As Nevada prepares to celebrate its 160th anniversary next week, there are many random facts you may not be aware of.

Nevada became the 36th state on October 31, 1864. It was the second of two states added to the Union during the Civil War.

Nevada is one of the few states that became much larger after joining the Union.

• Governor: Joe Lombardo
• Capital: Carson City
• Largest city: Las Vegas
• Nicknames: Silver State, Battle Born State and the Sagebrush State
• State motto: Everything for our country
• State Bird: Mountain Bluebird
• State flower: Wormwood
• State tree: Bristlecone Pine
• State animal: Desert bighorn sheep
• State Fish: Lahontan Cutthroat Trout
• State reptile: Desert tortoise
• State area: 110,622 square miles
• Highest point: border peak

Here are some fun facts about Nevada:

• The state is named after the mountain range “Sierra Nevada”.
• Nicknamed the “Silver State,” Nevada is actually the largest gold producing state in the US and the fourth largest in the world.
• America’s largest silver deposit, the Comstock Lode, was found in Nevada in 1859.
• Nevada is the seventh largest state in the US
• Nevada has more mountain ranges than any other state in the US
• Las Vegas has more hotel rooms than any other city in the world.
• 15 of the 25 largest hotels in the world are in Las Vegas.
• Nevada was the first state to ratify the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits states and federal governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen’s “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
• Area 51, a top secret area of ​​the Nellis Air Force Range and Nuclear Test Site, is rumored to have housed the development of the first stealth bomber and alien UFO research facilities.