very unpopular in Nevada as Nevadans believe the rest of the nation is using the state as a nuclear waste dumping ground. Yucca Mountain was designated such in 2002 however the battle raged on and the project was defunded in 2010.

The subject is still debated. Another facet of the controversy is that Yucca Mountain is located in sacred tribal lands.