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Nevaʹda [English pronunciation nivæʹdə], abbreviated NV, state of
the western United States; 286,000 km2, 3 million inhabitants
(2018).Nevada is one of the Mountain States. The capital is Carson City.
Nevada. State Map.
Nature
Nevada is mostly occupied by the desert basin Great Basin. To the west, the
state is bounded by the Sierra Nevada mountain range, whose highest peak in
Nevada is Boundary Peak (4,005 meters above sea level). The Great Basin is
overwhelmed by a large number of mountain ridges with predominantly north-south
direction. In the alternating crystalline and sedimentary bedrock are elements
of young volcanic rocks. The rivers are few in the dry climate, the most
important being the Humboldt River.
Nevada. Fire State Park, 80 km northeast of Las
Vegas, is named after the red sandstone formations that give a glowing
impression.
Nevada has a continental climate. The average temperature during the year is
10 ° C, but extreme temperatures of 50 °C and −45 °C have been measured. The
annual rainfall is 650 mm in the mountains in the northwest, while most of
Nevada has a desert climate with less than 250 mm of annual rainfall.
Population
Nevada has for a long time had a high population growth. Growth has mainly
been through a strong move in. About 9 percent of the population is African
American and 8 percent is of Asian descent. Furthermore, 0.8 percent are Native
Americans, of which a minority lives in a reserve. The population is highly
concentrated in the two metropolitan areas of Las Vegas and Reno.
Business
The tourism industry and federal businesses dominate Nevada's economy,
although the traditional industries of agriculture and mining still have some
significance. Ever since silver was found at Virginia City in 1859, mining has
been a staple business. Now gold and silver are being extracted.
Nevada is one of the least industrialized states in the United
States. Henderson (suburb of Las Vegas) has a metal and chemical
industry. Furthermore, the aerospace and electronics sector has gained
importance through federal projects. In Nevada, there are extensive test areas
for US nuclear research and large military bases.
Legalized gambling and liberal divorce laws have helped make tourism and the
entertainment industry Nevada's most important source of income, with Las Vegas
and Reno as the centers. These two cities have international airports.
Nevada. Central Reno with Sierra Nevada in the
background.
Tourism and gastronomy
Tourism dominates the state's economy. The well-known entertainment industry
with lots of large luxury hotels, gaming casinos and nightclubs has sales of
several billion dollars and is mainly located in Las Vegas and Reno.
Nature experiences also attract visitors, for example to Reno, which is a
center for skiing, and to the Lake Tahoe area, which offers swimming and
boating. So does Lake Mead, which was created through the construction of the
Hoover Dam and is part of one of America's foremost national recreational
areas. The more discerning traveler finds large areas of desert nature and
interesting natural formations, such as Lexington Arch and Lehman Caves in the
Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada.
Historical attractions are mainly the ghost towns from the legendary gold
digger era. Best known is Virginia City. It originated when perhaps the world's
richest silver deposit, Comstock Lode, was discovered in 1859, and the city had
at most over 30,000 inhabitants.
Big steaks, grilled ribs and fried potatoes are everyday food, even for
breakfast if you have a hard work. So far, Nevada does not differ significantly
from several other North American states; special features, on the other hand,
are a Spanish influence (bean and corn dishes loaded with chili pepper) in the
south and a clear Basque feature in other parts; the Basques were welcomed as
skilled sheepmakers towards the end of the 19th century and have maintained
their distinctive character in i.a. the kitchen, baked lamb stew with
both garlic and saffron and orange testify to this. At the far north it is
common with wild, preferably grilled - honey-spiked squirrel on skewers still
exists.
History
The first Europeans to visit the area were Spanish missionaries in the 18th
century and American fur hunters in the 1820s. After the war against Mexico, the
area fell to the United States in 1848. Mormons founded the first settlement in
1851, Nevada became its own territory in 1861 and the state in 1864.
Until 1945, the economic development was determined by the ups and downs of
mining, but since then tourism has become increasingly important. Politically,
the Democrats have long dominated, but over the last 20 years Democrats and
Republicans have switched to power.
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