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First newspaper in Nevada…

[1]“Nevada” received its name from a Spanish word meaning “snow clad”.  Outside of the Native Americans one of the earliest settlements was by the Mormons [2] at Genoa, in 1849, then part of California. It later would be attached to the Utah Territory [3], then became the Nevada Territory before being admitted as a state in 1864.

It was at the town of Genoa that the first newspaper in the state began in 1858, the “Territorial Enterprise [4]“. Just a year later it moved to Carson City, and yet another year later to Virginia City where it continued until 1916. One of its claims to fame is having Samuel Clemens as a reporter and editor in the early 1860’s. Although issues from the 1870’s and 1880’s have been in our inventory for some years, issues from the 1860’s–particularly from the territorial period before statehood–are very difficult to find. (credit: “Printing In The Americas” by J. Oswald)