Nevada

Area: 110,560sq.mi/286,355sq.km

Population: 1,284,000

Capital: Carson City

Popular name: Silver State

Situation and topography

The predominant features of the landscape of Nevada (Spanish "snow-covered") are two great deserts, the Mojave and the Great basin. The northern two-thirds of the state is occupied by the Great Basin, a region of cold, dry climate which is traversed by numerous ranges of hills striking north-south and rising to over 1,000ft/300m. The southern third consists of the hot, dry Mojave Desert, in which the vegetation is mainly of cacti; only on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada are there forests of conifers. History

The earliest inhabitants of Nevada, who settled in the Moapa Valley around AD. 100 and belonged to the Pueblo culture, were Anasazi Indians. In 1776 the area was explored by Spaniards, and thereafter became part of the Spanish vice-royalty of New Spain. In 1848 it was ceded by Mexico to the United States. Until 1861 it was joined with Utah in a U.S. territory; then on October 31st 1864 it became the 36th state of the Union. After the Second World War numerous tests of atom bombs were carried out in the Nevada desert.

Economy

Nevada and the cities of Las Vegas and Reno have tourism as the state's principal source of income, to which the holiday areas on Lake Tahoe and Lake Mead also make contributions. Mining (particularly gold, silver, copper and iron) is also an important element in the economy. Nevada's processing industries are mainly iron smelting, the chemical industry and woodworking. Agriculture is almost entirely confined to pastoral farming.