卡森市联合市政府, 内华达州的领土和州首府, 有丰富多彩的边疆历史吗.  卡森市是1858年建立的一个社区, seven years after the first settlement of Eagle Station trading post in 1851. 鹰谷已经被农场主们定居下来了. 卡森城 is named for the famous frontiersman and scout 克里斯托弗·"基特"·卡森. 在1843年至1844年的探险中，约翰·C. Fremont had named 卡森城's nearby river for 装备卡森, Fremont's scout.  Pioneer Abraham Curry arrived in Eagle Valley in 1858 and soon thereafter surveyed and plotted a town site.  A cadre of well-connected attorneys whose names still decorate street signs here (Proctor, Musser) bought the richest part of the valley for $500 and a herd of horses. 的 farsighted and optimistic Curry set aside 10 acres expressly for the construction of a 国会大厦 -- this was before the formation of Nevada Territory in 1861. 卡森城 was soon designated both the territorial capital and county seat of the new Ormsby County.  亚伯拉罕·林肯, recognizing the importance of Nevada's silver and gold to the Union's Civil War effort, signed the proclamation that ushered Nevada into statehood on October 31, 1864.  卡森城 was selected as the state capital at the constitutional convention and has retained that honor to the present day.

Following the discovery of gold and silver on the nearby Comstock Lode in 1859, 卡森城成为一个繁荣的商业中心. 令他们感到惊讶和高兴的是它的公民, the discovery of the Comstock Lode brought their 卡森城 to life as a freight and transportation center. 安倍咖喱, then built the crude Warm Springs Hotel a mile to the east, and when 卡森城 was selected as the territorial capital in 1861, 把它租给立法机关作为威尼斯官方网站登录大厅. 的 legislature established 卡森城 as the seat of Ormsby County (named for one of the dead "heroes" at the Battle of Pyramid Lake). 的 legislators also leased the Warm Springs Hotel to serve as the Territorial Prison, 还命名了他们亲切的主人和房东, 作为它的第一位守护者. 的 property was eventually purchased by the state and is still a part of the state prison system.

卡森城 was confirmed as Nevada's permanent capital with statehood in 1864, and development thereafter was no longer completely dependent on the health of the Comstock mines. 直到19世纪80年代开始衰落, these mines provided 卡森城 with most of its economic importance as a freight and staging center, and as a marshalling point for much of the timber harvest in the Lake Tahoe basin. 美国铸币局 in 卡森城 was completed in 1869; it is today the site of the Nevada State Museum.

的 V&T was completed between 卡森城 and Virginia City in 1869, 铁路的商店和主要办公室都在卡森城. V&T rails were extended north to connect with the transcontinental railroad at Reno in 1872. By 1874, when the Comstock mines were reaching their peak production, 每天有36列火车经过卡森城. 巨大的砂岩V&T engine house and roundtable dominated the northeast corner of the city for well over a century. Neglected and falling into ruin since the track was torn up in 1950, they have now been torn down and the stones sent to create facades for wineries in the Napa Valley.

Like many another Nevada town in its youth 卡森城 was made 的 historic St. Charles Hotel is part of 卡森城's revitalized historic district and is a major attraction of the modern city lively, 偶尔也很危险, 被几十个无根的存在, 不安分的男人. 枪击事件, stabbings and street brawls were commonplace around Nevada, but 卡森城 was unique in contending with outbreaks from the State Prison.

After the turn of the century 卡森城 participated vicariously in the Tonopah and Goldfield booms far to the south. Much of the freight and passenger traffic bound for those two celebrated cities was routed to Reno and then through 卡森城 to Mound House on the V&T铁路. 从那里窄轨卡森 & Colorado carried it to Sodaville where freight wagons and stage coaches were waiting for the last leg of the journey.

This traffic through 卡森城 came to a sudden halt when the Southern Pacific built a branch line connecting with the C & 从东边绕过V河的C河&T完全. 的 capital then resumed the quiet lifestyle that evolved after the decline of the Comstock, 时至今日，这一趋势仍在继续(虽然有所变化). At the turn of the century the railroad extended its line south into the Carson Valley, but the Minden-Gardnerville traffic never came close to replacing the Tonopah-Goldfield traffic, 还有铁路, 和卡森城, 又恢复了平静. 1930年，人口减少到1只,800, about a quarter of what it had been at the peak of the mining boom 50 years earlier.

的 magnificent 1890 Federal Building is a 卡森城 landmark. It has been renamed the Paul Laxalt building in honor of Nevada's former Governor and United States Senator.1933年，这条公路铺好穿过城镇, but for a long time afterward the kids could roller skate on it without worrying too much about traffic. In those innocent days 卡森城 advertised itself as America's smallest state capital.

1960年，卡森市的人口恢复到1880年的水平, and in 1969 Ormsby County was merged into 卡森城 to consolidate government services. 的re are now nine state capitals with smaller populations than 卡森城, 事实上, 面积为146平方英里, 卡森城 could now advertise itself as one of the largest state capitals in America!