Although the people of Nevada celebrate their state's birthday as a matter of course today, there was no official recognition of Nevada's birthday until 1891, some 27 years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the congressional resolution admitting Nevada as the 36th state.
In 1891, however, the Legislature approved a bill making Oct. 31 "Admission Day." In the push of more important matters, the editors of the state took no notice of the official recognition of Nevada's entrance into the Union, but a handful of history-minded Nevadans were soon making plans to begin a tradition which continues to this day.
Nevada was in dire economic straits in 1891 with its major mines closed down, the labor force idle and the population dwindling. Many observers on the national scene were predicting a mournful end to Nevada's history and others were raising questions as to how long the state could maintain its statehood. "Nevada will, before many years have passed, be, to all intents and purposes, a dead state," one prognosticator wrote in 1891, "defunct as is the moon."
Nevada's economic problems were also on the minds of those who were planning the first Admission Day celebration and they saw the occasion as an opportunity for the people to assert their feeling for their state and to reaffirm the status of Nevada as an equal and continuing member of the sisterhood of states. Many Nevadans believed that the celebration would instill an appreciation of the state's history and end the negative feelings engendered by economic hard times, but only Virginia City and Reno staged formal exercises that year.
In Virginia City, the parade took place on Oct. 30, rather than the proper day, but the only complaints came from the members of the local chapter of the Pacific Coast Pioneers, who refused to march in the parade. The weather turned out to be bright and pleasant, and three junior militia companies from Storey County High School joined the militia units in the parade. The merchants did up their shops in flags and patriotic bunting. The Magnolia Saloon served a free buffet supper that evening, and a dramatic production by the Carsonites at Piper's Opera House drew a standing room crowd. Dancing followed with the music continuing long past the witching hour. The following day, many Virginians caught the Virginia & Truckee passenger run to Reno that morning and took in the celebration at the riverside city.
In Reno, the parade got off to a prompt start at 1 p.m. on the appointed day, and was only interrupted by a mock robbery of Hank Monk's stagecoach at the corner of Second and Sierra streets.
The more peacefully inclined inmates of the Insane Asylum graced that institution's entry. A brass band led carriages of leading citizens through the streets, and spectators from Sierra Valley and Susanville joined Renoites on the streets, as did lumbermen from the Sierra Nevada, miners from the Comstock, farmers and ranchers from the Truckee Meadows and Washoe Valley, and political personages from Carson City. A planned balloon ascension and double parachute jump at the Plaza was cancelled due to a dispute over money, but the literary exercises that evening at the opera house properly capped the
day.
Several citizens found their gates missing and their outhouses toppled over upon their arrival back home, but the level of Halloween mischief was significantly less than that of previous years, some indication, perhaps, that the younger generation felt that they too had been involved in something out of the ordinary that day, something bigger than themselves, a day to be recalled for the rest of their lives.
Editors in other communities displayed a twinge of jealousy in their reports on the goings-on in Reno and Virginia City and several vowed that their own citizens would "do it up proper" the next time around. Nevada Day has indeed been variously celebrated around the state since that time, but Carson City took it over in 1938 and the annual Nevada Day Parade there has become a venerable tradition.
(Phillip I. Earl is former curator of history at the Nevada Historical Society. He retired last year after 30 years of state service. Gwen Clancy edited the column.)
