Places

Sheldon Adelson

Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada

Sheldon Adelson (1933 - ), the at times controversial billionaire casino developer who made and lost fortunes in the 1960s, rode the tide of the personal computer revolution in the 1980s and 1990s with his computer trade show, and used the revenue to build The Venetian and The Palazzo on the Strip.... more

Sedan Crater

Places: Nye County, Southern Nevada

Sedan Crater is the largest ground depression resulting from a nuclear detonation in the United States. On July 6, 1962, the Atomic Energy Commission, a predecessor of the Department of Energy, unleashed a 104 kiloton nuclear explosion resulting in a crater 1,280 feet in diameter and 320 feet deep... more

Second Empire Revival Style Architecture in Nevada

Places: Virginia City, Reno, Storey County, Washoe County, Northern Nevada

The rise of France's Second Empire, established by Louis Napoleon III in 1852, became associated with an architectural style that first appeared in an extension of the Louvre at the beginning of the new emperor's reign in France. Whereas the Italianate style, from which Second Empire... more

Scots: Immigrants from Scotland

Scots arrived in Nevada at the beginning of historic settlement. These immigrants, together with fellow Celts, (the Cornish, Irish, Welsh, and Manx), played important roles in the region's development. Although Scots were one of the larger groups to settle North America, the Irish and Cornish... more

School Segregation in Nineteenth-Century Nevada

One of the most contentious issues for authors of the Nevada State Constitution involved the education of racial minorities. In these debates, lawmakers grappled with the problem of a multi-racial population in a post-slavery society. Initially, they decided not to include minorities, principally... more

Sarann Knight Preddy, Entrepreneur

Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada

Sarann Knight Preddy provides a unique perspective on women and gaming, as the first Black woman to receive a Nevada gaming license.Born on July 27, 1920, in Eufaula, Oklahoma, she migrated to Las Vegas in 1942 with her parents and husband. They settled in the Las Vegas Black community, the... more

Sarah Winnemucca's Life Among the Piutes

In 1883 Sarah Winnemucca sat writing at a rapid pace in the Boston home of her friend and supporter, the New England reformer Elizabeth Peabody. The book in progress would not be Sarah's first publication. A letter she wrote in 1870 to inform the Nevada Superintendent of Indian Affairs about... more

Sarah Winnemucca

Sarah Winnemucca (1844-91) was one of the most influential and charismatic American Indian women in American history. Born near the Humboldt River Sink to a legendary family of Paiute leaders, at a time when the Paiutes' homeland and way of life were increasingly threatened by the influx of... more

Sandy and Eilley Orrum Bowers

Places: Virginia City, Storey County, Washoe County, Northern Nevada

Sandy and Eilley Orrum Bowers rose and fell with the fortunes of their Comstock mine, becoming the focus of one of early Nevada's more poignant stories. Scottish-born Eilley Orrum Cowan was one of a few women living in the Comstock Mining District when the 1859 strike occurred. She had divorced... more

Sands Hotel

One of the most iconic of the hotel-casinos built on the Las Vegas Strip, the Sands hotel would literally put Las Vegas in the national spotlight as a center of entertainment and celebrity hangout, especially while it served as the home base for the popular Rat Pack performers in their heyday, from... more

San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad

Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada

The San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad, the first direct route from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles when it was completed in 1905, was perhaps the single most significant factor in the creation of what would become the city of Las Vegas, and later, Clark County.Starting in the mid-1850s... more

Samuel Post Davis

Places: Carson City, Northern Nevada

Samuel Post Davis was one of the most talented, versatile, popular, and politically active of the late nineteenth century group of Nevada writers known informally as the Sagebrush School.The son of an Episcopal priest, he was born on April 4, 1850, in Branford, Connecticut, and moved, as his father... more

Samuel Platt

Places: Carson City, Northern Nevada

Samuel Platt, distinguished lawyer and public servant in early twentieth-century Nevada, was born in Carson City in 1874 of Jewish Prussian-Polish parents. He attended the local public schools, winning honors in oratory and art. Platt taught school in Carson City and Gardnerville before... more

Samuel Clemens

Places: Carson City, Virginia City, Incline Village, Storey County, Washoe County, Northern Nevada

Samuel Langhorne Clemens is one of the nation's most beloved authors. As Mark Twain, he wrote such classics as Tom Sawyer (1876), Huckleberry Finn (1884), and The Prince and the Pauper (1881). His life and career are the property of several states including Nevada, which played an essential... more

Sammy Davis Jr.

Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada

Sammy Davis, Jr. suffered the pains of racial segregation in Nevada years before he was recognized as one of the greatest all-around performers. Born in Harlem in 1925 to vaudeville dancers, Davis learned to dance from his father and Will Mastin, whom he called his uncle. They formed the Will... more

Salt Wells, Eight Mile Flat

Places: Churchill County, Northern Nevada

Salt Wells, also known as Eight Mile Flat, is located near Fallon in Churchill County, Nevada. This geothermal area was originally drilled by Anadarko Petroleum Corporation in the early 1980s.The Nevada Division of Minerals issued a geothermal project area permit to Nevada Geothermal Specialists,... more

Salt Desert Vegetation of Nevada

Nevada's numerous mountain ranges are separated by broad valleys that at first glance appear inhospitable to life. However, surprisingly diverse desert scrub communities have adapted to this harsh environment and are an important food source for localized herbivore populations.At lower... more

Saloons on the Comstock

Places: Virginia City, Storey County, Northern Nevada

One of the first businesses to appear in a mining camp was a saloon. These institutions addressed the need of miners seeking a drink, but most saloons also offered warm, homey settings. In the early days, saloons also functioned as courtroom, church, and community center as needs arose. The... more

Sahara

Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada

When the troubled Club Bingo resort, on the northern end of the Las Vegas Strip, went bankrupt in 1950 after three years in business, its operator, former Los Angeles jeweler Milton Prell, saw a chance for recovery by building a new hotel-casino, which he would call the Sahara. Prell talked Desert... more

Sagebrush School

The main contribution to American literature from Nevada's mining frontier, 1859 to 1914, was the writing of the Sagebrush School. It was a major contribution, more important than other, better-known regional movements. Like New England's transcendentalism, the Sagebrush School was a loose... more

Rye Patch, Humboldt House Geothermal Area

Places: Pershing County, Northern Nevada

The Rye Patch (Humboldt, or Humboldt House) geothermal area is located in the Humboldt River valley 50 km north of Lovelock, Nevada. Humboldt House was founded there in 1868 as an eating station along the Central Pacific Railroad. No thermal springs are present at the surface in the area, but... more

Ruthe Deskin

A native Nevadan who bridged the old and new in the state's history, Ruthe Deskin was an influential Las Vegas journalist for almost half a century. She was born in Yerington (which she insisted on calling by its original name, Pizen Switch) to Jim Goldsworthy, a mining engineer, and Viola West... more

Ruth

Places: White Pine County, Northern Nevada

The Ruth mining claim, named and discovered by D. C. MacDonald in 1897, did not show much promise in the beginning. Gold and silver turned out to be sparse, and copper deposits were of low grade and unknown quantities. But all that changed when Edwin Gray and Dave Bartley optioned the claim from... more

Round Mountain

Places: Nye County, Southern Nevada

In early 1906, Louis Gordon discovered high grade gold deposits in the heart of the Toquima Mountains in Nye County. By spring, a small camp called Gordon, after its discoverer, was established. Gordon's population was more than 400 in the summer of 1906, and the town was renamed Round Mountain... more

Ron Kwiek

Places: Northern Nevada

For those who believe that art is simply a by-product of leisure, consider the extraordinary career of Nevada painter Ron Kwiek (1943-1996), who faced debilitating multiple sclerosis for the last thirty years of his life. Kwiek's watercolor landscapes were featured in numerous exhibitions, many... more

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