State Secrets: On Nevada Day, get re-acquainted with the facts about our great state

Kimberley McGee

Sunday, Oct. 31, 1999 | 10:11 a.m.

It's not all show girls and tract housing.

Beyond the tumbling sagebrush and choked city streets that dot the vast Nevada landscape, there lies a patriotic history and pride in its pioneer spirit, evident in the state motto and a tender state song.

What state motto? And there's a song?

Yes, and neither have to do with rolling a hard eight on a hot table.

With home sales humming and apartment buildings bulging with new Nevadans, there may be some locals who don't know a thing about their locale's history. Well, with today being not only Halloween but Nevada Day -- it's our 135th birthday -- here's some tidbits on Nevada's beginnings. Most of the information was gathered from the Nevada State website.

The state artifact, called the Tule Duck, is made of bullrush stems bound together to look like a duck. It was crafted by early Indians in Nevada around the beginning of this millennium (although that New Year's, they didn't book over-priced hotel rooms to stay in the area). A 1924 excavation of Lovelock Cave in Northern Nevada dug up 11 of the duck decoys.

The Sagebrush State for the state "flower," which grows so abundantly across the desert; the Silver State for the early silver rush in the mid 1800s; and, can you guess why the slogan "Battle Born" is often associated with Nevada? That's right -- the Civil War/statehood connection, although Nevada has never fought a war, except between unions and big hotels. And then there's the unofficial term used mostly by US-95 and I-15 commuters: the "Under Construction" state.

"Home means Nevada, home means the hills, home means the sage and the pines. Out by the Truckee's silvery rills, out where the sun always shines. There is a land that I love the best, fairer than all I can see. Right in the heart of the Golden west, home means Nevada to me."