内华达州小档案：
人口：约200万
面积：约286，297平方公里，排名第7位
州府：卡森市Carson City
内华达州的名称是来自西班牙语，其意义为“雪覆盖”Snow－Clad。
1850年开始殖民。1864年10月31日成为美国第36州。以山艾Sagebrush（友绿色小灌木）为州花。本州别名叫做“产银之州”Silver State。著名大学是内华达大学，创于1874年，地点在州府以北之里诺Reno。
本州特征有四：第一，美国最干旱之州。平均年雨量只有185公厘。第二，它是美国第三个人口密度最小之州（平均每平方公里人口密度，阿拉斯加不及一人，怀俄明与内华达两州，均不及二人）。第三，本州离婚法，凡在本州之内居住六周之久，就可以提出离婚的申请。这个方法，颇有助于发展旅游业。第四，每年州外之人进入本州旅游的人数，大于本州人口总数55倍。从娱乐场获得的税收，约占总额二分之一。旅游业每年收入超过7亿美元。
本州在大盆地之内。北界俄勒冈及爱达荷二州，西与西南两方面与加利福尼亚州为邻。东南接亚利桑那州，东与犹他州接壤。本州西境受内华达山脉之阻，气候干旱只有能灌溉之地方才有农牧业。矿产有铜。本州干旱地区极广。人口集中于下列两小区：（A）本州西境南部一小区，（B）本州东南角有一小区，接近米德湖。美国著名赌城拉斯维加斯Las Vegas就在本区之内。这是本州第一大都市。
Intronduction简介
The region now occupied by the State of Nevada was held by the Goshute，Mojave，Paiute，Shoshone［（pl．Shoshone，Shoshones）肖松尼族人（美国西部的一种印第安人）］and Washoe Indians and claimed by the Spanish Empire until the early 1800s．The northern extent of the Spanish claim was defined as the 42nd parallel in the Adams－Onis Treaty of 1819between the United States and Spain．This north latitude line serves currently as Nevada’s northern boundary（边界，分界线）with Oregon and Idaho．
Spanish explorations into this region have never been documented clearly enough to establish any European party constituting the earliest expedition into Nevada．If in fact there was some penetration，it must have been by the Spanish in the southernmost portion of our state，possibly as early as 1776．Trappers and traders，including Jedediah Smith and Peter Skene Ogden，entered the Nevada area in the 1820s．
In 1821Mexico won its war of independence from Spain and gained control over all the former Spanish territory in the area of what is now our “Southwest”．Spain had done nothing to occupy or control what is now Nevada，a vast region virtually “terra incognita”，having no permanent（永久的，持久的）non－Indian population and considered barren，arid，and inhospitable（冷淡的，不好客的，（地带，气候等）不适合居住的，（指地方）荒凉的）．Mexico’s control over that interior portion of Alta California，eventually to become Nevada，was hardly more than a recognized claim in the absence of occupation or counterclaim（反诉，索赔）by other powers．
Before the discovery of gold in the West，the vast region between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada，including what is now Nevada，was designated on many maps as “Great American Desert”．The “Great Basin”，an area of interior drainage by definition，does not cover all of the present area of the State of Nevada，since tributaries of the Snake River in the north and those of the Colorado in the south drain waters to the Pacific Ocean．
Jedediah S．Smith，an American frontiersman，and Peter Skeen Ogden，an employee of the British Hudson’s Bay Company，were among the first，with lesser－known persons also reporting their adventures．Smith and Ogden explored the area in the 1820s．In the 1830s and 1840s American and Mexican parties came through the southern part，with Antonio Armijo，Joseph Walker，Louis Bonneville，Kit Carson，and others contributing more knowledge of this vast，arid，intermontane（［地］山间的亦作intermont或intermountain）area．The emigrant parties followed the trappers and explorers，with the first one crossing in 1841，the Bidwell－Bartleson group．Several others followed，including the tragic Donner Party and those unfortunates who crossed farther south and into Death Valley．However，mass migration did not start across Nevada until after gold was discovered in California in 1848．Extensive surveys for wagon roads through the central part of what is now Nevada were made in the 1850s．The Pony Express traversed Nevada between April，1860，and October，1861，ending shortly after the completion of the transcontinental（横贯大陆的，大陆那边的）telegraph．
The great trek（牛拉车旅行，艰苦跋涉）of the Mormon people to the fertile Salt Lake Valley in 1847was the beginning of non－Indian settlement in the Great Basin of North America，most of which was then a part of the department of Alta California，Republic of Mexico．The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo，concluded February 2，1848；and ratifications（批准）exchanged at Queretaro May 30，1848，and proclaimed on July 4，1848，resulted in formal acquisition by the United States of a vast tract（土地，地方，地域）of land from Mexico．It included what is now California，Nevada，Utah，and most of Arizona，and parts of New Mexico，Colorado，and Wyoming，and corresponded（符合，协调）by general agreement to the Mexican administrative divisions of Alta California and New Mexico．In 1853the Gadsden Purchase resulted in the final acquisition of Mexican territory and eliminated（消除）a dispute over the latitude line cited in the Mexican Cession of 1848，running west from the Rio Grande．This latter territory was obtained from the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua．
When in 1850the federal government set up the Utah Territory，almost all of Nevada was included except the southern tip，which was then part of New Mexico．Non－Mormons had been averse（不愿意的，反对的）to settling in Mormon－dominated territory，but after gold was found in 1859non－Mormons did come into the area．A rush from California began and multiplied manyfold as news of the Comstock Lode silver strike spread．Most of the newcomers preferred to consider themselves as still being within California，and a political question was added to the general upheaval（剧变）．Meanwhile，miners came helter－skelter，raising camps that grew overnight into such booming and raucous（沙哑的）places as Virginia City．
Some non－Mormons came to Carson Valley．They did not want to be part of the Utah Territory that was ruled by a Mormon leader．Without Congressional approval they established their own territorial government．In 1859，ore（矿石，含有金属的岩石）was discovered near what is now Virginia City and thousands came in search of gold and silver．With sufficient population in 1861，Congress could now create the Nevada Territory．
