The
Washoe people have inhabited the valley and surrounding areas for about 6,000 years. The first
European Americans to arrive in what is now known as Eagle Valley were
John C. Frémont and his exploration party in January 1843. Fremont named the river flowing through the valley
Carson River in honor of
Kit Carson (1809-1868), the
mountain man, explorer, and scout he had hired for his expedition. Later, settlers named the area Washoe in reference to the indigenous people. By 1851, the
Eagle Station ranch along the Carson River was a trading post and stop-over for westbound travelers and wagons on the
California Trail's
Carson Branch, which ran through
Eagle Valley. The valley and the trading post received their name from a
bald eagle that was hunted and killed by one of the early settlers and was featured pinned on a wall inside the post. As the area was part of the larger
Utah Territory (1850-1896), it was governed from the
territorial (and later state) capital of
Salt Lake City on the eastern shore of the
Great Salt Lake, where the territorial government was headquartered there several hundred miles further east with
Mormon (
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) President
Brigham Young (1801-1877), as first
Governor of Utah. Early settlers bristled at the control by Mormon-influenced officials and desired the creation of the provisional
Nevada Territory with
Isaac Roop (1822-1869, served 1859-1861), as provisional Governor. A vigilante group of influential settlers, headed by
Abraham Curry (1815-1873), sought a site for a capital city for the envisioned future separate territory. In 1858,
Abraham Curry bought Eagle Station and the settlement was thereafter renamed Carson City. Curry and several other partners had Eagle Valley surveyed for development. Curry decided Carson City would someday serve as the capital city and left a plot in the center of town for a capitol building. After
gold and
silver ore were discovered in 1859 on the nearby newly named
Comstock Lode, Carson City's population began to grow. Curry built the Warm Springs Hotel a mile to the east of the town center. When new territorial governor
James W. Nye (1815-1876, served 1861-1864), traveled east to Nevada, he chose Carson City as the territorial capital instead of earlier
Genoa, which had functioned temporarily as such for the past few years. Influenced by Carson City lawyer
William M. Stewart (1827-1909), who escorted him from the port of
San Francisco, California, where he arrived onboard a passenger steamboat liner, then journeying uphill past
Sacramento to Nevada. As such, Carson City bested
Virginia City and American Flat. Curry loaned the Warm Springs Hotel to the territorial Legislature as a temporary meeting hall. The Legislature named Carson City to be the
county seat of
Ormsby County and also selected the hotel as the territorial prison, with Curry serving as its first warden. Today, the property is still part of the state prison. When Nevada became the 36th
state in 1864 during the
American Civil War (1861-1865), Carson City was confirmed as Nevada's permanent
state capital. Carson City's development was no longer dependent on the mining industry and instead became a thriving commercial center. The
Virginia and Truckee Railroad was built between
Virginia City and
Carson City. A
log flume was also built from the
Sierra Nevada mountain range into Carson City. The current
Nevada State Capitol building was constructed from 1869 to 1871. The
United States Mint also operated its branch of the
Carson City Mint between the years of 1870 and 1893, which struck gold and silver coins of
United States currency. People came from
China during that time, many to work on the
transcontinental railroad being constructed. Some of them owned businesses and taught school. By 1880, almost a thousand Chinese people, "one for every five Caucasians," lived in Carson City. Carson City's population and transportation traffic decreased when the
Central Pacific Railroad built a branch line through
Donner Pass to connect with the
Carson and Colorado Railroad. The new branch also bypassed the Virginia & Truckee line and ran too far north to benefit Carson City. The city was slightly revitalized with the mining booms in nearby
Tonopah and
Goldfield. The United States federal building (now renamed the
Paul Laxalt Building) was completed in, 1890 as was the
Stewart Indian School. Even those developments could not prevent its population from dropping to just over 1,500 people by 1930. Carson City resigned itself to small city status by advertising itself as "America's smallest capital." The city slowly grew after
World War II (1939/1941-1945); by 1960, it had reached its former 1880 mining boom-town era population size of 80 years before.
20th-century revitalization and growth In 1931,
gambling was legalized in Nevada, which increased tourism to Carson City. As early as the late 1940s, discussions began about merging Ormsby County and Carson City. By this time, the county was little more than Carson City and a few hamlets to the west. By the 1960 census, all but 2,900 of the county's residents lived in Carson City. However, the effort did not pay off until 1966, when a statewide referendum approved the merger. The required constitutional amendment was passed in 1968. On April 1, 1969, Ormsby County and Carson City officially merged as the Consolidated Municipality of Carson City. In 1991, the city adopted a downtown master plan, specifying no building within of the Capitol would surpass it in height. This plan effectively prohibited future high-rise development in the center of downtown. The
Ormsby House is the tallest building in downtown Carson City, at a height of . The structure was completed in 1972. ==Geography==