To provide the necessary connection between Virginia City and the California Trail, Charles W. Gold was discovered in the vicinity of Virginia City in 1850, and a modest mining community developed, but the discovery of silver in 1859 at the Comstock Lode led to a mining rush, and thousands of emigrants left their homes, bound for the West, hoping to find a fortune.

In addition to subsistence farming, these early residents could pick up business from travelers along the California Trail, which followed the Truckee westward, before branching off towards Donner Lake, where the formidable obstacle of the Sierra Nevada began. As early as the mid-1850s, a few pioneers settled in the Truckee Meadows, a relatively fertile valley through which the Truckee River made its way from Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake. History įor a chronological guide, see Timeline of Reno, Nevada.Īrchaeological finds place the eastern border for the prehistoric Martis people in the Reno area. The city proper had a population of 264,165 at the 2020 census, making it the third-largest city in Nevada, behind Las Vegas and Henderson. Known as Greater Reno, it includes Washoe, Storey, Lyon Counties, the independent city and state capital, Carson City, as well as parts of Placer and Nevada Counties in California. Reno is part of the Reno–Sparks metropolitan area, the second-most populous metropolitan area in Nevada after the Las Vegas Valley. Reno, who was killed in action during the American Civil War at the Battle of South Mountain, on Fox's Gap.

The city is named after Civil War Union Major General Jesse L. The Reno metro area (along with the neighboring city Sparks) occupies a valley colloquially known as the Truckee Meadows, it is the 81st most populous city in the United States, the 3rd most populous city in Nevada, and the most populous in Nevada outside the Las Vegas Valley. Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County and sits in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, in the Truckee River valley, on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about 22 miles (35 km) north from Lake Tahoe, known as 'The Biggest Little City in the World'.

Reno ( / ˈ r iː n oʊ/ REE-noh) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S.

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