As a millennial who was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada — where we always got Halloween off as a state holiday — I never understood why movies like Hocus Pocus showed kids trudging off to school on October 31st. I genuinely assumed everyone got the day off, because, well, Halloween's a holiday... right?
Turns out most states don't celebrate the day they officially joined the Union. We're the exception, and a lucky one at that: Nevada was admitted to the United States on October 31, 1864, becoming the 36th state. It happened in the thick of the Civil War, which is exactly why our state flag reads "Battle Born."
Here are a few fun facts about Nevada you might not know:
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Nevada has 314 mountain ranges — more than any other state in the country (Swarr et al. 25).
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We're also the driest state in the nation, averaging just 10 inches of rain a year. Arizona comes in second driest, with 12 inches (Christian et al. 2951).
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Despite that, Nevada ranks 9th nationally for animal diversity and 8th for butterfly species.
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Our state fish, the Lahontan cutthroat trout, is the largest inland cutthroat trout in the world — it can weigh up to 50 lbs. and stretch 45 inches long (“Western Riverside County” 359).
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Nevada ranks 6th in the nation for endemic species (plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth), with 309 known so far. That list includes the Devil's Hole pupfish, the desert dace, several types of springsnails, and the wonderfully named Dixie Valley toad (Abella and Chiquoine).
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We're home to more than 300 hot springs, the most of any state — and thanks to all that unique biodiversity, Nevada also ranks 3rd in the nation for species at risk (Korchagina et al.).
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The history runs even deeper: some petroglyphs found in Nevada are more than 14,800 years old (Dorn and Whitley 329). Spain claimed the region in 1519, and it became part of Mexico after Mexican independence in 1821. The name "Nevada" comes from the Spanish word nieve, meaning "snow-capped," a nod to the Sierra Nevada mountains. And our nickname, "the Silver State," honors the massive silver deposits that drew settlers here in the first place — the same mining legacy that still makes Nevada responsible for producing three-quarters of the gold mined in the U.S. today. It's also exactly why the Vegas Golden Knights and Henderson Silver Knights carry the names they do.
Swarr, Matthew J., et al. "Extreme Winter Precipitation Drives Recharge of Mountain Groundwater in the Sierra Nevada and Cascades of the Western United States." Water Resources Research, vol. 62, no. 2, 2026, pp. 25. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.library.csn.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/extreme-winter-precipitation-drives-recharge/docview/3306563379/se-2, doi:https://doi.org/10.1029/2025WR040910.
Christian, John, et al. "Landscape Greening Following Unseasonal Precipitation Along a Desert–Alpine Gradient." Remote Sensing, vol. 18, no. 17, 2026, pp. 2951. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.library.csn.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/landscape-greening-following-unseasonal/docview/3384374046/se-2, doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/rs18172951.
"Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan, California. [Part 1 of 3]." Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan, California. vol. 1, , 2003. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.library.csn.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/reports/western-riverside-county-multiple-species-habitat/docview/36353335/se-2.
Franklin, Thomas W., et al. "Lahontan cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii henshawi) and Paiute cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii seleniris) detection from environmental DNA samples: a dual-purpose assay." Western North American Naturalist, vol. 82, no. 2, 2022, pp. 388-397. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.library.csn.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/lahontan-cutthroat-trout-oncorhynchus-clarkii/docview/2696513434/se-2.
Abella, Scott R., and Lindsay P. Chiquoine. "Stability and turnover in gypsum-associated plant communities during an 18-year period." Cambridge Prisms: Drylands, vol. 3, 2026, pp. 11. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.library.csn.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/stability-turnover-gypsum-associated-plant/docview/3330436201/se-2, doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/dry.2026.10030.
Korchagina, Masha V., et al. "Genome-resolved metagenomic survey of 500 samples from 56 hot springs across the Western US." Scientific Data, vol. 13, no. 1, 2026, pp. 782. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.library.csn.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/genome-resolved-metagenomic-survey-500-samples-56/docview/3345996115/se-2, doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-07139-w.
Dorn, Ronald I., and David S. Whitley. "Problems of Dating Petroglyphs Using Measurements of Manganese Accumulation in Rock Varnish: New Research Findings and Their Implications." Heritage, vol. 9, no. 8, 2026, pp. 329. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.library.csn.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/problems-dating-petroglyphs-using-measurements/docview/3378383778/se-2, doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage9080329.