Carson City, officially the
Consolidated Municipality of Carson City, is an
independent city and the capital of the US state of
Nevada, named after the
mountain man Kit Carson. As of the
2010 census, the population was 55,274. The majority of the population of the town lives in
Eagle Valley, on the eastern edge of the
Carson Range, a branch of the
Sierra Nevada. Carson City is about south of
Reno and originated as a stopover for California bound emigrants, but developed into a city with the
Comstock Lode, a silver strike in the mountains to the northeast. The city has served as the capital of Nevada since statehood in 1864 and for much of its history was a hub for the
Virginia and Truckee Railroad, although the tracks were removed in the 1950s. Prior to 1969, Carson City was also the
county seat of
Ormsby County. In 1969, the county was abolished, and its territory was merged with Carson City to form the Consolidated Municipality of Carson City. With the consolidation, the city limits today extend west across the Sierra Nevada to the
California state line in the middle of
Lake Tahoe. Like other independent cities in the United States, it is treated as a
county-equivalent for census purposes.