Nevada became the 36th state on October 31, 1864. Statehood was rushed by telegraphing the full text of the Nevada constitution to Congress just days before the November 8 presidential election — at the time, the longest and most expensive telegram ever sent. The hurried admission helped secure three electoral votes for Abraham Lincoln's reelection and added to the Republican congressional majority. Nevada's rich environment shaped its history and culture.
During 1864, Nevada's territorial boundaries changed three times, expanding the state southward. Before 1858, a small group of Mormon settlements ran along the border of Utah and Nevada; the great silver strikes that began in 1858 created boom towns and fabulous fortunes across the western region. By the beginning of the 20th century, those profits had declined while reformers sought to curb the excesses of capitalism. Statehood had imagined a civilized Nevada of universities, lofty idealism, and social reform.
An economic bust during the 1910s — together with disillusionment from failed social reform and nearly a one-fourth decline in population — meant that by 1920 Nevada had been described as the “beautiful desert of buried hopes.” The boom returned when gambling was legalized in 1931. With good transportation, especially from California's metropolitan areas, the nation's easiest divorce laws, and a speculative get-rich-quick spirit, Nevada moved through a boom-and-bust economy for decades — a pattern visible again when the worldwide financial crisis of 2008 exposed extravagant speculation in housing and casinos on an epic scale.