Carson City took its title from the Carson River, named by John C. Fremont for his scout, Kit Carson, in 1844. Formerly Eagle Station, Carson City must have been a welcome refuge for explorers Kit Carson and John C. Fremont as they rode into Eagle Valley during their 1840s quest to map the West. To the east, long stretches of desert mark the difficult terrain settlers had to endure to get here. To the west, the Sierra Nevada is the gateway to the Pacific.

Northern Nevada’s first wave of white settlers, the Bidwell-Bartleson party, arrived in 1841. Westbound traffic increased, spurred by the big boom of 1848-1849 when gold was discovered in California. By 1851, Eagle Station, a trading post on the Carson Branch of the California Emigrant Trail, served as a stopover for travel-weary gold prospectors.

In 1858 Abraham Curry bought Eagle Station. Carson City’s future designation as a capital was largely the fruit of Curry’s labor.  In 1859, gold prospectors hit silver in the hills east of Carson City. Abraham Curry is often considered the founder and father of Carson City. Abraham Curry was born in New York in 1815 and arrived in Carson City in 1858. With partners John J.Musser, Benjamin Green, and Frank Proctor, he purchased about 1,000 acres in Eagle Valley and laid out the community of Carson City, which he tirelessly promoted. Additionally, Curry built the Warm Springs Hotel (at the site of the present Nevada State Prison) as well as the prison, the Carson City Mint building, and the Virginia and Truckee Railroad shops in Carson City. He also donated ten acres in the center of town to the state to be used for a state capitol, which helped ensure that Carson City would become the political heart of Nevada. Curry’s political accomplishments included stints as a Territorial Assemblyman from 1862-63, a Territorial Senator from 1863-64, warden of the state prison and superintendent of the Mint. Curry died in 1873 and was buried in the city he helped create. His house is #13 on the Kit Carson Trail walking trail map.

The Comstock Lode, as it was called, was the largest silver find in world history. In the 1860s, Carson City was a station on the Pony Express and the Overland mail under Butterfield and Wells, Fargo & Co. Despite its small population and expansive territory (Nevada is the seventh largest state), statehood was granted on October 31, 1864. This day and Nevada’s roots are celebrated each year in Carson City with the Nevada Day parade. Mining continued with another major silver strike, The Big Bonanza, in 1873, where the Virginia & Truckee Railroad (V&T) served the mines by transporting ore and timber.