History of Nevada Diversity

Cyril S. Wengert

Cyril S. Wengert was a prominent banker, public utility manager, and civic leader who helped to turn Las Vegas from a town into a city. A second-generation German American, Wengert moved to Las Vegas with his family when he was seventeen, and began working for his father as an ice wagon driver in 1907.

Crescents

Distinctive, prehistoric stone crescent tools are found from Washington state to Southern California and from the Coast Range to Southern Arizona. By far, however, they are most commonly found in the Great Basin, where they are usually associated with playas. The function of these crescent-shaped, chipped stone artifacts has eluded archaeologists for several generations. There is a range of shapes and sizes, but they are part of a continuum and may be a single functional type. Great Basin crescents are distinguishable from other crescent-shaped artifacts (e.g.

Coyote Willow

The Coyote Willow (scientific name Salix exigua) is a hearty tree commonly found throughout Nevada and is also known as Sandbar Willow. It has been used for many years by the Great Basin Indians, specifically the Washoe, Paiute, and Shoshone. It was extremely important as a part of their culture for both material goods and medicinal uses.

Cornish Immigrants

Cornwall, England's western-most county, is one of six Celtic nations that include Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, and France's Brittany, each sources of immigrants to Nevada. As early as the Bronze Age, Cornwall's tin mines won fame, but failure of Cornish mining in the 1830s inspired immigration to other centers of mineral production. About 100,000 Cornish left a county that had a population of almost 370,000 in 1861.

Contemporary Great Basin Basketmakers

For the native people of the Great Basin, weaving carries both historical and contemporary significance. In their past, the Shoshone, Paiute, and Washoe people practiced a way of life based in part on the seasonal harvest of wild plant resources, and weaving provided most of their tools used to harvest, prepare, and store these foods. As Euro-American people moved west into the lands of the Great Basin Indian people, ways of life were forced to change. Although native people adopted many Euro-American goods, weaving baskets endured as a symbol of native identity and artistic expression.

Communal Antelope Drives

Pronghorn (antelope) were among the most important big game animals hunted by Nevada's indigenous people. Individuals or small groups of hunters would pursue them during the summer months. In the spring and fall, when the animals congregated into larger herds, individual families would come together for communal pronghorn drives. The drive usually required the services of an antelope shaman who directed activities and was believed to have special powers that let him "charm" the animals into a trap.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) have had a presence in Nevada for more than 150 years. They were the first people of European descent to establish a settlement in Nevada. Soon after the Mormons located in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, their leader and prophet, Brigham Young, laid claim to a vast section of the interior west. The church designated this region as the “State of Deseret.” However, when Congress created Utah Territory in 1850, it ignored much of the Mormons’ claim.

Chinese in Nineteenth-Century Nevada

A mere twenty-one Chinese men lived in the western Great Basin in 1860. It was a humble beginning for immigrants who would compete for the title of largest immigrant group in nineteenth-century Nevada. One of the earliest descriptions of Chinese in the region places them in 1856 digging a ditch along the Carson River. Some of the immigrants remained in the area, working gold-bearing placer deposits. They became such a fixture there that people called the nearby community Chinatown before it officially took the name Dayton in 1861.

Chinese and Mining

Shortly after the news of the discovery of gold at Sutter's Fort in 1849 reached South China, Chinese gold seekers flocked to the Mother Lode in California. These men eventually migrated to the area now known as western Nevada. Present-day Dayton was originally called "Chinatown" because the Chinese had settled there in the 1850s in considerable numbers.

Pages

Subscribe to History of Nevada Diversity