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50 free Nevada trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
44 free Nevada trivia questions with answers. Nevada is more than the Strip. It became a state with too few people to qualify, legalised gambling eight days after the Hoover Dam contract was signed, hosted more nuclear detonations than anywhere else in America, and hid an airbase the government would not admit existed until 2013. This quiz runs 50 questions across the whole state: the Spanish name and Battle Born nickname, the Comstock Lode and Mark Twain, Las Vegas from railroad auction to Golden Knights, Hoover Dam and Lake Tahoe, Area 51 and the Extraterrestrial Highway, Burning Man, mining, the state symbols and the people who make up modern Nevada. It starts with warm-ups any visitor will get and works up to questions for people who grew up there. Every answer has been checked against reference sources, shown under each question once you answer, so it works for a Nevada Day classroom, a Vegas trip or a US geography round at pub trivia.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital of Nevada?
Carson City
It is an independent city that functions as both a city and a county, created when Ormsby County was dissolved in 1969.
Q 02Nevada's official nickname is what?
The Silver State
It is also called the Battle Born State because it joined the Union during the Civil War, and the Sagebrush State after its native plant.
Q 03What does the name 'Nevada' mean in Spanish?
Snowy
Spanish explorers named it for the snow on its mountains, echoing Spain's own Sierra Nevada.
Q 04On what date did Nevada become the 36th state?
October 31, 1864
It was admitted eight days before the 1864 presidential election, despite having fewer than the 60,000 residents Congress usually required.
Q 05Nevada was the second state admitted during the Civil War. Which was the first?
West Virginia
West Virginia had broken away from Confederate Virginia in 1863.
Q 06Since 2000, when is Nevada Day, the state holiday marking admission, observed?
The last Friday in October
It was moved from October 31 in 2000 to create a three-day weekend; Carson City holds a downtown parade.
Q 07Which 1859 silver discovery led to Nevada Territory being carved out of Utah Territory?
The Comstock Lode
It was the first major silver deposit found in the United States, under Mount Davidson at Virginia City.
Q 08The great 1859 silver lode under Virginia City is named after which Canadian miner?
Henry Comstock
The rush produced mining innovations like square-set timbering and the Washoe silver-extraction process.
Q 09Which famous writer lived in Nevada during the mining boom and described it in Roughing It?
Mark Twain
He wrote for the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City and first used the name Mark Twain there.
Q 10On what date in 1931 did Nevada re-legalise gambling?
March 19
Governor Balzar signed it eight days after the federal government awarded the contract to build Boulder (Hoover) Dam, along with the country's most liberal divorce laws.
Q 11Nevada is the only US state where what is legal, though not in its most populous counties?
Prostitution
Brothels are illegal in Clark County (Las Vegas), Washoe County (Reno) and Carson City.
Q 12Roughly what share of Nevada's land is owned by the US federal government?
80%
That is the highest proportion of any state, covering everything from military ranges to BLM desert.
Q 13What is Nevada's ranking among US states for annual rainfall?
The driest
It sits in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada and gets some of the strongest sunshine in the country.
Q 21Which president dedicated Hoover Dam in September 1935?
Franklin D. Roosevelt
His administration called it Boulder Dam; Congress had named it for Hoover during construction.
Q 22Which consortium won the contract to build Hoover Dam?
Six Companies, Inc.
They finished more than two years ahead of schedule and handed the dam to the government in March 1936.
Q 23Which Nevada town was purpose-built to house Hoover Dam's construction workers?
Boulder City
It remains one of only two Nevada communities where gambling is illegal.
Q 14Nearly three-quarters of Nevadans live in which single jurisdiction?
Clark
It contains the Las Vegas metropolitan area and drew an estimated 44 million visitors in 2014.
Q 15The Las Vegas Strip is mostly NOT inside the city of Las Vegas. Which unincorporated town is it in?
Paradise
Most Strip resorts sit in Paradise and Winchester, which is why the city's downtown casinos cluster on Fremont Street instead.
Q 16What does 'Las Vegas' mean in Spanish?
The meadows
Spanish traders applied it to the fertile lowlands around the Las Vegas Springs, a Southern Paiute winter home.
Q 17In what year was Las Vegas founded, when railroad land was auctioned off?
1905
It incorporated in 1911 and by the end of the 20th century was the most populous North American city founded in that century.
Q 18Which is the oldest continuously operating hotel and casino in Las Vegas?
The Golden Gate
It opened downtown on Fremont Street in 1906 as the Hotel Nevada.
Q 19Downtown Las Vegas's Fremont Street is named after which explorer?
John C. Frémont
He camped at Las Vegas Springs in 1844; Jedediah Smith had reached the valley in 1827.
Q 20Hoover Dam was built in which gorge of the Colorado River?
Black
Boulder Canyon was rejected as a site because of a geological fault, though the project kept the name Boulder Dam for years.
Q 24Tahoe, shared with California, is the second-deepest body of fresh water in the US. Which is deeper?
Crater
Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in North America and, by volume, trails only the five Great Lakes.
Q 25Roughly what fraction of Lake Tahoe's surface lies in Nevada?
One third
The state line runs through the lake to the Carson Range, part of the Sierra Nevada.
Q 26The Nevada Test Site, opened in 1951, is known for what?
Most nuclear detonations of anywhere in the US
The first test was a bomb dropped on Frenchman Flat on January 27, 1951, about 65 miles from Las Vegas.
Q 27What did Congress designate Yucca Mountain as in 1987?
The nation's only permanent nuclear waste site
The plan has been fought by the state ever since and the repository was never opened.
Q 28Area 51 is officially known as what?
Homey Airport or Groom Lake
The CIA acquired it in 1955 to test the U-2 spy plane and only publicly acknowledged it in 2013.
Q 29In what year did the CIA publicly acknowledge that Area 51 exists?
2013
It came in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed eight years earlier.
Q 30Nevada State Route 375, near Area 51, carries which official nickname?
The Extraterrestrial Highway
The tiny town of Rachel along it is a stop for UFO tourists.