的 Consolidated Municipality of 卡森城, Nevada's territorial and state capital, has a rich and colorful frontier past.  卡森城 was founded as a community in 1858, seven years after the first settlement of Eagle Station trading post in 1851. Eagle Valley had been settled by ranchers. 卡森城 is named for the famous frontiersman and scout Christopher "Kit" Carson. During his 1843-1844 expedition, John C. Fremont had named 卡森城's nearby river for 装备卡森, Fremont's scout.  Pioneer Abraham Curry arrived in Eagle Valley in 1858 and soon thereafter surveyed and plotted a town site.  A cadre of well-connected attorneys whose names still decorate street signs here (Proctor, Musser) bought the richest part of the valley for $500 and a herd of horses. 的 farsighted and optimistic Curry set aside 10 acres expressly for the construction of a 国会大厦 -- this was before the formation of Nevada Territory in 1861. 卡森城 was soon designated both the territorial capital and county seat of the new Ormsby County.  President Abraham Lincoln, recognizing the importance of Nevada's silver and gold to the Union's Civil War effort, signed the proclamation that ushered Nevada into statehood on October 31, 1864.  卡森城 was selected as the state capital at the constitutional convention and has retained that honor to the present day.

Following the discovery of gold and silver on the nearby Comstock Lode in 1859, 卡森城 became a thriving commercial center. To their astonishment and delight of its citizens, the discovery of the Comstock Lode brought their 卡森城 to life as a freight and transportation center. 安倍咖喱, then built the crude Warm Springs Hotel a mile to the east, and when 卡森城 was selected as the territorial capital in 1861, leased it to the Legislature as a meeting hall. 的 legislature established 卡森城 as the seat of Ormsby County (named for one of the dead "heroes" at the Battle of Pyramid Lake). 的 legislators also leased the Warm Springs Hotel to serve as the Territorial Prison, and named their genial host and landlord, 作为它的第一位守护者. 的 property was eventually purchased by the state and is still a part of the state prison system.

卡森城 was confirmed as Nevada's permanent capital with statehood in 1864, and development thereafter was no longer completely dependent on the health of the Comstock mines. Until they began to decline in the 1880s, these mines provided 卡森城 with most of its economic importance as a freight and staging center, and as a marshalling point for much of the timber harvest in the Lake Tahoe basin. 的 United States Mint in 卡森城 was completed in 1869; it is today the site of the Nevada State Museum.

的 V&T was completed between 卡森城 and Virginia City in 1869, with the railroad's shops and main offices in 卡森城. V&T rails were extended north to connect with the transcontinental railroad at Reno in 1872. By 1874, when the Comstock mines were reaching their peak production, 36 trains a day passed through 卡森城. 巨大的砂岩V&T engine house and roundtable dominated the northeast corner of the city for well over a century. Neglected and falling into ruin since the track was torn up in 1950, they have now been torn down and the stones sent to create facades for wineries in the Napa Valley.

Like many another Nevada town in its youth 卡森城 was made 的 historic St. Charles Hotel is part of 卡森城's revitalized historic district and is a major attraction of the modern city lively, and occasionally dangerous, by the presence of dozens of rootless, 不安分的男人. 枪击事件, stabbings and street brawls were commonplace around Nevada, but 卡森城 was unique in contending with outbreaks from the State Prison.

After the turn of the century 卡森城 participated vicariously in the Tonopah and Goldfield booms far to the south. Much of the freight and passenger traffic bound for those two celebrated cities was routed to Reno and then through 卡森城 to Mound House on the V&T铁路. From there the narrow gauge Carson & Colorado carried it to Sodaville where freight wagons and stage coaches were waiting for the last leg of the journey.

This traffic through 卡森城 came to a sudden halt when the Southern Pacific built a branch line connecting with the C & C from the east that bypassed the V&T完全. 的 capital then resumed the quiet lifestyle that evolved after the decline of the Comstock, and which still continues (with variations) today. At the turn of the century the railroad extended its line south into the Carson Valley, but the Minden-Gardnerville traffic never came close to replacing the Tonopah-Goldfield traffic, 还有铁路, 和卡森城, slipped back into quiescence. In 1930 the population had dwindled to 1,800, about a quarter of what it had been at the peak of the mining boom 50 years earlier.

的 magnificent 1890 Federal Building is a 卡森城 landmark. It has been renamed the Paul Laxalt building in honor of Nevada's former Governor and United States Senator.In 1933 the highway was paved through town, but for a long time afterward the kids could roller skate on it without worrying too much about traffic. In those innocent days 卡森城 advertised itself as America's smallest state capital.

In 1960 卡森城 regained its 1880 population level, and in 1969 Ormsby County was merged into 卡森城 to consolidate government services. 的re are now nine state capitals with smaller populations than 卡森城, 事实上, with its area of 146 square miles, 卡森城 could now advertise itself as one of the largest state capitals in America!