
Nevada Government & Politics
Riches, Ranching & Railroads

What Do You Know?

Q: When was the first provisional government organized in Nevada?

A: On November 12, 1851, a public meeting was held at the Mormon Station in Genoa to establish laws and a governing body for western Nevada.  The group agreed to elect a governing council with seven members and establish a system for making land claims.  A second meeting was held on November 19, which declared timber lands common property, and a third was held on November 20, during which those present elected a justice of the peace, clerk, and sheriff.  The government, which was never recognized by the U.S. government, ceased to exist in 1855, with the arrival of officials from the Utah Territory.

Q: Who was the first woman elected mayor of Las Vegas?

A: In 1990, Jan Laverty Jones was elected the first female mayor of the state's largest city.

Q: What was the Sagebrush Rebellion?

A: The Sagebrush Rebellion was a movement, started in 1979, to reclaim federal land in the western U.S.  The grass-roots effort was sparked when Congress passed the Federal Land Policy and Management Act in 1976, which changed the status of public lands from land held in trust by the federal government pending disposal, to land permanently controlled by the U.S. Department of Interior.  In 1979, the Nevada legislature approved a bill declaring all the public lands in Nevada were property of the state.  Not surprisingly, the claim was rejected by the federal government.

Logo Credit:
Courtesy Richard Moreno