Why The VAST MAJORITY Of Nevada Is Owned By The Federal Government 

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As someone who was born and raised in Nevada, this video was both informational and inciteful. So much of my youth was spent wandering the deserts, not knowing the cultural or geopolitical aspects. It is truly a state where you lose yourself to find yourself

When Nevada became a State, the New State was given 1/18th of the land. Roughly 6% of the land. Most of Nevada is dry and desolate. You must realize that Nevada was the last State in the lower 48, where you could homestead. No one was willing to homestead it, even when the requirements were loosened to eliminate growing crops, or even fencing. All you had to do was build a residence, and live on the property for five years. There were Damned few takers.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the reason Nevada is so dry, the rain shadow from the Sierra Nevada.

Pretty good video. I grew up in a tiny town named Hawthorne, Nevada. We have a military depot there. Miles and miles of bunkers storing military ammunition. Also, a very big yet shrinking Walker Lake. Growing up in the Great Basin Desert is a unique experience. Fun fact: Most of Boundary Peak is in California only the summit is in Nevada, Wheeler Peak is the tallest mountain that's completely in Nevada.

As a proud Nevadan, I am glad that much of our land is owned by the BLM. Most of these lands are accessible to the public for free camping, hiking and use of off-road vehicles. I recently went on a trip from western Nevada to Wisconsin and back covering 14 states. When I came back home, I was speaking to a friend who lives in California, and he asked which state was my favorite. Without hesitation I named my home state of Nevada. In northern Nevada we have 4 seasons with some snow in the winter and a few hot days during the summer, but most days are sunny and moderate. Our main problem in the state is an infestation of Californians migrating here and bringing their California ways with them. If you want things done like they were done in California, then move back or stay there in the first place. If you want to assimilate, welcome to Nevada.

Paiute has a silent "e" at the end. Lake Mead is ALSO managed by the National Park Service. It is our nation's 1st National Recreation Area

Nevada has no State Income Tax!!

9:39 The Forest Service is actually part of the US Department of Agriculture or USDA. Apparently the DOI used to be quite corrupt, so Theodore Roosevelt moved them to USDA. There have been many pushes to include the Forest Service in the DOI, since it follows a similar role with other agencies

Thank you for saying NEVADA the correct way!! We appreciate it!

Nevada is the most mountainous state in the lower US. Nevasa is a truly amazing place. It produces more gold than all but 4 or 5 countries in the world. It also has large copper and silver mines. Lithum is another that is in Nevada due to a vast majority of the State having once been covered by a huge fresh water lake. Pyramid Lake contains a fish species that are found in only one other place on the planet. They also take 20+ pound cutthroat trout out of that lake. Tahoe is in Nevada and California and is the 6th largest natural lake in the country behind the great lakes. Tahoe is also very deep at over 1600 feet in places. The Truckee river is one of the few rivers that never makes it to the ocean. It flows out of Tahoe and into Pyramid. Pyramid lake has no outlet so it is an alkaline lake it's considered fresh water but it tastes bad. With all the mining in Nevada there are more man made moutains in Nevada than anywhere else also. They mine an area and when they have sifted all the value out of the soil they build a new mountain out of it. There are small towns in Nevada that have never been connected to the power grid so the only electricity available is produced by the residents themselves. They have old style windmills that pumo water to towers that provide water to a group of homes or a ranch. Nevada is a very interesting place my family has lived in the state for more than 5 generations, so they were here before it was a state. We have been in the Truckee Meadows for 3 generations now. Most of the family has no intention of going anywhere any time soon. There are many more wonders in Nevada. Rhe difference between Nevada and most other places is you need to look a bit harder to see past the desert. Also be sure to bring along more than just a little water.😆😅🤣

Great Video Geoff, one correction - The Nevada test site is controlled by the Department of Energy rather than Defense. Some DOD work is done there but it is mostly associated with nuclear stuff.

Over the years I've driven almost every major highway that crosses Nevada. As such, I instantly knew why the land is owned by the federal government. There just isn't much out there, which is precisely the beauty of it. I will also say for anyone who wants to explore the non-Reno/Vegas parts of the state, fill your gas tank whenever you have a chance and if you're vegan, you're going to miss out on some great steak and rib places. You can also stay at the Clown Motel in Tonopah.

Geoff, a correction: the US Forest Service is NOT in the Department of Interior. It is in the Department of Agriculture. There's another important fact you never explained. The federal government wanted people to come settle Nevada, so they offered to give nearly all of the land in the state to anybody who came to live on it. Like the rest of the west, they used the Homestead Act to try and give the land away. The feds still own so much of the land simply because nobody would come and take it: it's just not land that can grow enough food to feed settlers, so the settlers never came, even when they could get the land for free. What we now call "BLM land" basically consists of the rest of the land in the arid west that settlers wouldn't take when the government offered to give it to them.

Nevada was one of the last states I had left to explore after traveling around the country for the past 20 years. It didn’t take long for me to realize that it’s one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

Thank you Geoff for another great informative video!

Answer begins 8:06

Arizona is not too far behind with about 85% of the state owned by federal and state along with native american reservations.

There were definitely people in Nevada earlier than 12k years ago. Not far across the border, in Oregon, there's a site called Rimrock Draw with human activity that has an uncontroversial date of a bit over 18,000 years.

Here in Vegas we always joke that the state tree is those orange road cones lol. We all go out and party on the dry lake beds, federal land is so awesome because you can just do what you want bc no one owns it.! 🥳 Thx for such an insightful & concise summary, much appreciated+

I love this channel! Ever since I discovered it I'm a "watch the day it's uploaded" kinda guy with your videos. You have interesting topics, great visualizations, and a voice that's nice to listen to. I'm glad you're making content on RU-vid! Keep up the great work and I'll keep watching!

Fun fact: The only reason that the Federal Government doesn't have control over more of Alaska is that the agreement was made that the nascent State government could pick sufficient land area to place under control for supporting the state's economy. A number of acres was picked by the State's representatives. However, there was no firm information was available as to the number of acres in the defined state boundaries. So, it turned out that when picking a number, they hoped that the requested area for state control wasn't greater than the actual number of acres. Turns out, there was WAY more land area in the state than was requested.

How can the government own land? That would make it the peoples land, making it public land. When someone owns land, it’s considered private. Do you mean that the federal government controls that land?

I admirably refer to Nevada as "The Big Empty", though it is anything but. Thanks, Geoff. Nevada is one of my favorite places. Lots of room to wander.

I used to live in Nevada and yeah the Bureau of Land Management is like a second state government there…

thank you for these videos!!!!

The geology of Nevada is what got me into it. There’s so much to talk about and most interesting is how all the grabens that make up Nv have a tie into the Yellowstone hotspot moreover the thinness of the crust that makes up Nv is also interesting on how Ca & Nv were squashed together and as the plates to the west subducted under spread both out to how wide they are today. Naturally thats just a small snapshot in geologic time and there’s so much more that happened and is going on now.

Joshua Trees can be found in the Great Basin Desert too. Even on the outskirts of it.

New to this channel but subscribed already. Good stuff, well presented.

Great video Geoff! Boundary Peak is not in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, it is instead in the White Mountains

News to me. Great video. Thanks.

Awesome video! On the topic of empty land, I'd love to see a video on the Canadian territories. Think it would be super cool!

Waiting to get my official notification of getting on the list to tour the Nevada Test Site. YEAH BABY

An informative video. Clarification: US Forest Service is under Agriculture not Interior. It is easy to mix up who does what in government agencies and many folks don't know the difference between agencies and their purposes! Its not uncommon to hear folks confuse state parks with national parks, national parks with national forests, etc.

Very informative about state vs Fed land ownership. I have plans to drive HiWay 50 the Loneliest Road in America before end of this year.

I live in Elko, Nevada for 4 years as a well driller. We did wells for gold mine and for oil rig the one thing they don’t mention the oil, houses too

I love Nevada! Thank you for the video.

This is a very cool video. Thanks!

Vegas and reno are the 2 main developed areas because both near big bodies of water and still relatively close to califormias farms. Other than that trees water and animals make for more ideal situation to inhabit humans to coexist. So most of nevada is not ideal condition to develop it for humans.

Great Job.. Feel like I was there Learned so much. Thanks..

Such an excellent channel Geoff. Well done!

Excellent work!

Excellent video thank you

Great video! Can you do one like this for Utah? ... Thnx

The US Forest Service is not under the Department of the Interior. It is under the Department of Agriculture. You also forgot the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, who is the third land agency under the Department of the Interior and manages the National Wildlife Refuges in the state.

That was a great video. I just subscribed.

Due to my extensive travels between Washington State and Arizona, I have traversed almost every part of Nevada. I still enjoy the eastern Nevada highway 93 and the high desert city of Ely (pronounced EEE-lee) and one time I decided to go straight north of Tonipah, to see the Toiyabe Mountain Range, before getting to America's loneliest highway, US 50, and ultimately heading north to Winnemucca, and thento Southeast Oregon and the Steen Mountains. My last bucket list area is the Ruby Mountains and Elko. I have heard Elko is a really cool place, maybe even a niceplace to retire.

One of the most unique states? Yup. 17.3% uniquer than North Dakota.

Does the federal government own anything or do they just control and manage it? If you think of the federal government as "The People" then yes.

Oooooo... I have too much to say in this one. I'ma rewatch before tho. Appreciate the content! 💐🏆🐐🔥

Area 51 is only called Area 51 because the DOE has the land divided into grid points on their map for the entire Test Site. Groom Lake happens to be in Area 51 so that's how the name got stuck. The research facility is not called Area 51.

Great show

That's interesting. I would have though that, despite its size, a higher percentage of alaska would be federally owned considering how it wad obtained, its landscape and weather, and abundant natural resources, though the general lack of exploitable land in nevada does lend itself to being federally managed for other purposes as you explained.

That's where a lot of military bases are, including area 51 and others. They don't want regulars living their much outside of vegas anyway.

I am very glad that the US citizens own so much desert and sand.

Its also one of the most popular places to go in the winter for RV'ers.

Geoff, this has nothing to do about Nevada, but I haven't fund any other way to request of you a report. I am very curious about the large desert in XiJang at 35N 85E. (That is the only ID I can find on Google Earth.) It is over 240NM n/s and 600NM e/w, with only one or two roads across it. What goes on?

Reminds me of a trip we took way back in 2013 on the Christmas eve from Twin Falls, Idaho to Las Vegas, Nevada in an all night drive on Route 93 while the temperatures plummeted to negative(minus) 43 degrees. There were zero people and vehicles on the road(due to Holiday or otherwise) and I was so scared we were going to freeze to death in the middle of nowhere. My Jeep GC was the MVP for the night.

It would have been nice to see something more on lake Tahoe & mountains around.

My understanding is that area 51 and Creech air force base are both under the authority of Nellis Air Force Base

I was so excited to find ur channel & binge watch ur geography videos until I quickly realized MY BRAIN CANT KEEP UP WITH HOW FAST U TALK 😳😔

Great video!

Interesting video. Heads up that the U.S. Forest Service is part of the Department of Agriculture (it's actually on that logo you posted) rather than the interior.

Why does the federal government own large swaths of Nevada? Because they cannot seem to pry their grubby paws off the levers of control. The state of Nevada and nevadans can easily administer these lands.

Same reason a lot of southern AZ is owned by the Feds. Plenty of open land to use as military proving grounds. If you scroll through the area on Google maps you’ll see tons of dirt roads leading out to mock airfields and buildings that the Air Force uses for target practice.

Correction: Boundary Peak is not in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It is in the White Mountains. You also need to find out how to pronounce Paiute.

Thanks Geoff, great video. One correction: Forest Service is part of the Department of Agriculture, not the Interior.

as the u.s. forest service emblem states it is part of the u.s. department of agriculture NOT the u.s. department of interior

PUBLIC LAND. not federal. It doesn't belong to the federal government. It belongs to the people of the United States.

Not saying it is aliens, but it is aliens.

51 years I’ve seen lots along the TRI state & into Baja ‘ northern Mexico 🇲🇽 I have off roaded and seen everything except lake Powell

Does The Fed pay property tax to Nevada Counties which collect such tax?

Now I'll have to look up those mountain ranges. I had no idea. Thanks for the fresh brainfood. Cheers.

I love when you land expense to different states

My family has owned almost 32 acres in Dixie valley for 30 years now the navy is forcing my mother to sell to the navy.

On behalf of all the west coast.. thank you for pronouncing NevAda correctly!

Just fyi, you said the the other Tribe names so nicely but Paiute is pronounced py-oot / paiju:t/ . Thank you!

I love this stuff !

Intersting. Thanks.

Your videos are helping our next generation, educational materials are the nutrients for our nation. Keep this up, we need more Americans like you.

Says the forest service is part of interior but the logo displays the dept of agriculture

Hey your channel is great. Looking forward to your future videos

Boundary Peak is not apart of the Sierra Nevada. It is a part of the White Mountains.

Live near Tahoe, live this area, wish I moved here sooner. Enjoyed your video.

That’s cause there are subterranean river tunnels going from Bay Area to Nevada( and beyond) entirely underground

Actually, the Constitution does not have any population requirements for statehood. The 60,000 people requirement was mandated by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. I'm not sure if that's still in force, but it most certainly isn't something required by the Constitution.

We need to change this

30 years ago I inherited 5 acres of undeveloped land 7 miles south of winnemucca. Off the i-80. I live out of state and haven't stepped on it in 25 years. . Is this a good area to own some land? Considering to sell. Or pass on to my son.

Very interesting!

The reason is it is very dry and excessive heat great for testing like death valley

I you believe in aliens I have a sagebrush to sell you

Good content! The e in Paiute is silent 😉

Ive heard from several people that the state “took” its name from the city- Nevada City which is in California.

Boundary peak is actually in the white mountains, not the sierra

So, can we revert Nevada back to territory status if its becoming a state was unconstitutional?

Could you imagine having videos like this during school when you had to write a report on Nevada or any of his other videos.

US federal workers getting retirement for managing a literal desert. I am signing up 😂

You left out the "Rabbit Treaty" which was only a scenic easement not concessions of war.

Actually around 14% of Nevada is privately owned as is 60% of the United States. Seems strange that there is no mention of private ownership in such a video.

Have you guys seen the photos of what it looks like to leave Burning Man? It’s an endless line of cars that goes on forever and ever. It’s so fucking funny