Nevada Place Names: Origin and Meaning

Author

Helen S. Carlson

Publication Date

6-8-1959

Abstract

This study was initiated in 1953 with the preparation of a critical bibliography of Nevada place name materials, written as a seminar paper under the direction of Professor Charlton Laird at the University of Nevada for submission to Professor Thomas Matthews Pearce, editor of "Names and Places," Western Folklore. Subsequent investigation into names of the Comstock Lode mines, a thesis prepared at the University of Nevada, and names along the line of nineteenth-century railroads in Nevada, published in Western Folklore (April, 1956), led to this state survey of some 3,000 names, representing perhaps a tenth of the name body of Nevada and making no claim to complete an exhaustive name tracing. The purpose of the study is to identify and locate a place and, insofar as is possible, to tell when, why, and by whom a place was named and to relate it to the land, history, and people of Nevada. The names include all existing post offices, counties, railway stations, and national forests, cities, towns, and settlements, the best known lakes, creeks, mountain ranges and peaks, canyons and washes. Ranches, mail stations, mines, and forts of historical importance have been included. Postulates offered on the basis of this study may be later altered or confirmed, but will nonetheless serve those who in the future endeavor to expand and supplement the Nevada name story.

Degree Name

English

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

English

First Committee Member (Chair)

Thomas Matthews Pearce

Second Committee Member

Ernest Warren Baughman

Third Committee Member

Katherine Gauss Simons

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Recommended Citation

Carlson, Helen S.. "Nevada Place Names: Origin and Meaning." (1959). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/engl_etds/239