Why Nevada Calls Itself ‘Battle Born,’ and 5 Other Things Nevadans Learned in School

Nevada’s Legislature only meets for a regular session every other year.

Try explaining that to other Americans.

Here’s why Nevada calls itself ‘Battle Born,’ and the other things Nevadans learned in school.

1. Battle Born

Battle Born points straight at the Civil War because the state joined the Union in the middle of it.

Lincoln signed the enabling act on March 21, 1864, and a second constitutional convention met that July.

The constitution barred slavery and rejected secession.

Nevada voters approved it on September 7, 1864, by 10,375 votes to 1,184.

Other territories had considerably more people, but the state library says Nevada was pushed to the head of the line for statehood.

Statehood could also mean additional votes in Congress for the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery.

There was also a fear that three major candidates could send the 1864 presidential election to the House of Representatives.

In that vote, each state gets one vote, so small Nevada would count as much as New York or Pennsylvania.

President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Nevada the 36th state on October 31, 1864.

It was a rush job. Congress passed the enabling act but never voted on the finished constitution; the last step was Lincoln’s proclamation.

You can still see the result on the flag, where state law puts a scroll bearing the words “Battle Born.”

That flag rule dates to 1929 and was amended in 1991.

The state seal carries a different motto, “All for Our Country.”

Nevada Day falls on the last Friday in October; in 2026 that was October 30.

2. Silver State Nickname

Why is Nevada the Silver State? The nickname traces back to the Comstock Lode, the 1859 silver strike around Virginia City.

That boom helped bring Nevada into the Union in 1864.

The state’s historic marker describes a 2.5-mile deposit of high-grade ore, and Virginia City boomed for 20 years.

Nevada made silver its official state metal in 1977.

Silver and blue became the official state colors in 1983.

Look at the state flag, and you’ll see the star is silver too.

You’ll even hear it in the state march, “Silver State Fanfare,” added to state law in 2001.

3. Carson City

Carson City starts with Abraham Curry, who founded the town in 1858 and named it for the nearby Carson River and Kit Carson.

The river got its name during John C. Frémont’s 1843 to 1844 expedition, when Carson was his scout.

Curry set aside 10 acres for a capitol before Nevada was even a territory.

Nevada Territory was carved out of western Utah Territory in 1861, and Carson City became its capital.

Carson City has been Nevada’s only capital, first for the territory and then for the state.

Statehood confirmed Carson City as the permanent capital in 1864.

The city also served as the seat of Ormsby County until the two merged into one government in 1969.

The capitol itself had to wait, since construction didn’t begin until 1870.

The U.S. Mint in Carson City was completed in 1869, and that building is now the Nevada State Museum.

If you visit the museum, you’re inside the old mint.

4. Biennial Sessions

Nevada’s Legislature holds a regular session once every two years.

That’s unusual, since the National Conference of State Legislatures lists just four states that hold regular sessions only every two years.

Montana, North Dakota and Texas are the others.

The state constitution caps each regular session at 120 calendar days in a row, weekends included.

If you want to follow along, the next regular session begins February 1, 2027.

Count 120 calendar days from that Monday, and the clock runs out on May 31.

Two-thirds of the members of each house can call a special session, and it can last no more than 20 calendar days.

The Legislature has two houses, the Senate and the Assembly.

If you vote in Nevada, you elect Assembly members to two-year terms and senators to four-year terms.

5. Great Basin

The Great Basin takes in most of Nevada.

The National Park Service describes it as a 200,000-square-mile area that drains internally.

Creeks, streams and rivers there find no outlet to the Pacific Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico.

Look at a state map, and you’re looking mostly at the Great Basin.

Whatever rain or snowmelt you watch run off a slope inside the basin stays inside it unless people move it.

The basin also reaches into half of Utah and parts of Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon and California.

The park service says hundreds of ranges rise inside it and make Nevada the most mountainous state in the country.

The state’s name fits, since Nevada comes from the Spanish Sierra Nevada, a snow-covered mountain range.

6. State Fossil

The ichthyosaur is Nevada's official state fossil, added to state law in 1977.

State law names the genus too: Shonisaurus.

Ichthyosaurs swam in a warm ocean that covered central Nevada 225 million years ago.

You can see the fossils at Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park, where they're protected and displayed at the park's Fossil House.

The park was first established in 1957.

Nevada State Parks says the park has the most abundant concentration, and the largest known remains, of ichthyosaurs.