RENO, the largest city of Nevada, U.S.A., and the county seat of Washoe county; on the Truckee river, 14 m. from the western boundary of the State. It is on Federal highwayS 4o and 5o; has a municipal airport of 160 ac. and is a station on the transconti nental air-mail route; and is served by the Southern Pacific, the Virginia and Truckee, and the Western Pacific railways, and ten motor-stage lines. The population was 12,016 in 1920 (8o% native white) and was 18,529 in 193o by the Federal census. The city covers 3 sq.m., at an altitude of 4,500 ft., near the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, amid magnificent and varied scenery. It is the financial, educational and professional centre of the State, and the commercial centre for the adjacent districts of California as well as for Nevada. Manufacturing is relatively un important, but the 57 plants in the city in 1926 had an output valued at In the suburb of Sparks, 2.5 m. E. (pop. in 1920: 3,238), are extensive shops of the Southern Pacific rail road. The banking business is large in proportion to the size of the city. Clearings in 1927 amounted to $35,368,959, and debits to individual accounts totalled $112,269,224. The University of Nevada (opened at Elko in 1873 and moved to Reno in 1885) occupies a 6o-acre campus on a low plateau overlooking the city. Adjoining the campus is the 6o-acre farm of the agricultural experiment station, given by the citizens of Washoe county in 1899, and 4 m. S. of the city is the university stock-farm of 213 acres. The Mackay school of mines was founded in 1907 by Mrs. John W. Mackay and Clarence H. Mackay in memory of John W. Mackay, one of the pioneers of the Comstock lode. Affiliated with the university are the Nevada Agricultural Experiment sta tion (1887), the State Analytical laboratory (1895), the State Hygienic laboratory (1909), the State Laboratory for Pure Food and Drugs and Weights and Measures ( two), the State Veteri nary Control Service (1915), and one of the 12 experiment sta tions of the United States Bureau of Mines, handling all the investigations for the United States on gold, silver, platinum, and the rare metals (1919). Reno is the seat also of the State Hos
pital for Mental Diseases (1882) and of a general hospital serving a wide area. Because of the relative ease with which a divorce may be secured in Nevada (the law recognizing seven grounds for an absolute decree and requiring only three months' residence before bringing suit) Reno is the temporary residence of many persons from New York and other States with less liberal laws on the subject. About 25 m. S.E. of the city are the famous min ing camps of Virginia City and Gold Hill, on the Comstock lode. In 1859 (the year the Comstock lode was discovered) a roadhouse was built on the site of Reno for the accommodation of travellers and freight-teams on the Overland Route and to the goldfields. By 1863 the place had become known as Lake's Crossing, and five years later it was chosen for a station on the Central (now the Southern) Pacific railroad, then building through the Truckee valley. It was named after General Jesse Lee Reno (1823-62), a Federal officer in the Civil War. The town was incorporated in 1879, and was chartered as a city in 1899 and again in 1903. In 1873 and in 1879 it suffered from destructive fires.