Nevada
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Nevada is a state located in the western region of the United States of America. The capital is Carson City and the largest city is Las Vegas. The state's nickname is "The Silver State," due to the large number of silver deposits that were discovered and mined there. In 1864, Nevada became the 36th state to enter the union, and the phrase "Battle Born" on the state flag reflects the state's entry on the Union side during the American Civil War. Its first settlement was called Mormon Station.
Nevada is the seventh-largest state in area, and geographically covers the Mojave Desert in the south to the Great Basin in the north. About 86% of the state's land is owned by the U.S federal government under various jurisdictions both civilian and military. As of 2006, there were about 2.6 million residents, with over 85% of the population residing in the metropolitan areas of Las Vegas and Reno. The state is well known for its easy marriage and divorce proceedings, entertainment, legalized gambling and, in a few counties, legalized brothels.
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Geography
Nevada is almost entirely within the Basin and Range Province, and is broken up by many north-south mountain ranges. Most of these ranges have inland-draining (unconnected to the ocean by waterways) valleys between them, which belies the image portrayed by the term Great Basin. Pinion Juniper forests cover large areas of the north and central parts of the state. Sunrise over Reno
Much of the northern part of the state is within the Great Basin Desert, a mild desert that experiences hot temperatures in the summer and sub-freezing temperatures in the winter. Occasionally, moisture from the Arizona Monsoon will cause summer thunderstorms; Pacific storms may blanket the area with snow. The state's highest recorded temperature was 125 °F (52 °C) in Laughlin (elevation of 605 feet (184 m)) on June 29, 1994.
The Humboldt River crosses from east to west across the northern part of the state, draining into the Humboldt Sink near Lovelock. Several rivers drain from the Sierra Nevada eastward, including the Walker, Truckee and Carson rivers. Mountains west of Las Vegas in the Mojave Desert.
The mountain ranges, some of which have peaks above 13,000 feet (4,000 m), harbor lush forests high above desert plains, creating sky islands for endemic species. The valleys are often no lower in elevation than 3,000 feet (900 m).
Climate
Nevada is made up of mostly desert areas, where temperatures can reach up to 125 °F (52 °C) in short, hot summers and can reach as low as 20 °F (−7 °C) in long, cold winters. Winters in the southern part of the state, however, tend to be of short duration and mild. Most parts of Nevada receive scarce precipitation during the year. Most rain falls on the lee side (east and northeast slopes) of the Sierra Nevada Range. The average annual rainfall per year is about 7 inches (18 cm); the wettest parts get around 40 inches (102 cm).
Las Vegas' summer daytime highs average 94-104 degrees, while winter nighttime lows average 37-47 degrees.
Reno's summer daytime highs average 81-91 degrees, while winter nighttime lows average 20-29 degrees.
Elko's summer daytime highs average 78-89 degrees, while winter nighttime lows average 13-26 degrees.
Demographics
According to the Census Bureau's 2007 estimate, Nevada has an estimated population of 2,565,382 which is an increase of 92,909, or 3.5%, from the prior year and an increase of 516,550, or 20.8%, since the year 2000. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 81,661 people (that is 170,451 births minus 88,790 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 337,043 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 66,098 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 270,945 people. According to the 2006 census estimate, Nevada is the country's fastest growing state.
The center of population of Nevada is located in southern Nye County. This area the unincorporated town of Pahrump located 60 miles (97 km) west of Las Vegas on the California state line has grown 26 times in size from 1980 to 2000. In the year 2006, the town may have over 50,000 permanent residents. Las Vegas was America's fastest-growing city and metropolitan area from 1960 to 2000, but has grown from a gulch of 100 people in 1900 to 10,000 by 1950 to 100,000 by 1970 to have 2.5 million in the metro area today.
According to the census estimates the racial distributions were as follows: 65% White American, 7.1% African-American, 6% Asian-American (estimates placed them at 10%), 2% others (American Indians and Pacific Islanders) and the remaining 20% were Hispanics or Latinos of any race.
Nevada also has a sizable Basque ancestry population. In Douglas and Pershing Counties, a plurality of residents are of Mexican ancestry with Clark County (Las Vegas) being home to over 200,000 Mexican Americans alone; Nye County and Humboldt County have a plurality of Germans; and Washoe County has many of Irish ancestry. Las Vegas is home to rapid-growing ethnic communities like Scandinavians, Italians, Poles, American Jews and Armenians.
Largely African-American sections of Las Vegas ("the Meadows") and Reno can be found, but many African-Americans in Nevada are newly transplanted residents from either California and the East Coast, but the US Armed forces, hotels and domestic services attracted black Americans since the 1950s.
Since the California Gold Rush of the 1850s brought thousands of Chinese miners in Washoe county, Asian Americans lived in the state followed by few hundreds of Japanese farm workers in the late 1800s. In the late 20th century, many immigrants from China, Japan, Korea, Philippines and recently from India and Vietnam came to the Las Vegas metropolitan area with one of America's most prolific Asian-American communities, with a mostly Chinese and Taiwanese area known as "Chinatown" west of I-15 on Spring street, and an "Asiatown" shopping mall for Asian customers on Charleston Avenue/Paradise Boulevard.
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 16.19% of the population aged 5 and over speak Spanish at home, while 1.59% speak Filipinoand 1% speak Chinese languages, the majority of foreign languages are found in ethnic sections of Central Las Vegas.
Economy
The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that Nevada's total state product in 2006 was $117 billion. Resort areas such as Las Vegas, Reno, Lake Tahoe, attract visitors from around the world. Per capita personal income in 2005 was $46,108, 11th in the nation. Its agricultural outputs are cattle, hay, alfalfa, dairy products, onions, and potatoes. Its industrial outputs are tourism, mining, machinery, printing and publishing, food processing, and electric equipment. Prostitution is legal in parts of Nevada, in the form of brothels, but only counties with populations under 400,000 residents can legalize it, and even those counties may choose to outlaw it if they wish. Prostitution is illegal and offenders are prosecuted in Clark County (which contains Las Vegas), Washoe County (which contains Reno), and several other counties around the state.
In portions of the state outside of the Las Vegas and Reno metropolitan areas, mining and cattle ranching are the major economic activities. By value, gold is by far the most important mineral mined. In 2004, 6.8 million ounces of gold worth $2.84 billion were mined in Nevada, and the state accounted for 8.7% of world gold production (see Gold mining in Nevada). Silver is a distant second, with 10.3 million ounces worth $69 million mined in 2004 (see Silver mining in Nevada). Other minerals mined in Nevada include construction aggregates, copper, gypsum, diotomite and lithium. Despite its rich deposits, the cost of mining in Nevada is generally high, and output is very sensitive to world commodity prices.
As of January 1, 2006 there were an estimated 500,000 head of cattle and 70,000 head of sheep in Nevada. Most of these animals forage on rangeland in the summer, with supplemental feed in the winter. Calves are generally shipped to out-of-state feedlots in the fall to be fattened for market. Over 90% of Nevada's 484,000 acres (1,960 km2) of cropland is used to grow hay, mostly alfalfa, for livestock feed.
