RonnieAdventures: RonnieAdventure #0010 - Nevada State Capitol Building, Carson City, Nevada

I was at the Secretary of State’s office in Carson City recently when I looked diagonally across the street at the Nevada State Capitol Building and realized that I had driven by the building a number of times but had never stopped to take a tour. Time for a RonnieAdventure!

After walking across the street and signing in at the front door of the building, the security guard provided me with a self-guided tour pamphlet and suggested that I start my tour at the museum located on the second floor. This turned out to be a good suggestion because it was a great history refresher. I was reminded that the lands now known as Nevada were originally part of the lands claimed by Spain (Alta California), became part of Mexico after the Mexican War of Independence, and then became part of the United States after the Mexican-American War in 1848. In 1850 the lands became part of the Utah Territory and after silver was discovered at the Comstock Lode in 1859, Nevada became the 36^th State on October 31, 1864 (still a State Holiday) because the Union needed silver to support the Civil War effort. The name Nevada was selected for the state name because of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, which means “snow-capped mountains” in Spanish.

Just a reminder that Nevada is the 7^th largest state, containing over 110,000 square miles of land area (about 87% of the land is still under Federal control) and 2.7 million residents. About 2 million of the State’s residents live in Clark County and all use the Interstate-15 freeway to commute to work at the same time that I do. The average population density of Nevada is slightly less than 25 people per square mile, which is similar to Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota, and slightly less than Washington, DC at 10,065 people per square mile.

The Capitol Building itself has an interesting history. Construction on the building was completed in 1861 at nearly double the $84,000 bid amount (some things never change). Then in 1957 the State Engineer declared the building to be a hazard and recommended demolition of the structure. However, the State Engineer’s recommendations were ignored and the State continued to use the building until 1974, when the State hired three independent engineering firms to re-inspect the building. The three independent engineering firms reached the same conclusion as the State Engineer’s report in 1957 – the building was structurally unsound and represented a public safety hazard because the building’s floor and roof were not tied to the walls and there was severe deterioration of the mortar that held the building together. After considerable deliberation, it was decided to save the building by removing the roof and the building’s interior finish, adding a reinforced concrete shell to the interior stone walls, and then reconstructing the building’s interior from the original materials. The original iron fence that was erected around the Capitol grounds in 1875 to keep livestock out of the building still works effectively today, as no livestock has been observed roaming the halls recently. Although the Senate and Assembly have moved to a new building, the Governor’s Office is still located in the Capitol Building. I didn’t meet the Governor during my tour, but I did meet one of his aids.