Reno

Reno, city in western Nevada and seat of Washoe County. The city is located on the Truckee River, near the Lake Tahoe resort area of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Reno is a busy resort with large gambling casinos. Its proximity to a region of magnificent scenery and outdoor recreation makes it popular with tourists. Reno is served by the Reno/Tahoe International Airport.

Reno is home to the University of Nevada-Reno (1874), a community college, and the Desert Research Institute, a division of the University of Nevada System. Museums include the Nevada Museum of Art, featuring American art from the 19th and 20th centuries; the Nevada State Historical Society Museum, housing items from prehistoric times to the state’s present; the National Automobile Museum; and the W. M. Keck Museum, part of the Mackay School of Mines, with mining artifacts and a large exhibit on minerals. The University of Nevada is also the site of the Fleischmann Planetarium. North of Reno are the Animal Ark Wildlife Sanctuary, and Pyramid Lake, Nevada’s largest natural lake and the site of sacred land of the Paiute people. Annual events in Reno include the Reno Rodeo, the Nevada State Fair, and the National Championship Air Races.

In 1859 the site of present-day Reno was a river crossing. Owned by Myron C. Lake, it was known as Lake’s Crossing. The population of the community grew after a large silver deposit, the Comstock Lode, was discovered nearby in the late 1850s. In 1868 the Central Pacific Railroad reached the town, which was renamed for Jesse Lee Reno, a Union general in the American Civil War (1861-1865). It incorporated as a city in 1903.

The city developed in part as a result of its lenient residency requirement and divorce laws, which allowed married people to travel to Reno to secure a quick divorce that laws in their home states made more difficult. Reno for a time was known as the divorce capital of the world. The city continued to grow as a resort after the legalization of gambling in Nevada in 1931.

Reno covers a land area of 179 sq km (69 sq mi), with a mean elevation of 1,371 m (4,498 ft). According to the 2000 census, whites are 77.5 percent of the population, Asians 5.3 percent, blacks 2.6 percent, Native Americans 1.3 percent, and Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders 0.6 percent. The remainder are of mixed heritage or did not report race. Hispanics, who may be of any race, are 19.2 percent of the people. Population 100,756 (1980); 133,850 (1990); 180,480 (2000); 210,255 (2006).