Nevada is a state located in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its three largest incorporated cities. Nevada's capital is Carson City.

Nevada is largely desert and semiarid, with much of it located within the Great Basin. Areas south of the Great Basin are located within the Mojave Desert, while Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada mountains lie on the western edge. Approximately 86% of the state's land is owned by the US government under various jurisdictions, both civilian and military.

The name ''Nevada'' is derived from the nearby Sierra Nevada mountains, which means "snow-capped mountain range" in Spanish. The land comprising the modern state was inhabited by Native Americans of the Paiute, Shoshone, and Washoe tribes prior to European contact. It was subsequently claimed by Spain as a part of Alta California until the Mexican War of Independence brought it under Mexican control. The United States gained the territory in 1848 following its victory in the Mexican-American War and the area was eventually incorporated as part of Utah Territory in 1850. The discovery of silver at the Comstock Lode in 1859 led to a population boom that was an impetus to the creation of Nevada Territory out of western Utah Territory in 1861. Nevada became the 36th state on October 31, 1864.

The establishment of legalized gambling and lenient marriage and divorce proceedings in the 20th century transformed Nevada into a major tourist destination. The tourism industry remains Nevada's largest employer, with mining continuing to be a substantial sector of the economy as Nevada is the fourth largest producer of gold in the world.

Nevada is officially known as the "Silver State" due to the importance of silver to its history and economy. It is also known as the "Battle Born State" because it achieved statehood during the Civil War and the "Sagebrush State" for the native eponymous plant.

Nevada is the largest landlocked U.S. state that does not border Canada or Mexico.

Etymology and pronunciation

The name "Nevada" comes from the Spanish ''Nevada'' , meaning "snow-covered", after the Sierra Nevada ("snow-covered mountains") mountain range.

Nevadans normally pronounce the second syllable of their state name using the vowel of "bad". Many from outside the Western United States pronounce it with the vowel of "father" . Although the latter pronunciation is closer to the Spanish pronunciation, it is not the pronunciation preferred by locals. Notably, George W. Bush made this ''faux pas'' during his campaign for the 2004 US Presidential Election. Vindication later came when President Bush campaigned at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center on June 18, 2004. The president opened his talk by proclaiming that "It's great to be here in ," emphasizing the correct 'a' — the crowd roared its approval when he light-heartedly noted, "You didn't think I'd get it right, did ya?" Bush subsequently carried the state in the election. Assemblyman Harry Mortenson has proposed a bill to recognize the alternate (quasi-Spanish) pronunciation of Nevada.

Geography

Nevada is almost entirely within the Basin and Range Province, and is broken up by many north-south mountain ranges. Most of these ranges have endorheic valleys between them, which belies the image portrayed by the term Great Basin. Much of the northern part of the state is within the Great Basin, a mild desert that experiences hot temperatures in the summer and cold temperatures in the winter. Occasionally, moisture from the Arizona Monsoon will cause summer thunderstorms; Pacific storms may blanket the area with snow. The state's highest recorded temperature was in Laughlin (elevation of ) on June 29, 1994. The coldest recorded temperature was set in San Jacinto in 1972, in the northeastern portion of the state.

The Humboldt River crosses from east to west across the northern part of the state, draining into the Humboldt Sink near Lovelock. Several rivers drain from the Sierra Nevada eastward, including the Walker, Truckee and Carson rivers.

The mountain ranges, some of which have peaks above , harbor lush forests high above desert plains, creating sky islands for endemic species. The valleys are often no lower in elevation than .

The southern third of the state, where the Las Vegas area is situated, is within the Mojave Desert. The area receives less rain in the winter but is closer to the Arizona Monsoon in the summer. The terrain is also lower, mostly below , creating conditions for hot summer days and cool to chilly winter nights (due to temperature inversion). Nevada and California have by far the longest diagonal line (in respect to the cardinal directions) as a state boundary at just over . This line begins in Lake Tahoe nearly offshore (in the direction of the boundary), and continues to the Colorado River where the Nevada, California, and Arizona boundaries merge southwest of the Laughlin Bridge.

The largest mountain range in the southern portion of the state is the Spring Mountain Range, just west of Las Vegas. The state's lowest point is along the Colorado River, south of Laughlin.

Nevada has 172 mountain summits with of prominence. Nevada ranks second in the US, behind Alaska, and ahead of California, Montana, and Washington. This makes Nevada the "Most Mountainous" state in the country, at least by this measure.

Climate

Nevada is made up of mostly desert and semiarid climate regions, daytime summer temperatures sometimes may rise as high as and nighttime winter temperatures may reach as low as . The winter season in the southern part of the state, however, tends to be of short duration and mild. Most parts of Nevada receive scarce precipitation during the year. Most rain falls on the lee side (east and northeast slopes) of the Sierra Nevada Range. The average annual rainfall per year is about ; the wettest parts get around . Nevada's highest recorded temperature is at Laughlin on June 29, 1994 and the lowest recorded temperature is at San Jacinto on January 8, 1937. Nevada's reading is the third highest temperature recorded in the U.S. just behind Arizona's reading and California's reading.

Vegetation

Nevada contains six biotic zones: alpine, sub-alpine, "yellow pine", "pinion-juniper", "sagebrush" and "creosotebush".

Counties

Nevada is divided into political jurisdictions designated as ''counties''. Carson City is officially a consolidated municipality; however, for many purposes under state law it is considered to be a county. As of 1919 there were 17 counties in the state, ranging from . In 1969 Ormsby County was dissolved and the consolidated municipality of Carson City was created by the Legislature in its place co-terminous with the old boundaries of Ormsby County. County seat Carson CityFallon, NevadaLas Vegas, NevadaMinden, NevadaElko, NevadaGoldfield, NevadaEureka, NevadaWinnemucca, NevadaBattle Mountain, NevadaPioche, NevadaYerington, NevadaHawthorne, NevadaTonopah, NevadaLovelock, NevadaVirginia City, NevadaReno, NevadaEly, Nevada Counties: 17

NEVADA COUNTIES
County name	|	Year founded	2000 population	Percent of total	Area (mi²)	Percent of total	Population density (/mi²)
Carson City, Nevada	Carson City	|	1861	52,457	2.63 %	146	0.13 %	359.29
Churchill County, Nevada	Churchill	Fallon||	1861	23,982	1.20 %	5,023	4.54 %	4.77
Clark County, Nevada	Clark	Las Vegas||	1908	1,375,765	68.85 %	8,091	7.32 %	170.04
Douglas County, Nevada	Douglas	Minden||	1861	41,259	2.06 %	738	0.67 %	55.91
Elko County, Nevada	Elko	Elko||	1869	45,291	2.27 %	17,203	15.56 %	2.63
Esmeralda County, Nevada	Esmeralda	Goldfield||	1861	971	0.05 %	3,589	3.25 %	0.27
Eureka County, Nevada	Eureka	Eureka||	1869	1,651	0.08 %	4,180	3.78 %	0.39
Humboldt County, Nevada	Humboldt	Winnemucca||	1856/1861	16,106	0.81 %	9,658	8.74 %	1.67
Lander County, Nevada	Lander	Battle Mountain||	1861	5,794	0.29 %	5,519	4.99 %	1.05
Lincoln County, Nevada	Lincoln	Pioche||	1866	4,165	0.21 %	10,637	9.62 %	0.39
Lyon County, Nevada	Lyon	Yerington||	1861	34,501	1.73 %	2,016	1.82 %	17.11
Mineral County, Nevada	Mineral	Hawthorne||	1911	5,071	0.25 %	3,813	3.45 %	1.33
Nye County, Nevada	Nye	Tonopah||	1864	32,485	1.63 %	18,159	16.43 %	1.79
Pershing County, Nevada	Pershing	Lovelock||	1919	6,693	0.33 %	6,068	5.49 %	1.10
Storey County, Nevada	Storey	Virginia City||	1861	3,399	0.17 %	264	0.24 %	12.88
Washoe County, Nevada	Washoe	Reno||	1861	339,486	16.99 %	6,551	5.93 %	51.82
White Pine County, Nevada	White Pine	Ely||	1869	9,181	0.46 %	8,897	8.05 %	1.03
Totals	|		1,998,257		110,552		18.08

Humboldt was designated as a County in 1856 by Utah Territorial Legislature and again in 1861 by the new Nevada Legislature.

==History==

Before 1861

See History of Utah, History of Las Vegas, and the discovery of the first major U.S. deposit of silver ore in Comstock Lode under Virginia City, Nevada in 1859.

Separation from Utah Territory

On March 2, 1861, the Nevada Territory separated from the Utah Territory and adopted its current name, shortened from ''Sierra Nevada'' (Spanish for "snowy range").

The 1861 southern boundary is commemorated by Nevada Historical Markers 57 and 58 in Lincoln and Nye counties.

Statehood

Eight days prior to the presidential election of 1864, Nevada became the 36th state in the union. Statehood was rushed to the date of October 31 to help ensure Abraham Lincoln's reelection on November 8 and post-Civil War Republican dominance in Congress, as Nevada's mining-based economy tied it to the more industrialized Union.

Nevada is notable for being one of only two states to significantly expand its borders after admission to the Union. Nevada achieved its current southern boundaries on May 5, 1866, when it absorbed the portion of Pah-Ute County in the Arizona Territory west of the Colorado River, essentially all of present day Nevada south of the 37th parallel. The transfer was prompted by the discovery of gold in the area, and it was thought by officials that Nevada would be better able to oversee the expected population boom. This area includes most of what is now Clark County. In 1868 another part of the western Utah Territory, whose population was seeking to avoid Mormon dominance, was added to Nevada in the eastern part of the state, setting the current eastern boundary.

Mining shaped Nevada's economy for many years (see ''Silver mining in Nevada''). When Mark Twain lived in Nevada during the period described in ''Roughing It'', mining had led to an industry of speculation and immense wealth. However, both mining and population declined in the late 19th century. However, the rich silver strike at Tonopah in 1900, followed by strikes in Goldfield and Rhyolite, again put Nevada's population on an upward trend.

Gaming and labor

Unregulated gaming was commonplace in the early Nevada mining towns but outlawed in 1909 as part of a nation-wide anti-gaming crusade. Because of subsequent declines in mining output and the decline of the agricultural sector during the Great Depression, Nevada again legalized gaming on March 19, 1931, with approval from the legislature. At the time, the leading proponents of gaming expected that it would be a short term fix until the state's economic base widened to include less cyclical industries. However, "re-outlawing" gaming has never been seriously considered since the industry has become Nevada's primary source of revenue today.

Nuclear testing

The Nevada Test Site, northwest of the city of Las Vegas, was founded on January 11, 1951, for the testing of nuclear weapons. The site is composed of approximately of desert and mountainous terrain. Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site began with a bomb dropped on Frenchman Flat on January 27, 1951. The last atmospheric test was conducted on July 17, 1962, and the underground testing of weapons continued until September 23, 1992. The location is known for having the highest concentration of nuclear-detonated weapons in the U.S.

Over 80% of the state's area is owned by the federal government. The primary reason for this is that homesteads were not permitted in large enough sizes to be viable in the arid conditions that prevail throughout desert Nevada. Instead, early settlers would homestead land surrounding a water source, and then graze livestock on the adjacent public land, which is useless for agriculture without access to water (this pattern of ranching still prevails).

Demographics

Growth

According to the Census Bureau's 2007 estimate, Nevada has an estimated population of 2,565,382 which is an increase of 92,909, or 3.5%, from the prior year and an increase of 516,550, or 20.8%, since the year 2000. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 81,661 people (that is 170,451 births minus 88,790 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 337,043 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 66,098 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 270,945 people. According to the 2006 census estimate, Nevada is the eighth fastest growing state in the nation.

The center of population of Nevada is located in southern Nye County. In this county, the unincorporated town of Pahrump, located west of Las Vegas on the California state line, has grown 26 times in size from 1980 to 2000. In the year 2006, the town may have over 50,000 permanent residents. Las Vegas was America's fastest-growing city and metropolitan area from 1960 to 2000, but has grown from a gulch of 100 people in 1900 to 10,000 by 1950 to 100,000 by 1970 to have 2.5 million in the metropolitan area in 2010.

From about the 1940s until 2003, Nevada was the fastest-growing state in the US percentage-wise. Between 1990 and 2000, Nevada's population increased 66.3%, while the USA's population increased 13.1%. Over two thirds of the population of the state live in the Clark County Las Vegas metropolitan area.

Henderson and North Las Vegas are among the USA's top 20 fastest-growing cities of over 100,000.

The rural community of Mesquite located northeast of Las Vegas was an example of micropolitan growth in the 1990s and 2000s. Other desert towns like Mercury and Searchlight on the outskirts of Las Vegas has grown tremendously as well.

Large numbers of new residents in the state originate from California, which led some locals to feel that their state is being "Californicated".

Human Diversity

According to the 2008 census estimates racial distribution was as follows: 65% White American, 7.1% African American, 6% Asian American (estimates placed them at 10%), 2% others (American Indians and Pacific Islanders) and the remaining 20% were Hispanics or Latinos of any race.

In terms of diversity, Nevada is home to many cultures and nationalities. Las Vegas and Reno or Washoe County has evolved to become Minority majority cities and counties. Nevada also has a sizable Basque ancestry population. In Douglas, Mineral and Pershing counties, a plurality of residents are of Mexican ancestry with Clark County (Las Vegas) being home to over 200,000 Mexican Americans alone; Nye County and Humboldt County have a plurality of Germans; and Washoe County has many of Irish-Americans. Americans of English descent form pluralities in Lincoln County, Churchill County, Lyon County, White Pine County and Eureka County. Las Vegas is home to rapid-growing ethnic communities like Scandinavians, Italians, Poles, Greeks, Spaniards and Armenians.

Largely African-American sections of Las Vegas ("the Meadows") and Reno can be found. Many current African-American Nevadans are newly transplanted residents from California, the Midwest, or the East Coast.

Since the California Gold Rush of the 1850s brought thousands of Chinese miners to Washoe county, Asian Americans lived in the state. They were followed by a few hundred of Japanese farm workers in the late 19th century. By the late 20th century, many immigrants from China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines and recently from India and Vietnam, came to the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The city now has one of America's most prolific Asian-American communities, with a mostly Chinese and Taiwanese area known as "Chinatown" west of I-15 on Spring Mountain Boulevard, and an "Asiatown" shopping mall for Asian customers located at Charleston Avenue/Paradise Boulevard. Filipino Americans form the largest Asian American group in the state, with a population of more than 113,000. They comprise 56.5% of the Asian American population in Nevada and constitute about 4.3% of the entire state's population.

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 16.19% of Nevada's population aged 5 and older speak Spanish at home, while 1.59% speak Filipino and 1% speak Chinese languages.

6.8% of the state's population were reported as under 5, 26.3% under 18, and 13.6% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 50.7% of the population. Las Vegas was a major destination for immigrants from South Asia and Latin America seeking employment in the gaming and hospitality industries during the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century, but farming and construction is the biggest employer of immigrant labor.

Senior citizens (over age 65) and young children or teenagers (under age 18) form large sections of the Nevada population. The religious makeup of Nevadans include large communities of Mormons, Roman Catholics and Evangelicals, each are known for higher birth rates and a younger than national average age. American Jews represent a large porportion of the active adult retirement community.

In 2010, illegal immigrants constituted an estimated 8.8% of the population. This was the highest percentage of any state in the country.

The principal ancestries of Nevada's residents in 2008 has been surveyed to be the following:

13.2% German

10.7% Irish

9.4% English

6.4% Italian

4.1% American

4.0% Scandinavian (1.7% Norwegian, 1.5% Swedish, and 0.8% Danish).

Religion

Major religious affiliations of the people of Nevada are:

Roman Catholic – 27%

Protestant

*Mainline – 11%

*Evangelical – 13%

*Other Protestant – 2%

Latter-day Saint/ Mormon – 11%

Muslim – 2%

Jewish – 1%

Other Religions – 3%

Unaffiliated – 20%

The largest denominations by number of adherents in 2000 were the Roman Catholic Church with 331,844; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with 116,925; and the Southern Baptist Convention with 40,233. 77,100 Nevadans belong to Jewish congregations.

Economy

The economy of Nevada was "founded on mining and refounded on sin—beginning with prizefighting and easy divorce a century ago and later extending to gaming and prostitution".

The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that Nevada's total state product in 2007 was $127 billion. Resort areas such as Las Vegas, Reno, Lake Tahoe, and Laughlin attract visitors from around the nation and world. In FY08 the total of 266 casinos with gaming revenue over $1m for the year, brought in revenue of $12 billion in gaming revenue, and $13 billion in non-gaming revenue. A review of gaming statistics can be found at Nevada gaming area.

The state's Per capita personal income in 2009 was $38,578, ranking nineteenth in the nation.

As of August 2010, the state's unemployment rate is the worst in the nation at 14.4%.

Its agricultural outputs are cattle, hay, alfalfa, dairy products, onions, and potatoes. Its industrial outputs are tourism, mining, machinery, printing and publishing, food processing, and electric equipment.

In portions of the state outside of the Las Vegas and Reno metropolitan areas, mining and cattle ranching are the major economic activities. By value, gold is by far the most important mineral mined. In 2004, of gold worth $2.84 billion were mined in Nevada, and the state accounted for 8.7% of world gold production (see ''Gold mining in Nevada''). Silver is a distant second, with worth $69 million mined in 2004 (see ''Silver mining in Nevada''). Other minerals mined in Nevada include construction aggregates, copper, gypsum, diatomite and lithium. Despite its rich deposits, the cost of mining in Nevada is generally high, and output is very sensitive to world commodity prices.

As of January 1, 2006, there were an estimated 500,000 head of cattle and 70,000 head of sheep in Nevada. Most of these animals forage on rangeland in the summer, with supplemental feed in the winter. Calves are generally shipped to out-of-state feedlots in the fall to be fattened for market. Over 90% of Nevada's of cropland is used to grow hay, mostly alfalfa, for livestock feed.

The state sales tax in Nevada is variable depending upon the county. The minimum statewide tax rate is 6.85%, with five counties (Elko, Esmeralda, Eureka, Humboldt, and Mineral) charging this minimum amount. All other counties assess various option taxes, making the combined state/county sales taxes rate in one county as high as 8.1%, which is the amount charged in Clark County. Sales tax in the other major counties: Carson at 7.475%, Washoe at 7.725%. The minimum Nevada sales tax rate changed on 1 July 2009.

Nevada has by far the most hotel rooms per capita in the United States. According to the American Hotel and Lodging Association, there were 187,301 rooms in 584 hotels (of 15 or more rooms). The state is ranked just below California, Texas, Florida, and New York in total number of rooms, but those states have much larger populations. Nevada has one hotel room for every 14 residents, far above the national average of one hotel room per 67 residents.

Prostitution is legal in parts of Nevada in licensed brothels, but only counties with populations under 400,000 residents have the option to legalize it. Although prostitution employs roughly 300 women as independent contractors, and not a major part of the Nevada economy, it is a very visible endeavor. Of the 14 counties that are permitted to legalize prostitution under state law, about 8 have chosen to legalize brothels. State law prohibits prostitution in Clark County (which contains Las Vegas), and Washoe County (which contains Reno). However, prostitution is legal in Storey County, which is part of the Reno–Sparks metropolitan area.

Transportation

The 2011 American State Litter Scorecard ranked Nevada (tied with Mississippi) as a bottom-three, "Worst" jurisdiction in the U.S., for overall effectiveness and quality of statewide public space cleanliness—from state and related litter/debris removal efforts.

Amtrak's ''California Zephyr'' train uses the Union Pacific's original transcontinental railroad line in daily service from Chicago to Emeryville, California, serving Elko, Winnemucca, Sparks, and Reno. Amtrak Thruway Motorcoaches also provide connecting service from Las Vegas to trains at Needles, California, Los Angeles, and Bakersfield, California; and from Stateline, Nevada, to Sacramento, California. Las Vegas has had no passenger train service since Amtrak's Desert Wind was discontinued in 1997, although there have been a number of proposals to re-introduce service to either Los Angeles or Southern California.

The Union Pacific Railroad has some railroads in the north and in the south. Greyhound Lines provides some bus service. Interstate 15 passes through the southern tip of the state, serving Las Vegas and other communities. I-215 and spur route I-515 also serve the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Interstate 80 crosses through the northern part of Nevada, roughly following the path of the Humboldt River from Utah in the east and passing westward through Reno and into California. It has a spur route, I-580. Nevada also is served by several federal highways: US 6, US 50, US 93, US 95 and US 395. There are also 189 Nevada state highways. Nevada is one of a few states in the U.S. that does not have a continuous interstate highway linking its two major population centers. Even the non-interstate federal highways aren't contiguous between the Las Vegas and Reno areas.

The state is one of just a few in the country that allow semi-trailer trucks with three trailers—what might be called a "road train" in Australia. However, American versions are usually smaller, in part because they must ascend and descend some fairly steep mountain passes.

RTC Transit is the public transit system in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The agency is the largest transit agency in the state and operates a network of bus service across the Las Vegas Valley, including the use of The Deuce, double-decker buses, on the Las Vegas Strip and several outlying routes. RTC RIDE operates a system of local transit bus service throughout the Reno-Sparks metropolitan area. Other transit systems in the state include Carson City's JAC. Most other counties in the state do not have public transportation at all.

Additionally, a four mile (6 km) monorail system provides public transportation in the Las Vegas area. The Las Vegas Monorail line services several casino properties and the Las Vegas Convention Center on the east side of the Las Vegas Strip, running near Paradise Road, with a possible future extension to McCarran International Airport. Several hotels also run their own monorail lines between each other, which are typically several blocks in length.

McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas is the busiest airport serving Nevada. The Reno-Tahoe International Airport (formerly known as the Reno Cannon International Airport) is the other major airport in the state.

Law and government

The current Governor of Nevada is Brian Sandoval, a Republican; the governor of Nevada is limited by the Nevada Constitution to two four-year terms in office, by election or succession (lifetime limit). Nevada's two U.S. senators are Harry Reid (Democrat) and Dean Heller (Republican), who, by the United States Constitution, have no term limits. Reid is also the current Majority Leader in the US Senate. Nevada's U.S. Representatives are Republicans Joe Heck and Democrat Shelley Berkley. The third representative's seat is vacant.

Legislature

The Nevada Legislature is a bicameral body divided into an upper house Senate and a lower house Assembly. Members of the Senate serve for four years, and members of the Assembly serve for two years. Both houses of the Nevada Legislature will be impacted by term limits starting in 2010, as Senators and Assemblymen/women will be limited to a maximum of 12 years service in each house (by appointment or election which is a lifetime limit) – this provision in the constitution was recently upheld for legislators by the Supreme Court of Nevada in a unanimous decision (7–0), so term limits will be in effect starting in 2010. Each session of the Legislature meets for a constitutionally mandated 120 days in every odd-numbered year, or longer if the Governor calls a special session. Currently, the Senate is controlled by the Democratic Party (12 to 9 majority) and the Assembly is controlled by the Democratic Party (28 to 14 majority).

Judiciary

Nevada is one of the few U.S. states without a system of intermediate appellate courts.

The state supreme court is the Supreme Court of Nevada.

Original jurisdiction is divided between the District Courts (with general jurisdiction), and Justice Courts and Municipal Courts (both of limited jurisdiction).

Libertarian laws

In 1900, Nevada's population was the smallest of all states and was shrinking, as the difficulties of living in a "barren desert" began to outweigh the lure of silver for many early settlers. Historian Lawrence Friedman has explained what happened next:

:''"Nevada, in a burst of ingenuity, built an economy by exploiting its sovereignty. Its strategy was to legalize all sorts of things that were illegal in California ... after easy divorce came easy marriage and casino gaming. Even prostitution is legal in Nevada, in any county that decides to allow it. Quite a few of them do."'' With the advent of air conditioning for summertime use and Southern Nevada's mild winters, the fortunes of the state began to turn around, as it did for Arizona, making these two states the fastest growing in the Union.

Prostitution laws

Nevada is the only state where prostitution is legal (under the form of licensed brothels).

Prostitution is specifically illegal by state law in the state's larger jurisdictions, which include Clark County (which contains Las Vegas), Washoe County (which contains Reno), and the independent city of Carson City. Otherwise, it is legal in those counties which specifically vote to permit it.

Divorce laws

Nevada's early reputation as a "divorce haven" arose from the fact that, prior to the no-fault divorce revolution in the 1970s, divorces were quite difficult to obtain in the United States. Already having legalized gaming and prostitution, Nevada continued the trend of boosting its profile by adopting one of the most liberal divorce statutes in the nation. This resulted in ''Williams v. North Carolina'', , in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that North Carolina had to give "full faith and credit" to a Nevada divorce.

Nevada's divorce rate tops the national average.

Tax laws

Nevada's tax laws also draw new residents and businesses to the state. Nevada has no personal income tax or corporate income tax. Since Nevada does not collect income data it cannot share such information with the federal government, the IRS

Nevada's state sales tax rate is 6.85 percent. Counties may impose additional rates via voter approval or through approval of the Legislature; therefore, the applicable sales tax will vary by county from 6.85 percent to 8.1 percent in Clark County. Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, imposes four separate county option taxes in addition to the statewide rate – 0.25 percent for flood control, 0.50 percent for mass transit, 0.25 percent to fund the Southern Nevada Water Authority, and 0.25 percent for the addition of police officers in that county. In Washoe County (which includes Reno), the sales tax rate is 7.725 percent, due to county option rates for flood control, the ReTRAC train trench project, mass transit, and an additional county rate approved under the Local Government Tax Act of 1991.

The lodging tax rate in unincorporated Clark County, which includes the Las Vegas Strip, is 12%. Within the boundaries of the cities of Las Vegas and Henderson, the lodging tax rate is 13%.

Incorporation laws

Nevada also provides friendly environment for the formation of corporations, and many (especially California) businesspeople have incorporated their businesses in Nevada to take advantage of the benefits of the Nevada statute. Nevada corporations offer great flexibility to the Board of Directors and simplify or avoid many of the rules that are cumbersome to business managers in some other states. In addition, Nevada has no franchise tax.

Financial institutions

Similarly, many U.S. states have usury laws limiting the amount of interest a lender can charge, but federal law allows corporations to 'import' these laws from their home state.

Drug and alcohol laws

Non-alcohol drug laws are a notable exception to Nevada's otherwise libertarian principles. It is notable for having the harshest penalties for drug offenders in the country. Nevada remains the only state to still use mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines for marijuana possession. However, it is now a misdemeanor for possession of less than one ounce but only for persons age 21 and older. In 2006, voters in Nevada defeated attempts to allow possession of 1 ounce of marijuana (for personal use) without being criminally prosecuted, (55% against legalization, 45% in favor of legalization). However, Nevada is one of the states that allows for use of marijuana for medical reasons (though this remains illegal under federal law).

Nevada has very liberal alcohol laws. Bars are permitted to remain open 24 hours, with no "last call". Liquor stores, convenience stores and supermarkets may also sell alcohol 24 hours per day, and may sell beer, wine and spirits.

Smoking

Nevada voters enacted a smoking ban ("the Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act") in November 2006 that became effective on December 8, 2006. It outlaws smoking in most workplaces and public places. Smoking is permitted in bars, but only if the bar serves no food, or the bar is inside a larger casino. Smoking is also permitted in casinos, hotel rooms, tobacco shops, and brothels. However, some businesses do not obey this law and the government tends not to enforce it. Yet, in one case, they did prosecute an establishment called "Bilbo's." As of 2008, the trial was still pending.

Crime

Nevada has been ranked as the most dangerous state in the U.S. for five years in a row, just ahead of Louisiana In 2006, the crime rate in Nevada was approximately 24% higher than the national average rate. Property crimes accounted for approximately 84.6% of the crime rate in Nevada which was 21% higher than the national rate. The remaining 20.3% were violent crimes and were approximately 45% higher than other states. In 2008, Nevada had the third highest murder rate, and the highest rate of robbery and motor vehicle theft. It should be noted that many of these statistics may not totally be attributed to the citizens of Nevada themselves, but partially to the high rate of visitors entering and leaving the state as well. In addition, the state's most populous county, Clark (accounting for 75% of the state's total population), skews the crime rate for the balance of the state.

Politics

+ Presidential elections results
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{| class=wikitable ! colspan = 6 | Voter Registration and Party Enrollment as of June 2010 |- ! colspan = 2 | Party ! Active Voters ! Inactive Voters ! Total Voters ! Percentage | Democratic | style="text-align:center;"| 456,672 | style="text-align:center;"| 126,158 | style="text-align:center;"| 580,393 | style="text-align:center;"| 43.10% | Republican | style="text-align:center;"| 398,898 | style="text-align:center;"| 79,414 | style="text-align:center;"| 475,764 | style="text-align:center;"| 35.33% | Unaffiliated | style="text-align:center;"| 163,816 | style="text-align:center;"| 49,731 | style="text-align:center;"| 213,329 | style="text-align:center;"| 15.84% | Minor Parties | style="text-align:center;"| 57,984 | style="text-align:center;"| 19,352 | style="text-align:center;"| 77,079 | style="text-align:center;"| 5.72% |- ! colspan = 2 | Total ! style="text-align:center;"| 1,077,370 ! style="text-align:center;"| 274,655 ! style="text-align:center;"| 1,346,565 ! style="text-align:center;"| 100% |}

State politics

Due to heavy growth in the southern portion of the state, there is a noticeable divide between politics of northern and southern Nevada. The north has long maintained control of key positions in state government, even while the population of southern Nevada is larger than the rest of the state combined. The north sees the high population south becoming more influential and perhaps commanding majority rule. The south sees the north as the "old guard" trying to rule as an oligarchy. This has fostered some resentment, however, due to a term limit amendment passed by Nevada voters in 1994, and again in 1996, some of the north's hold over key positions will soon be forfeited to the south, leaving Northern Nevada with less power.

Clark and Washoe counties—home to Las Vegas and Reno, respectively—have long dominated the state's politics. Between them, they cast 87 percent of Nevada's vote, and elect a substantial majority of the state legislature. The great majority of the state's elected officials are either from Las Vegas or Reno.

National politics

Nevada has voted for the winner in every presidential election since 1912, except in 1976 when it voted for Gerald Ford over Jimmy Carter. This gives the state status as a political bellwether.

Nevada supported Democrat Bill Clinton in the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections, Republican George W. Bush won in 2000 and 2004, and Democrat Barack Obama won the state in 2008.

The state's U. S. Senators are Democrat Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, and Republican Dean Heller. The Governorship is held by Brian Sandoval, a Republican from Reno.

State government

State departments and agencies:

Department of Secretary of State

Department of Taxation

Commission on Tourism

Department of Transportation

Nevada State Treasurer

Universities and Community Colleges of Nevada

Nevada Office of Veterans' Services

Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education

Nevada Department of Wildlife

Local government

Incorporated towns in Nevada, known as cities, are given the authority to legislate anything not prohibited by law. A recent movement has begun to permit home rule in incorporated Nevada cities to give them more flexibility and fewer restrictions from the Legislature.

Unincorporated towns are settlements eminently governed by the county in which they are located, but who, by local referendum or by the act of the county commission, can form limited local governments in the form of a Town Advisory Board (TAB)/ Citizens Advisory Council (CAC), or a Town Board.

Town Advisory Boards and Citizens Advisory Councils are formed purely by act of the county commission. Consisting of three to five members, these elected boards form a purely advisory role, and in no way diminish the responsibilities of the county commission that creates them. Members of advisory councils and boards are elected to two year terms, and serve without compensation. The councils and boards, themselves, are provided no revenue, and oversee no budget.

Town Boards are limited local governments created by either the local county commission, or by referendum. The board consists of five members elected to four-year terms. Half the board is required to be up for election in each election. The board elects from within its ranks a town chairperson and town clerk. While more powerful than Town Advisory Boards and Citizens Advisory Councils, they also serve a largely advisory role, with their funding provided by their local county commission. The local county commission has the power to put before residents of the town a vote on whether to keep or dissolve a town board at any general election. Town boards have the ability to appoint a town manager if they choose to do so.

Significant cities and towns

{| |- |valign=top| 591,536 align=left>Henderson, Nevada align=left align=left align=left align=left align=left align=left align=left align=left

Rank	City !! Population withincity limits !! Land Area sq. miles !! PopulationDensity per sq mi !! County
1	align=left	|	131.3	4,217.8	Clark County, Nevada>Clark
2	Henderson ||	265,790	79.7	2,200.8	Clark County, Nevada>Clark
3	North Las Vegas ||	216,672	78.5	1,471.0	Clark County, Nevada>Clark
4	Reno ||	214,853	69.1	2,611.4	Washoe County, Nevada>Washoe
5	Sunrise Manor ||	195,727	38.2	4,081.8	Clark County, Nevada>Clark
6	Paradise ||	186,070	47.1	3,947.3	Clark County, Nevada>Clark
7	Spring Valley ||	175,581	33.4	3,519.4	Clark County, Nevada>Clark
8	Sparks ||	88,518	23.9	2,773.6	Washoe County, Nevada>Washoe
9	Carson City ||	58,350	143.4	366	Carson City
10	Pahrump ||	44,614	297.9	82.7	Nye County>Nye

|}

Paradise, Sunrise Manor, and Spring Valley are unincorporated towns in the Las Vegas metropolitan area.

1,715,337 align=left>Washoe County, Nevada align=left align=left align=left align=left align=left align=left align=left align=left

Rank	County !! Population withincounty limits !! Land Area sq. miles !! PopulationDensity per sq mi !! Largest city
1	align=left	|	7,910	174	Las Vegas, Nevada>Las Vegas
2	Washoe ||	383,453	6,342	54	Reno, Nevada>Reno
3	Carson City ||	56,146	155.7	366	Carson City, Nevada>Carson City
4	Douglas ||	47,803	710	58	Gardnerville Ranchos, Nevada>Gardnerville Ranchos
5	Elko ||	46,499	17,179	3	Elko, Nevada>Elko
6	Lyon ||	44,646	1,994	17	Fernley, Nevada>Fernley
7	Nye ||	38,181	18,147	2	Pahrump, Nevada>Pahrump
8	Churchill ||	26,106	4,929	5	Fallon, Nevada>Fallon
9	Humboldt ||	17,129	9,648	2	Winnemucca, Nevada>Winnemucca
10	White Pine ||	8,966	8,876	1	Ely, Nevada>Ely

''Note: table was compiled using Nevada State estimates from 2004 for population and Census 2000 for area and density''

10 richest places in Nevada

Ranked by per capita income align=right>$52,521 align=left align=left align=left align=left align=left align=left align=left align=left align=left

Rank	Place !! GDP !! County
1	align=left	|align=right | Washoe
2	Kingsbury ||	$41,421	align=right
3	Mount Charleston ||	$38,821	align=right
4	Verdi-Mogul ||	$38,233	Washoe
5	Zephyr Cove-Round Hill Village ||	$37,218	Douglas
6	Summerlin South ||	$33,017	Clark
7	Blue Diamond ||	$30,479	Clark
8	Minden ||	$30,405	Douglas
9	Boulder City ||	$29,770	Clark
10	Spanish Springs ||	$26,908	Washoe

Education

Colleges and universities

Nevada System of Higher Education

*University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV)

*University of Nevada, Reno (UNR)

*Nevada State College

*Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC)

*Great Basin College

*College of Southern Nevada (CSN)

*Western Nevada College (WNC)

Sierra Nevada College

Touro University Nevada

University of Southern Nevada

Research institutes

Desert Research Institute

Parks and recreation areas

Recreation areas maintained by the National Park Service

Northern Nevada

California National Historic Trail

Death Valley National Park

Great Basin National Park near Baker

Old Spanish National Historic Trail

Pony Express National Historic Trail

Southern Nevada

Ash Meadows National Wildlife Preserve

Bootleg Canyon Mountain Bike Park

Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest

Mount Charleston and the Mount Charleston Wilderness

Spring Mountains and the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area

Lake Mead National Recreation Area

Wilderness

There are 68 designated wilderness areas in Nevada, protecting some under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, and Bureau of Land Management.

State parks

See: ''List of Nevada state parks''.

Sports

Nevada is not well known for its professional sports, but the state takes pride in college sports, most notably the Nevada Wolf Pack (representing the University of Nevada, Reno) of the Western Athletic Conference and the UNLV Rebels of the Mountain West Conference. In 2012, Nevada will join its cross-state rival in the MWC.

UNLV is most remembered for its men's basketball program, which experienced its height of supremacy in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Coached by Jerry Tarkanian, the Runnin' Rebels became one of the most elite programs in the country. In 1990, UNLV won the Men's Division I Championship by defeating Duke 103–73, which set tournament records for most points scored by a team and largest margin of victory in the national title game. In 1991, UNLV finished the regular season undefeated. Forward Larry Johnson won several awards, including the Naismith Award. UNLV reached the Final Four yet again, but lost their national semifinal against Duke 79–77, and is referred to as one of the biggest upsets in the NCAA Tournament. The Runnin' Rebels were the Associated Press pre-season #1 back to back (1989–90, 1990–91). North Carolina is the only other team to accomplish that (2007–08, 2008–09).

The state is also home to one of the most famous tennis players of all time, Andre Agassi.

Nevada sports teams

Professional

Las Vegas Locomotives, United Football League

Las Vegas 51s, Minor League Baseball (AAA)

Las Vegas Wranglers, ECHL

Reno Aces, Minor League Baseball (AAA)

Reno Bighorns, NBA D-League

Nevada Pumas, QuickHit Football League

College

Nevada Wolf Pack, UNR

UNLV Rebels

The state is also home to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and NASCAR event and the National Rodeo.

Military

Several United States Navy ships have been named USS ''Nevada'' in honor of the state. They include:

USS Nevada

USS Nevada (BM-8)

USS Nevada (BB-36)

USS Nevada (SSBN-733)

Area 51 is located near Groom Lake, a dry salt lake bed. The much smaller Creech Air Force Base is located in Indian Springs, Nevada; Naval Air Station Fallon in Fallon; Hawthorne Army Depot in Hawthorne; and the Tonopah Test Range near Tonopah.

These bases host a number of activities including the Joint Unmanned Aerial Systems Center of Excellence, the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center, Nevada Test and Training Range, Red Flag, the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, the United States Air Force Warfare Center, the United States Air Force Weapons School, and the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School.

Songs about Nevada

"Silver State Fanfare" – the Official State March by Gerald G. Willis. Codified by the Nevada Legislature in 2001 at NRS 235.035

"Sands of Nevada" from Mark Knopfler's 2000 release ''Sailing to Philadelphia''

"Sin City" from Limbeck's 2005 release ''Let Me Come Home''

"Home Means Nevada", the state song of Nevada, by Bertha Rafetto

"Nevada" by Riders in the Sky from the album ''Best of the West''

"Night Time In Nevada" by Dulmage/Clint/Pascoe, 1931

"Nevada's Grace" by Atreyu, twelfth track off 2004's ''The Curse''

Future issues

Nevada enjoys many economic advantages, and the southern portion of the state enjoys mild winter weather, but rapid growth has led to some overcrowded roads and schools. Nevada has the nation's 5th largest school district in the Clark County School District (projected fall 2007 enrollment is 314,000 students grades K-12). While the state was recently one of the fastest growing in the country, population growth slowed down to a halt in 2008.

In 2008, the "American State Litter Scorecard," presented at the American Society for Public Administration national conference, positioned Nevada next to Mississippi and Louisiana as one of the worst states for removing litter from public roadways and properties.

In August 2008, it was announced that Boyd Gaming would halt construction on a 4.2 billion dollar project called Echelon, which was to replace the old Stardust Resort & Casino. The reason cited for this is lack of funding/credit from banks.

Coyote Springs is a proposed community for 240,000 inhabitants in Clark and Lincoln counties. It would be Nevada's largest planned city. The town is being developed by Harvey Whittemore and has generated some controversy because of environmental concerns and allegations of political favoritism.

State symbols

State animal: Desert Bighorn Sheep

State artifact: Tule Duck Decoy

State bird: Mountain Bluebird

State colors: silver and blue

State fish: Lahontan cutthroat trout

State flower: Sagebrush (''Artemisia tridentata'')

State fossil: Ichthyosaur

State grass: Indian ricegrass

State march: "Silver State Fanfare" by Gerald Willis

State metal: Silver (Ag)

State mottos: "Battle Born" and "All For Our Country"

State precious gemstone: Virgin Valley black fire opal

State semiprecious gemstone: Nevada turquoise

State slogan: "The Battle Born State"

State song: "Home Means Nevada" by Bertha Raffetto

State reptile: Desert Tortoise

State rock: Sandstone

State soil: Orovada (soil) series

State tartan: A particular tartan designed for Nevada by Richard Zygmunt Pawlowski

State trees: Single-leaf Pinyon pine and Bristlecone pine (''Pinus longaeva'')

See also

Great Basin

List of National Register of Historic Places in Nevada

List of people from Nevada

U.S. state

References

External links

Official state website

Nevada State Databases – Annotated list of searchable databases produced by Nevada state agencies and compiled by the Government Documents Roundtable of the American Library Association.

State Tourism website

Nevada state symbols

Secretary of State of Nevada

Nevada Classifieds

Nevada State Library and Archives

Energy Profile for Nevada

USGS real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of Nevada

US Census Bureau

County Maps of Nevada Full color maps. List of cities, towns and county seats

Nevada State Facts

Pronunciation Guide: Nevada

Forgotten Nevada – Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of Nevada

Nevada's Historical Markers

Category:States of the United States Category:Former Spanish colonies Category:States and territories established in 1864 Category:Western United States

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Name	Las Vegas
Official name	City of Las Vegas
Settlement type	City
Nickname	"Sin City""Capital of Second Chances""The Marriage Capital of the World"
Image seal	Las Vegas seal.jpg
Map caption	Location of Las Vegas in Clark County, Nevada
Pushpin map	USA2
Pushpin map caption	Location in the United States
Coordinates region	US-NV
Subdivision type	Country
Subdivision name	United States
Subdivision type1	State
Subdivision name1	Nevada
Subdivision type2	County
Subdivision name2	Clark County
Government type	Council-Manager
Leader title	Mayor
Leader name	Carolyn Goodman (N.P.)
Leader title1	City Manager
Leader name1	Betsy Fretwell
Area magnitude	1 E9
Unit pref	Imperial
Area total km2	340.0
Area total sq mi	131.3
Area land km2	339.8
Area land sq mi	131.2
Area water km2	0.16
Area water sq mi	0.1
Population as of	2010
Population urban	1,314,356
Population metro	1,951,269
Population total	583,756
Population note	(30th U.S.)
Population density km2	1604
Population density sq mi	4154
Population demonym	Las Vegan
Timezone	PST
Utc offset	−8
Timezone dst	PDT
Utc offset dst	−7
Postal code type	ZIP codes
Area code	702
Elevation m	610
Elevation ft	2001
Website	www.lasvegasnevada.gov
Blank name	FIPS code
Blank info	32-40000
Blank1 name	GNIS feature ID
Blank1 info	0847388
Footnotes	}}

Las Vegas () is the most populous city in Nevada, United States, the seat of Clark County, and an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. Las Vegas, which bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, is famous for its casino resorts and associated entertainment. A growing retirement and family city, it is the 28th-most populous city in the United States, with an estimated population by the U.S. Census Bureau of 583,756 as of 2010. The 2010 population estimate of the Las Vegas metropolitan area was 1,951,269.

Established in 1905, Las Vegas officially became a city in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, Las Vegas was the most populous American city founded in that century (a distinction held by Chicago in the 19th century). The city's tolerance for various forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of Sin City, and this image has made Las Vegas a popular setting for films and television programs. There are numerous outdoor lighting displays on Fremont Street, as well as elsewhere in the city.

The name ''Las Vegas'' is often applied to unincorporated areas that surround the city, especially the resort areas on and near the Las Vegas Strip. The stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard known as the Strip is mainly in the unincorporated communities of Paradise, Winchester, and Enterprise.

History

The first reported European visitor to the Las Vegas Valley was Raphael Rivera in 1829. Las Vegas was named by Spaniards in the Antonio Armijo party, who used the water in the area while heading north and west along the Old Spanish Trail from Texas. In the 19th century, areas of the valley contained artesian wells that supported extensive green areas or ''meadows'' (''vegas'' in Spanish); hence the name ''Las Vegas''.

John C. Frémont traveled into the Las Vegas Valley on May 3, 1844, while it was still part of Mexico. He was a leader of a group of scientists, scouts, and observers for the United States Army Corps of Engineers. On May 10, 1855, following annexation by the United States, Brigham Young assigned 30 missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints led by William Bringhurst to the area to convert the Paiute Indian population to Mormonism. A fort was built near the current downtown area that served as a stopover for travelers along the "Mormon Corridor" between Salt Lake and the briefly thriving colony of saints at San Bernardino, California. Mormons abandoned Las Vegas in 1857, during the Utah War. Las Vegas was established as a railroad town on May 15, 1905, when owned by the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad was auctioned off in what is now downtown Las Vegas. Among the railroad's most notable owners and directors were Montana Senator William A. Clark, Utah U.S. Senator Thomas Kearns, and R.C. Kerens of St. Louis. Las Vegas was part of Lincoln County until 1908, when it became part of the newly established Clark County. The St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church near 4th and Bridger in downtown was founded in 1910. Las Vegas became an incorporated city on March 16, 1911; Peter Buol was the first mayor.

Las Vegas started as a stopover on the pioneer trails to the west, and became a popular railroad town in the early 20th century. It was a staging point for mines in the surrounding area, especially those around the town of Bullfrog, that shipped goods to the rest of the country. With the proliferation of the railroads, Las Vegas became less important, but the completion of the nearby Hoover Dam in 1935 resulted in growth in the number of residents and increased tourism. The dam, located southeast of the city, formed Lake Mead, the US's largest man-made lake and reservoir. Today, tours are offered into lesser-known parts of the dam. The legalization of gambling in 1931 led to the advent of the casino hotels for which Las Vegas is famous. Major development occurred in the 1940s, "due almost entirely" to the influx of scientists and staff from the Manhattan Project, an atomic bomb research project of World War II. Atomic test watching parties were sometimes thrown. American organized crime figures such as Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel and Meyer Lansky managed or funded most of the original large casinos. The rapid growth of Las Vegas is credited with dooming Galveston, Texas; Hot Springs, Arkansas; and other major gaming centers in the 1950s.

Geography and climate

Las Vegas is situated within Clark County in an arid basin on the desert floor, surrounded by dry mountains. The Spring Mountains lie to the west. Much of the landscape is rocky and dusty; the environment is dominated by desert vegetation and some wildlife, and the area is subject to torrential flash floods. The elevation is around above sea level. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (0.04%) is water.

Within the city there are many lawns, trees, and other greenery. Due to water resource issues, there is now a movement to encourage xeriscapes. Another part of the water conservation efforts include scheduled watering groups for watering residential landscaping. A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant in 2008 funded a program that analyzed and forecast growth and environmental impacts through the year 2019. This study resulted in an expansion of the sewage treatment capacity, which enabled rapid population growth.

Climate

Las Vegas' climate is a subtropical desert climate (Koppen climate classification ''BWh''), typical of the Mojave Desert in which it lies. The city enjoys abundant sunshine year-round: it has an average of about 300 sunny days per year with more than 3,800 hours of sunshine.

The summer months of June through September are very hot and mostly dry, with average daytime highs of and night-time lows of . There are an average of 133 days per year above , and 72 days above , with most of the days in July and August exceeding that benchmark. Humidity is very low, often under 10%.

Las Vegas' winters are of short duration and the season is generally mild, with daytime highs near and nighttime lows around . The mountains surrounding Las Vegas accumulate snow during the winter but snow is rare in the Las Vegas Valley itself. Temperatures can sometimes drop to freezing but winter nighttime temperatures will rarely dip below .

Annual precipitation in Las Vegas is roughly , which on average occurs on 29 days per year. Most of the precipitation falls in the winter, but the driest month (June) has only 2.9 fewer average days of precipitation than the wettest month (March). |source 2 = HKO (sun only) |date=August 2010 }}

Demographics

According to the 2010 Census, the racial composition of Las Vegas was as follows:

White: 62.1% (Non-Hispanic Whites: 47.9%)

Hispanic or Latino (of any race): 31.5% (24.0% Mexican, 1.4% Salvadoran, 0.9% Puerto Rican, 0.9% Cuban, 0.6% Guatemalan, 0.2% Peruvian, 0.2% Colombian, 0.2% Honduran, 0.2% Nicaraguan)

Black or African American: 11.1%

Asian: 6.1% (3.3% Filipino, 0.7% Chinese, 0.5% Korean, 0.4% Japanese, 0.4% Indian, 0.2% Vietnamese, 0.2% Thai)

Two or more races: 4.9%

Native American: 0.7%

Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander: 0.6%

Source:

As of the census of 2010, there were 583,756 people, 211,689 households, and 117,538 families residing in the city. The population density was . There are 190,724 housing units at an average density of .

As of 2006, there were 176,750 households, out of which 31.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.3% were married couples living together, 12.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.5% were non-families. 25.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.66 and the average family size was 3.20.

In the city the population was spread out with 25.9% under the age of 18, 8.8% from 18 to 24, 32.0% from 25 to 44, 21.7% from 45 to 64, and 11.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 103.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.5 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $53,000 and the median income for a family was $58,465. Males had a median income of $35,511 versus $27,554 for females. The per capita income for the city was $22,060. About 6.6% of families and 8.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.4% of those under age 18 and 6.3% of those age 65 or over.

Las Vegas has one of the highest suicide and divorce rates of the U.S. A study that found Las Vegas residents are 40% less likely to commit suicide if they leave Las Vegas and visitors are more than twice as likely to commit suicide there as elsewhere was published in the Las Vegas Sun newspaper in 2008. The city's high divorce rate is not wholly due to Las Vegans themselves getting divorced. Since divorce is easier in Nevada than most other states, many people come from across the country for the easier process.

For similar reasons, Las Vegas has one of the highest marriage rates of U.S. cities, with many licenses issued to people from outside the area (see Las Vegas weddings).

Economy

The primary drivers of the Las Vegas economy are tourism, gaming, and conventions, which in turn feed the retail and restaurant industries.

Redevelopment

When The Mirage opened in 1989, it started a trend of major resort development of the southern portion of the Las Vegas Strip outside of the city. This resulted in a drop in tourism in the downtown area, but many recent projects and condominium construction have increased the number of visitors to downtown.

A effort has been made by city officials to diversify the economy by attracting light manufacturing, banking, and other commercial interests. The lack of state individual and corporate income tax and very simple incorporation requirements have fostered the success of this effort.

With the Strip expansion in the 1990s, Downtown Las Vegas (which has maintained an old Las Vegas feel) began to suffer. The city made an effort to turn around the fortunes of downtown. The city successfully lured the Internal Revenue Service operations from western side of the city to a new downtown area building that opened in April 2005. The IRS move was expected to create a greater demand for additional businesses in the area, especially in the daytime hours. The Fremont Street Experience (FSE) was built in an effort to draw tourists back to the area, and has been popular. Since the recession began in 2008, many of these shops have closed. The multi-level Neonopolis closed their 11 theaters and nearly all retail stores. Many high-rise condo projects have been under construction, but one of the highest profile buildings, The Streamline Towers, went into bankruptcy.

The city purchased of property from the Union Pacific Railroad in 1995 with the goal of creating something to draw more people to the downtown area. In 2004 Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman announced plans for Symphony Park, which will include residential and office high-rises, the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute, an academic medical center, The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, and a new City Hall. After failed negotiations with The Related Co. on the development of Union Park in October 2005, San Diego-based Newland Communities was chosen by the city as the new development firm. The Newland contract calls for Dan Van Epp, Newland's regional vice president and former president of The Howard Hughes Corporation, to oversee his company's work on Symphony Park. The Lou Ruvo Brain Institute was completed in 2009.

In 2004 the city partnered with Cheetah Wireless Technologies and MeshNetwork to pilot a wide-area mobile broadband system. The pilot system is installed downtown, around the Fremont Street Experience. On a lot adjacent to the city's 61 acre site, the World Market Center opened in 2005. It was intended as a preeminent furniture wholesale showroom and marketplace to compete with the current furniture market capital of High Point, North Carolina.

On October 23, 2006, plans were unveiled to build a World Jewelry Center in Symphony Park. Similar to the World Market Center, the WJC will be a one stop shop for jewelry trade shows from around the world. The project proposes a 57-story, office tower. As of 2009 the project was still on hold.

Las Vegas decided to build a new city hall in the late 2000s. This had several consequences. One being that the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, which shared city hall, would have to find a new location. The second being that the old building would be vacated with the potential negative impact on the downtown area. The police department elected to build a headquarters building in another part of the city and consolidate most of its operations in one place. This increased the departments presence with in the city since it would be moving in employees not presently working in the city. The second problem was address when the city and Zappos reached an agreement for Zappos to move its headquarters into the old city hall.

Tourism

The major attractions in Las Vegas are the casinos and the hotels. There are many hotel casinos in the city's downtown area, which was the focal point of the city's gaming industry in its early days.

Most major downtown casinos are downtown on the Fremont Street Experience, The Stratosphere being the major exception. Fremont East, adjacent to the Fremont Street Experience, was granted variances to allow bars to be closer together, similar to the Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego. The goal being to attract a different demographic then the strip attracts.

Downtown area casinos

Las Vegas got its start with casinos in 1931 with the opening of the Northern Club (now the La Bayou). The most notable of the early casinos may have been Binion's Horseshoe (now Binion's Gambling Hall and Hotel) while it was run by Benny Binion. Boyd Gaming has a major presence downtown operating the California Hotel and Casino, Fremont Hotel and Casino and the Main Street Casino. The Golden Gate Hotel and Casino is the oldest hotel in the Fremont Street Experience. The Golden Nugget is the largest hotel and casino in the city. The Plaza Hotel & Casino on Main Street was the railway station until Amtrak discontinued service. Other casinos include the El Cortez, Fitzgeralds, Four Queens, Gold Spike Hotel and Casino and the Las Vegas Club.

Nearby communities

Henderson, Nevada, incorporated

North Las Vegas, Nevada, incorporated

Paradise, Nevada, unincorporated

Enterprise, unincorporated

Sunrise Manor, Nevada, unincorporated

Spring Valley, Nevada, unincorporated

Boulder City, Nevada, incorporated

Culture

The city is home to several museums including the Neon Museum home to many of the historical signs from the valley, The Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, Lied Discovery Children's Museum and the Old Las Vegas Mormon State Historic Park.

On the first Friday of each month, the "First Friday" celebration is held, which exhibits the works of local artists and musicians in a section of the city's Downtown region called the "Arts District".

The Thursday prior to First Friday is known in the 18b Arts District as "Preview Thursday". This evening event highlights new gallery exhibitions just opening throughout the district.

The Southern Nevada Zoological-Botanical Park, also known as the Las Vegas Zoo, exhibits over 150 species of animals and plants.

The $485 million Smith Center for the Performing Arts (scheduled for completion in 2012) is located downtown in Symphony Park. The center will host Broadway shows and other major touring attractions as well as orchestra, opera, and dance performances.

The city hosts annual events like the Helldorado Days (Las Vegas).

Sports

Las Vegas does not have major-league sports, although the metropolitan population is as large or larger than many cities that have them. The two main reasons are concern about legal sports betting and competition for the entertainment dollar. The only minor league sports team that plays in the City of Las Vegas is baseball's Las Vegas 51s of the Pacific Coast League, the AAA farm club of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Parks and recreation

Las Vegas has dozens of parks, including Las Vegas Springs Preserve, a recreational and educational facility, and Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs. The city operates 4 golf courses (Angel Park Golf Club, Desert Pines Golf Course, Durango Hills Golf Club and the Las Vegas Municipal Golf Course), 5 dog parks, 9 community centers, 8 senior centers and 20 sports facilities including 9 skate parks and 6 swimming pools.

Attractions

Las Vegas is a popular destination for Hawaiians. In 2002, almost 80,000 former residents of Hawaii lived in Las Vegas, and nearly 3,000 Hawaiians visited Las Vegas every week. Las Vegas is sometimes referred to as Hawaii's Ninth Island. The city is the home to the first ABC Stores branch outside the state of Hawaii.

Government

The City of Las Vegas government operates as a council-manager government. The Mayor sits as a Council member-at-large and presides over all of the City Council meetings. In the event that the Mayor cannot preside over a City Council meeting, the Mayor Pro-Tem is the presiding officer of the meeting until such time as the Mayor returns to his seat. The City Manager is responsible for the administration and the day-to-day operation of all of the municipal services and city departments. The City Manager maintains intergovernmental relationships with federal, state, county, and other local governments.

Much of the Las Vegas metropolitan area is split into neighboring incorporated cities or unincorporated communities. Approximately 700,000 people live in unincorporated areas governed by Clark County, and another 465,000 live in incorporated cities such as North Las Vegas, Henderson, and Boulder City. Las Vegas and nearly all of the surrounding metropolitan area share a police department, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, which was formed after a 1973 merger of the Las Vegas Police Department and the Clark County Sheriff's Department. North Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City, and some colleges have their own police departments.

A Paiute Indian reservation occupies about in the downtown area.

Las Vegas, as the county seat and home to the Lloyd D. George Federal District Courthouse, draws numerous legal service industries providing bail, marriage, divorce, tax, incorporation, and other legal services.

City council

(Council members' official city websites are available)

{|class="wikitable sortable" style="width:100%" |- ! style="width:*;"|Name ! style="width:*;"|Position ! style="width:*;"|Termends ! style="width:*;"|References ! style="width:*;"|Comments |- || Stavros Anthony || 4th Ward Council member || 2013 || || |- || Ricki Barlow || 5th Ward Council member || 2015 || || |- || Carolyn Goodman || Mayor and Council member at-large || 2015 || || Replaced her husband, Oscar Goodman, who was term-limited |- || Bob Coffin || 3rd Ward Council member || 2015 || || |- || Steve Ross || 6th Ward Council member || 2013 || || |- || Lois Tarkanian || 1st Ward Council member || 2015 || || |- || Steve Wolfson, Esq || 2nd Ward Council member || 2013 || || |- |}

Education

Primary and secondary schools

Primary and secondary public education is provided by the Clark County School District, which is the fifth most populous school district in the nation (projected enrollment for the 2007–2008 school year was 314,000 students in grades K–12).

Colleges and universities

The College of Southern Nevada (the third largest community college in the United States by enrollment) is the main higher education facility in the city. Other institutions include the University of Nevada School of Medicine, with a campus in the city, and the for-profit private school Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts. Many educational opportunities exist around the city. These include University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Nevada State College run by the Nevada System of Higher Education, Desert Research Institute, The International Academy of Design & Technology Las Vegas, Touro University Nevada and the University of Southern Nevada.

Transportation

RTC Transit is a public transportation system providing bus service throughout Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas, and other suburban areas of the valley. Inter-city bus service to Las Vegas is provided by Greyhound, many charter services, including Green Tortoise, and several Chinatown bus lines. Amtrak California operates Deluxe Express Thruway Motorcoach dedicated service between the City and its passenger rail station in Bakersfield, California.

A bus rapid transit link in Las Vegas called the Strip & Downtown Express (previously ACE Gold Line) with limited stops and frequent service was launched in March 2010, and connects Downtown Las Vegas, the Strip, the Las Vegas Convention Center, and Town Square.

With some exceptions, including Las Vegas Boulevard, Boulder Highway (SR 582), and Rancho Drive (SR 599), the majority of surface streets in Las Vegas are laid out in a grid along Public Land Survey System section lines. Many are maintained by the Nevada Department of Transportation as state highways. The street numbering system is divided by the following streets:

Westcliff Drive, US 95 Expressway, Fremont Street, and Charleston Boulevard divide the north-south block numbers from west to east.

Las Vegas Boulevard divides the east-west streets from the Las Vegas Strip to near the Stratosphere, then Main Street becomes the dividing line from the Stratosphere to the North Las Vegas border, after which the Goldfield Street alignment divides east and west.

On the east side of Las Vegas, block numbers between Charleston Boulevard and Washington Avenue are different along Nellis Boulevard, which is the eastern border of the city limits.

Interstates 15, 515, and US 95 lead out of the city in four directions. Two major freeways – Interstate 15 and Interstate 515/U.S. Route 95 – cross in downtown Las Vegas. I-15 connects Las Vegas to Los Angeles, and heads northeast to and beyond Salt Lake City, Utah. I-515 goes southeast to Henderson, beyond which US 93 continues over the Mike O'Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge towards Phoenix, Arizona. US 95 connects the city to northwestern Nevada, including Carson City and Reno. US 93 splits from I-15 northeast of Las Vegas and goes north through the eastern part of the state, serving Ely and Wells. US 95 heads south from US 93 near Henderson through far eastern California. A partial beltway has been built, consisting of Interstate 215 on the south and Clark County 215 on the west and north. Other radial routes include Blue Diamond Road (SR 160) to Pahrump and Lake Mead Boulevard (SR 147) to Lake Mead.

;East-west roads, north to south ;North-south roads, west to east

McCarran International Airport handles international and domestic flights into the Las Vegas Valley. The airport also serves private aircraft and freight/cargo flights. Most general aviation traffic uses the smaller North Las Vegas Airport and Henderson Executive Airport.

The Union Pacific Railroad is the only class-one railroad to provide rail freight service to the city. Until 1997, the Amtrak Desert Wind train service ran through Las Vegas using the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. Amtrak service to Las Vegas goes to Needles, California and continues on Amtrak's Thruway Motorcoach bus service. Plans to restore Los Angeles to Las Vegas Amtrak service using a Talgo train were discussed in the late 1990s, but the plan was not implemented. The Las Vegas Amtrak station was located in the Plaza Hotel; it held the distinction of being the only train station in the US that was located in a casino.

Walkability

A 2011 study by Walk Score ranked Las Vegas 25th most walkable of fifty largest U.S. cities.

Sister cities

Ansan, South Korea Jeju City, South Korea Huludao, Liaoning, People's Republic of China Phuket, Thailand Angeles City, Philippines Pamukkale, Turkey

See also

Las Vegas weddings

List of Las Vegans

List of Las Vegas casinos that never opened

List of films set in Las Vegas

List of films shot in Las Vegas

List of mayors of Las Vegas, Nevada

List of television shows set in Las Vegas

Las Vegas Strip

Radio stations in Las Vegas

Television stations in Las Vegas

References

External links

City of Las Vegas, Nevada web site

"The Making of Las Vegas" (historical timeline)

Geologic tour guide of the Las Vegas area from American Geological Institute

National Weather Service Forecast – Las Vegas, NV

Category:Populated places established in 1905 Category:Cities in the Mojave Desert Category:Cities in Nevada Category:Populated places in Clark County, Nevada Category:Gambling in the United States Category:County seats in Nevada

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name	Evel Knievel
birth name	Robert Craig Knievel
birth date	October 17, 1938
birth place	Butte, Montana
death date	November 30, 2007
death place	Clearwater, Florida
death cause	Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
resting place	Butte, Montana
nationality	American
known for	Motorcycle stunts
occupation	Stunt performer
spouse	Linda Joan Bork (1959–97) Krystal Kennedy (1999–2001)
children	Kelly, Tracey, Alicia, Robbie
parents	Robert Edward Knievel, Ann Kehoe
website	EvelKnievel.com
footnotes	}}

Evel Knievel (; October 17 1938 – November 30 2007), born Robert Craig Knievel, was an American daredevil and entertainer. In his career he attempted over 75 ramp-to-ramp motorcycle jumps between 1965 and 1980, and in 1974, a failed jump across Snake River Canyon in the Skycycle X-2, a steam-powered rocket. The 433 broken bones he suffered during his career earned an entry in the ''Guinness Book of World Records'' as the survivor of "most bones broken in a lifetime." Knievel died of pulmonary disease in Clearwater, Florida, aged 69. According to ''The Times'' writing his obituary, Knievel was one of the greatest American icons of the 1970s. Knievel was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999.

Knievel was born in Butte, Montana in 1938 and raised by his grand-parents. After watching a Joie Chitwood auto daredevil show as a child, he took to jumping using a pedal bike, later moving onto motorcycles. As a troubled youth, he earned his stagename after occupying a jail cell next to a man named Knofel, leading the jailer to refer to the pair as Awful Knofel and Evil Knievel (Knievel later changed the spelling of the first name to Evel). In addition to stunt riding at local shows, his early life including a spell in the United States Army at the behest of a magistrate, as well as jobs as a hunting guide, an insurance salesman, while also becoming an ice-hockey team owner and running a business protection racket. In these early years, Evel notably stopped an Elk cull in Yellowstone national park, and staged an exhibition match against the Czechoslovakian hockey team ahead of the 1960 Winter Olympics in California. After moving into sports full time, he had moderate success on the motocross circuit.

Knievel moved into the entertainment business in 1966 by setting up his own daredevil show, initially using a variety of performers and touring several US states, and later converting it to a solo show focused entirely on his jumps as the centre-piece. He came to national attention when he persuaded the owners of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas to let him jump their fountain on New Year's Eve 1967, which was filmed for ABC. After a failed landing, he spent 29 days in a coma. On his recovery, he continued to make high profile and lucrative jumps, and began lobbying the government for permission to jump the Grand Canyon. When this failed, he settled on the Snake River jump in Twin Falls, Idaho. Proving to be his most spectacular feat, it became a debacle. Knievel attempted to jump it on September 8, 1974 in the Skycycle, which was essentially an unguided missile. Immediately after launch, the arresting parachute deployed, and the vehicle floated down on the near side crashing feet from the river's edge, with Knievel suffering minor injuries. Knievel then traveled to Britain, and on May 26, 1975, attempted to jump 13 buses in front of 90,000 people at Wembley Stadium, again crashing but with severe injuries. His longest completed career jump came at Kings Island theme park in Ohio on October 25, 1975, jumping 14 buses, marking his peak television audience. After this jump, Knievel's jumps became smaller, and he eventually withdrew from doing major shows after cancelling an attempt to jump a tank full of live sharks in Chicago after injuring himself and a cameraman during a practice jump. He instead concentrated on touring with and training his son Robbie Knievel, also a daredevil, eventually making his last jump in March 1981.

In his career heyday, Knievel's nationally televised motorcycle jumps were four of the twenty most-watched ''ABC's Wide World of Sports'' events to date. He became a celebrity, recognizable for his use of a Stars-and-Stripes red white and blue "#1" set of motorcycle leathers and cape. On the back of this fame, Knievel gained endorsements from Harley-Davidson and a toy line by the Ideal Toy Company. A 1971 film ''Evel Knievel'' starred George Hamilton as Knievel, and he starred as himself in the 1977 film ''Viva Knievel!''. In 1977, Knievel served six months in jail for assaulting his Snake River promoter Shelly Saltman for writing an unflattering book. After this conviction, Knievel's career suffered, causing him to declare bankruptcy. In 1981, Saltman was awarded $13 million in damages, although he was never paid. Knievel later said of his career that he had "earned $60 million, and spent $63 million".

Early life

Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel was born in Butte, Montana, in 1938, the first of two children born to Robert E. and Ann Keough "Zippy" Knievel. His surname is of German origin; his great-great-grandparents on his father's side emigrated to the United States from Germany. Robert and Ann divorced in 1940, after the birth of their second child, Nic. Both parents decided to leave Butte. Robert and Nic were raised by paternal grandparents, Ignatius and Emma Knievel. At the age of eight, he attended a Joie Chitwood Auto Daredevil Show, to which he gave credit for his later career choice to become a motorcycle daredevil.^p. 38

Knievel ended high school after his sophomore year and got a job in the copper mines with the Anaconda Mining Company as a diamond drill operator. However, he preferred motorbiking to all this 'unimportant stuff' as he put it. He was then promoted to surface duty where he drove a large earth mover. Knievel was fired when he made the earth mover do a motorcycle-type wheelie and drove it into Butte's main power line. The incident left the city without electricity for several hours. Idle, Knievel began to find himself in more and more trouble around Butte. After a police chase in 1956 in which he crashed his motorcycle, Knievel was taken to jail on a charge of reckless driving. When the night jailer came around to check the roll, he noted Robert Knievel in one cell and William Knofel in the other. Knofel was well known as "Awful Knofel" ("awful" rhyming with "Knofel") so Knievel began to be referred to as Evel Knievel ("Evel" rhyming with "Knievel"). He chose this misspelling because of his last name and because he didn't want to be considered "evil".

Always looking for new thrills and challenges, Knievel participated in local professional rodeos and ski jumping events, including winning the Northern Rocky Mountain Ski Association Class A Men's ski jumping championship in 1959. During the late 1950s, Knievel joined the United States Army. His athletic ability allowed him to join the track team where he was a pole vaulter. After his army stint, Knievel returned to Butte where he met and married his first wife, Linda Joan Bork.

Shortly after getting married, Knievel started the Butte Bombers, a semi-pro hockey team.^p. 21 To help promote his team and earn some money, he convinced the 1960 Olympic Czechoslovakian hockey team to play the Butte Bombers in a warm-up game to the Olympics. Knievel was ejected from the game minutes into the third period and left the stadium. When the Czechoslovakian officials went to the box office to collect the expense money the team was promised, workers discovered the game receipts had been stolen. The United States Olympic Committee wound up paying the Czechoslovakian team's expenses to avoid an international incident.^p. 21-22 Evel Knievel also played with the Charlotte Checkers of the Eastern Hockey League.

After the birth of his first son, Kelly, Knievel realized that he needed to come up with a new way to support his family financially. Using the hunting and fishing skills his grandfather had taught him, Knievel started the Sur-Kill Guide Service. He guaranteed that if a hunter employed his service and paid his fee, they would get the big game animal they wanted or he would refund their money. Business was very good until game wardens realized that Knievel was taking his clients into Yellowstone National Park to find prey. The Park Service ordered Knievel to cease and desist this poaching.

In response Knievel, who was learning about the culling of elk in Yellowstone, decided to hitchhike from Butte to Washington, D.C. in December 1961 to raise awareness and to have the elk relocated to areas where hunting was permitted. After his conspicuous trek (he hitchhiked with a rack of elk antlers and a petition with 3,000 signatures), he presented his case to Representative Arnold Olsen, Senator Mike Mansfield and Interior Secretary Stewart Udall. As a result of his efforts, the culling was stopped, and the animals have since been regularly captured and relocated to areas of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

After returning home from Washington, Knievel decided to stop committing crimes. He joined the motocross circuit and had moderate success, but he still couldn't make enough money to support his family. During 1962, Knievel broke his collarbone and shoulder in a motocross accident. The doctors said he couldn't race for at least six months. To help support his family, he switched careers and sold insurance for the Combined Insurance Company of America, working for W. Clement Stone. Stone suggested that Knievel read ''Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude'', a book that Stone wrote with Napoleon Hill. Knievel credited much of his success to Stone and his book.

Knievel was successful as an insurance salesman (even selling insurance policies to several institutionalized mental patients) and wanted recognition for his efforts. When the company refused to promote him to vice-president after a few months on the job he quit. Wanting a new start away from Butte, Knievel moved his family to Moses Lake, Washington. There, he opened a Honda motorcycle dealership and promoted motocross racing. During the early 1960s, it was difficult to promote Japanese imports. People still considered them inferior to American built motorcycles, and there was lingering resentment from World War II, which had ended less than 20 years earlier. Once, Knievel offered a $100 discount to anybody who could beat him at arm wrestling. Despite his best efforts the business eventually had to be closed.

After the closure of the Moses Lake Honda dealership, Knievel went to work for Don Pomeroy at his motorcycle shop in Sunnyside, Washington. It is here where Jim Pomeroy, a well known motocross racer taught Knievel how to do a "wheelie" and ride while standing on the seat of the bike.

Daredevil

While trying to support his family, Knievel recalled the Joie Chitwood show he saw as a boy and decided that he could do something similar using a motorcycle. Promoting the show himself, Knievel rented the venue, wrote the press releases, set up the show, sold the tickets and served as his own master of ceremonies. After enticing the small crowd with a few wheelies, he proceeded to jump a twenty-foot-long box of rattlesnakes and two mountain lions. Despite landing short and having his back wheel hit the box containing the rattlesnakes, Knievel managed to land safely.

Knievel realized to make any amount of real money he would need to hire more performers, stunt coordinators and other personnel so that he could concentrate on the jumps. With little money, he went looking for a sponsor and found one in Bob Blair, owner of ZDS Motors, Inc., the West coast distributor for Berliner Motor Corporation, a distributor for Norton Motorcycles. Blair offered to provide the needed motorcycles, but he wanted the name changed from the ''Bobby Knievel and His Motorcycle Daredevils Thrill Show'' to ''Evil Knievel and His Motorcycle Daredevils''. Knievel didn't want his image to be that of a Hells Angels rider, so he convinced Blair to allow him to use ''Evel'' instead of ''Evil''.

The debut of Knievel and his daredevils was on January 3, 1966, at the National Date Festival in Indio, California. The show was a huge success. Knievel received several offers to host the show after their first performance. The second booking was in Hemet, California, but was canceled due to rain. The next performance was on February 10, in Barstow, California. During the performance, Knievel attempted a new stunt where he would jump, spread eagle, over a speeding motorcycle. Knievel jumped too late and the motorcycle hit him in the groin, tossing him fifteen feet into the air. He was placed in the hospital as a result of his injuries. When released, he returned to Barstow to finish the performance he had started almost a month earlier.

Knievel's daredevil show broke up after the Barstow performance because injuries prevented him from performing. After recovering, Knievel started traveling from small town to small town as a solo act. To get ahead of other motorcycle stunt people who were jumping animals or pools of water, Knievel started jumping cars. He began adding more and more cars to his jumps when he would return to the same venue to get people to come out and see him again. Knievel hadn't had a serious injury since the Barstow performance, but on June 19 in Missoula, Montana, he attempted to jump twelve cars and a cargo van. The distance he had for takeoff didn't allow him to get up enough speed. His back wheel hit the top of the van while his front wheel hit the top of the landing ramp. Knievel ended up with a severely broken arm and several broken ribs. The crash and subsequent stay in the hospital were a publicity windfall.

With each successful jump, the public wanted him to jump one more car. On May 30, 1967, Knievel successfully cleared sixteen cars in Gardena, California. Then he attempted the same jump on July 28, 1967, in Graham, Washington, where he had his next serious crash. Landing his cycle on a panel truck that was the last vehicle, Knievel was thrown from his bike. This time he suffered a serious concussion. After a month, he recovered and returned to Graham on August 18 to finish the show; but the result was the same, only this time the injuries were more serious. Again coming up short, Knievel crashed, breaking his left wrist, right knee and two ribs.

Knievel finally received some national exposure when actor Joey Bishop had him on as a guest of ''The Joey Bishop Show''. All the attention not only brought larger paydays, but also female admirers.

Caesars Palace

While in Las Vegas, to watch Dick Tiger successfully defend his WBA and WBC light heavyweight titles at the Las Vegas Convention Center on November 17, 1967, Knievel first saw the fountains at Caesars Palace and decided to jump them. To get an audience with the casino's CEO Jay Sarno, Knievel created a fictitious corporation called Evel Knievel Enterprises and three fictitious lawyers to make phone calls to Sarno. Knievel also placed phone calls to Sarno claiming to be from ABC-TV and ''Sports Illustrated'' inquiring about the jump. Sarno finally agreed to meet Knievel and the deal was set for Knievel to jump the fountains on December 31, 1967. After the deal was set, Knievel tried to get ABC to air the event live on ''Wide World of Sports''. ABC declined, but said that if Knievel had the jump filmed and it was as spectacular as he said it would be, they would consider using it later.

Knievel used his own money to have actor/director John Derek produce a film of the Caesars' jump. To keep costs low, Derek used his then-wife Linda Evans as one of the camera operators. It was Evans who filmed Knievel's famous landing. On the morning of the jump, Knievel stopped in the casino and placed his last 100 dollars on the blackjack table (which he lost), stopped by the bar and had a shot of Wild Turkey and then headed outside where he was joined by several members of the Caesars staff, as well as two showgirls. After doing his normal pre-jump show and a few warm up approaches, Knievel began his real approach. When he hit the takeoff ramp, he felt the motorcycle unexpectedly decelerate. The sudden loss of power on the takeoff caused Knievel to come up short and land on the safety ramp which was supported by a van. This caused the handlebars to be ripped out of his hands as he tumbled over them onto the pavement where he skidded into the Dunes parking lot. As a result of the crash, Knievel suffered a crushed pelvis and femur, fractures to his hip, wrist and both ankles and a concussion that kept him in a coma for 29 days.

The Caesars Palace crash would represent Knievel's longest attempted motorcycle jump at 141 feet. After his crash and recovery Knievel was more famous than ever. ABC-TV bought the rights to the film of the jump paying far more than they originally would have had they televised the original jump live. Ironically, when Knievel finally achieved the fame and possible fortune that he always wanted, his doctors were telling him that he might never walk without the aid of crutches, let alone ride and jump motorcycles.

Insurance

Before the Caesars' jump Knievel asked his friend Matt Tonning, a Combined Insurance sales agent, to sell him ten accident policies. Combined's underwriting policies allowed for only one of these policies be written, since the policy covered any accident and was non-cancelable for the life of the insured. Tonning agreed and was fired by Combined when Knievel filed the claims on all ten. Upon hearing that Tonning had been fired Knievel contacted Combined's Vice President Matt Walsh. He agreed to return nine of the policies and be paid full benefits on only one, if Combined allowed Tonning to return to work. Walsh agreed and Tonning was reinstated.

In a 1971 interview with Dick Cavett, Knievel stated that he was uninsurable following the Caesars' crash. Knievel said he was turned down 37 times from Lloyds of London, stating, "I have trouble getting life insurance, accident insurance, hospitalization and even insurance for my automobile…Lloyds of London has rejected me 37 times so if you hear the rumor that they insure anybody, don’t pay too much attention to it." Four years later, a clause in Knievel's contract to jump 14-buses at Kings Island required a one-day $1,000,000 liability insurance to the amusement park. Lloyds of London offered the liability insurance for what was called a "laughable $17,500". Knievel eventually paid $2,500 to a state-side insurance company.

Jumps and records

To keep his name in the news, Knievel started describing his biggest stunt ever, a motorcycle jump across the Grand Canyon. Just five months after his near fatal crash, Knievel performed another jump. On May 25, 1968, in Scottsdale, Arizona, Knievel crashed while attempting to jump fifteen Ford Mustangs. Knievel ended up breaking his right leg and foot as a result of the crash.

On August 3, 1968, Knievel returned to jumping, making more money than ever before. He was earning approximately $25,000 per performance, and he was making successful jumps almost weekly until October 13, in Carson City, Nevada. While trying to stick the landing, he lost control of the bike and crashed again, breaking his hip once more.

By 1971, Knievel realized that the United States government would never allow him to jump the Grand Canyon. To keep his fans interested, Knievel considered several other stunts that might match the publicity that would have been generated by jumping the canyon; ideas included: jumping across the Mississippi River, jumping from one skyscraper to another in New York City and jumping over 13 cars inside the Houston Astrodome. While flying back to Butte from a performance tour, Knievel looked out the window and saw Snake River Canyon. After finding a location near Twin Falls, Idaho, that was both wide enough, deep enough and on private property, Knievel leased for $35,000 to stage his jump. He set the date for Labor Day (September 4), 1972.

On January 7 and January 8, 1971, Knievel set the record by selling over 100,000 tickets to back-to-back performances at the Houston Astrodome. On February 28, he set a new world record by jumping 19 cars with his Harley-Davidson XR-750 at the Ontario Motor Speedway in Ontario, California. The 19 car jump was also filmed for the movie, ''Evel Knievel''. Knievel held the record for 27 years until Bubba Blackwell jumped 20 cars in 1998 with an XR-750.

On May 10, Knievel crashed while attempting to jump 13 Pepsi delivery trucks. His approach was complicated by the fact that he had to start on pavement, cut across grass, and then return to pavement. His lack of speed caused the motorcycle to come down front wheel first. He managed to hold on until the cycle hit the base of the ramp. After being thrown off he skidded for . Knievel broke his collarbone, suffered a compound fracture of his right arm and broke both legs.

On March 3, 1972, at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California, after making a successful jump, he tried to come to a quick stop because of a short landing area. Knievel suffered a broken back and a concussion after getting thrown off and run over by his motorcycle, a Harley-Davidson. Knievel returned to jumping in November, 1973, where he successfully jumped over 50 stacked cars at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. For 35 years, Knievel held the record for successfully jumping the most stacked cars on a Harley-Davidson XR-750 (the record was broken in October 2008. His historic XR-750 is now part of the collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Made of steel, aluminum and fiberglass, the customized motorcycle weighs about 300 pounds.

The Grand Canyon jump

Although Knievel never attempted to jump the Grand Canyon, rumors of the Canyon jump were started by Knievel himself in 1968 following the Caesars Palace crash. During a 1968 interview, Knievel stated, "I don't care if they say, 'Look, kid, you're going to drive that thing off the edge of the Canyon and die,' I'm going to do it. I want to be the first. If they'd let me go to the moon, I'd crawl all the way to Cape Kennedy just to do it. I'd like to go to the moon, but I don't want to be the second man to go there." For the next several years, Knievel would negotiate with the U.S. government to secure a jumping site and develop various concept bikes to make the jump. However, the U.S. Department of Interior denied him airspace over the Grand Canyon. Therefore, in 1971, Knievel switched his attention to the Snake River Canyon.

In the movie, ''Evel Knievel'', George Hamilton (as Knievel) alludes to the Canyon jump in the final scene of the movie. One of the common movie posters for the 1971 film depicts Knievel jumping his motorcycle off a (likely) Grand Canyon cliff. In 1999, Knievel's son, Robbie, jumped a portion of the Grand Canyon owned by the Hualapai Indian Reservation.

Snake River Canyon

ABC Sports was unwilling to pay the price Knievel wanted for the Snake River Canyon jump, so he ended up hiring Bob Arum's company, Top Rank Productions, to put the event on closed circuit television and broadcast to movie theaters. Then WWF Promoters Don E. Branker and Vince McMahon, Sr., were later said to be silent promoters of this event. Arum partnered with Invest West Sports, Shelly Saltman's company, to secure from Invest West Sports two things: 1.) the necessary financing for the jump and 2.) the services of Saltman, long recognized as one of America's premier public relations and promotion men, to do publicity so that Knievel could concentrate on his jumps. Knievel then hired subcontractor and aeronautical engineer Doug Malewicki to build him a rocket-powered cycle that he could use to jump across the Snake River, to be called the X-1 Skycycle. Doug's creation was powered by a steam engine built by former Aerojet engineer Robert Truax. On April 15, 1972 the X-1 was launched to test the feasibility of the launching ramp. The decision was then made to have Truax build the Skycycle X-2 and have it take off and fly more like a rocket than a motorcycle.

The launch at Snake River Canyon () was on September 8, 1974, at 3:36 p.m. MDT. The steam that powered the engine was superheated to a temperature of . Upon take-off, the drogue parachute deployed. The deployed chute caused enough drag that even though the skycycle made it all the way across the canyon to the north rim, the prevailing winds caused it to drift back south, into the canyon. By the time it hit the bottom of the canyon, it landed only a few feet from the water on the same side of the canyon it had been launched from. If he had landed in the water, Knievel would have drowned due to a jumpsuit/harness malfunction which kept him strapped in the vehicle. Knievel survived the jump with only minor injuries.

Later daredevil career

Wembley jump

After the Snake River jump, Knievel returned to motorcycle jumping with ABC Wide World of Sports televising several jumps. On May 26, 1975, in front of 90,000 people at Wembley Stadium in London, Knievel crashed while trying to land a jump over thirteen redundant single-deck AEC Merlin buses (the term "London Buses" used in earlier publicity had led to the belief that the attempt was to be made over the higher and more traditional Routemaster double-deck type). After the crash, despite breaking his pelvis, Knievel addressed the audience and announced his retirement by stating "ladies and gentlemen of this wonderful country, I have to tell you that you are the last people in the world who will see me jump. Because I will never, ever, ever jump again. I’m through." Near shock and not yielding to Frank Gifford's (of ABC Wide World of Sports) plea to use a stretcher, Knievel walked off the Wembley field stating, "I came in walking, I went out walking!"

Kings Island jump

After recuperating, Knievel decided that he had spoken too soon, and that he would continue jumping. On October 25, 1975, Knievel successfully jumped fourteen Greyhound buses at the Kings Island theme park in Ohio. Although Knievel landed on the safety deck above the 14th bus, his landing was successful and he held the record for jumping the most buses on a Harley-Davidson for 24 years (until broken by Bubba Blackwell in late 1999). The Kings Island event scored the highest viewer ratings in the history of ''ABC's Wide World of Sports'' and would serve as Knievel's longest successful jump at 133 feet (although the Caesars Palace jump was longer, it ended in a crash). After the Kings Island jump, Knievel again announced his retirement.

Again, his retirement was short lived and Knievel continued to jump. However, after the lengthy Kings Island jump, Knievel limited the remainder of his career jumps to shorter and more attainable lengths. Evel jumped on October 31, 1976, at the Seattle Kingdome. He only jumped seven Greyhound Buses but it was a success. Despite the crowd's pleasure, Knievel felt that it was not his best jump, and apologized to the crowd.

Shark jump

In the winter of 1976, Knievel was scheduled for a major jump in Chicago, Illinois. The jump was inspired by the film, ''Jaws''. Knievel was scheduled to jump a tank full of live sharks and would be televised live nationally. However, during his rehearsal, Knievel lost control of the motorcycle and crashed into a cameraman. Although Knievel broke his arms, he was more distraught over a permanent injury his accident caused to the cameraman (who lost his eye). The footage of this crash was so upsetting to Knievel, that he did not show the clip for 19 years until the documentary, ''Absolute Evel: The Evel Knievel Story''.

After the failed shark jump, Knievel retired from major performances and limited his appearances to smaller venues to help launch the career of his son, Robbie Knievel. His last stunt show, not including a jump, took place in March 1980 in Puerto Rico. However, Knievel would officially finish his career as a daredevil as a touring "companion" of his son, Robbie, limiting his performance to speaking only, rather than stunt riding. His last appearance with Robbie (on tour) was in March 1981 in Hollywood, Florida.

The Last Gladiator

''The Last Gladiator'' is an honorific title or nickname for Evel Knievel. The term ''Last Gladiator'' was coined and attributed to Knievel circa 1971. The term refers to the Roman gladiator, who entered an arena to fight numerous foes to which he may succumb death with skill and bravery.

The term was made popular in the 1971 eponymous movie starring George Hamilton. In the movie, Hamilton (as Knievel) states, "I am the last gladiator in the new Rome. I go into the arena and I compete against destruction and I win. And next week, I go out there and I do it again."

Evel Knievel's 1988 self-produced documentary was entitled, "Last of the Gladiators".

Motorcycles

Knievel briefly used a Honda 350cc motorcycle, using it to jump a crate of rattlesnakes and two mountain lions, which was his first known jump. Knievel then used a Norton Motorcycle Company 750cc. He used the Norton for only one year during 1966. Between 1967 and 1968, Knievel jumped using the Triumph Bonneville T120 (with a 650cc engine). Knievel used the Triumph at the Caesars Palace crash on New Year's Eve 1967. When Knievel returned to jumping after the crash, he used Triumph for the remainder of 1968.

Between December 1969 and April 1970, Knievel used the Laverda American Eagle 750cc motorcycle. On December 12, 1970, Knievel would switch to the Harley-Davidson XR-750, the motorcycle with which he is best known for jumping. Knievel would use the XR-750 in association with Harley-Davidson until 1977. However, after his 1977 conviction for the assault of Shelly Saltman, Harley-Davidson withdrew their sponsorship of Knievel.

On September 8, 1974, Knievel attempted to jump the Snake River Canyon on a rocket propelled motorcycle designed by former NASA engineer Robert Truax dubbed the Skycycle X-2. The State of Idaho registered the X-2 as an airplane rather than a motorcycle.

At the tail end of his career, while helping launch the career of his son, Robbie Knievel, Knievel returned to the Triumph T120. However, he only performed wheelies and did not jump after retiring the XR-750.

In 1997, Knievel signed with the California Motorcycle Company to release a limited ''Evel Knievel Motorcycle''. However, the motorcycle was not built to jump, but was rather a V-twin cruiser motorcycle intended to compete with Harley-Davidson street bikes. Knievel promoted the motorcycle at his various public appearances. After the company closed in 2003, Knievel returned to riding modern street Harley-Davidson motorcycles at his public appearances.

Evel's son, Robbie Knievel, sold limited-edition motorcycles from his company, Knievel Motorcycles Manufacturing Inc. Although two of the motorcycles refer to Evel (the Legend Series Evel Commemorative and the Snake River Canyon motorcycle), Evel did not ride Robbie's bikes.

Leather jumpsuits

Throughout his daredevil career, Knievel was known for his sensational leather jumpsuits with comparisons to the jumpsuits worn by Elvis Presley. When Knievel began jumping, he used a black and yellow jumpsuit. Shortly therefore, when he switched to the Triumph motorcycle, his jumpsuit changed to a white suit with stripes down the legs and sleeves. Two variations of the white suit appeared (one with three stars across the chest and one with the three stars on his right chest). The later was worn at the Caesars Palace jump.

When Knievel switched to the Laverda motorcycle in 1969, he switched his leathers to a white jumpsuit with Confederate stars on blue stripes. The Confederate stars jumpsuit was used in the 1971 film, ''Evel Knievel''. Following the Confederate stars, Knievel adjusted the blue stripes in a V-shape. For the remainder of his career, variances of the V-shaped white-starred jumpsuit would be a constant, including a special nylon/canvass flightsuit that matched his white leathers for the X-2 jump. Each variance would become more elaborate, including the addition of the red-white-blue cape and the Elvis-styled belt-buckled with his initials “EK”. In 1975, Knievel premiered the blue leathers with red stars on the white stripes for the Wembley jump. Both the blue leathers and white leathers were featured in ''Viva Knievel''.

Variances

Black and yellow leathers (1965)

White leathers with three stars on right chest and stripes down leg (1966)

White leathers with three stars on center chest and stripes down leg (1967)

White leathers with Confederate stars on blue stripes (1969–1971)

White nylon/canvass flightsuit with V-stars on blue stripes for X-2 (1972)

White leathers with V-stars on blue stripes (introduction of cape and belt buckle) (1972–1981)

Blue leathers with V-stars on white stripes (1975–1977)

Core values

One of Evel's qualities was that he had great pride in his core values. Throughout his career (and later life), he would repeatedly talk about the importance of "keeping his word". He stated that although he knew he may not successfully make a jump or even survive the canyon jump, he followed through with each stunt because he gave his word that he would. Prior to the canyon jump, Knievel stated, "If someone says to you, 'that guy should have never jumped the canyon. You knew if he did, that he'd lose his life and that he was crazy.' Do me a favor. Tell him that you saw me here and regardless of what I was, that you knew me, and that I kept my word."

In the documentary ''Last of the Gladiators'', Knievel discussed the crash of a 1970 Pepsi-Cola sponsored jump in Yakima, Washington. Knievel knew the jump was questionable, but stated, "I went ahead and did it anyway. When you give your word to somebody that you're going to do something, you've gotta do it." In the 1971 biopic, George Hamilton (as Evel) emphasizes in the opening monologue that a man does not go back on his word.

Knievel would regularly share his anti-drug message, as it was another one of his core values. Knievel would preach an anti-drug message to children and adults before each of his stunts. One organization that Knievel regularly slammed for being drug dealers was the Hells Angels. A near-riot erupted on March 3, 1971, at the Cow Palace when a tire-iron (or coke can according to the Hells Angels) was thrown at Knievel during his stunt show, and Knievel and a majority of the spectators fought back, sending three of the fifteen Hells Angels to the hospital. The plot to his only motion picture as an actor, ''Viva Knievel'', centers around Evel foiling the attempts of drug lords smuggling narcotics into America from Mexico.

Motorcycle helmet safety

Knievel was a proponent of motorcycle helmet safety. He constantly encouraged his fans to wear motorcycle helmets. The Bell Magnum helmet used in the Caesars' Palace jump is credited for saving Knievel's life after he fell off the motorcycle and hit his head on the ground (following the Caesars' Palace crash, each of Knievel's full-face helmets had the slogan, "Color Me Lucky"). As an ardent supporter of helmet use, Knievel once offered a cash reward for anyone who witnessed him stunting on a motorcycle without a helmet.

In 1987, Knievel supported a mandatory helmet bill in the State of California. During the Assembly Transportation Committee meeting, Knievel was introduced as "the best walking commercial for a helmet law".

Family

Knievel was married twice. He and his first wife, Linda, were married for 38 years. During their marriage, the couple had four children. Of the two boys and two girls, the oldest child Kelly and second-born Robbie are the boys and Tracey and youngest child Alicia are the girls. Throughout Kelly's and Robbie's adolescence, the boys performed at Knievel's stunt shows. Robbie Knievel continued into adulthood to perform as a professional motorcycle daredevil. After Evel's death, Kelly has overseen the Knievel legacy, including developing Knievel-related products and assisting Harley-Davidson develop a museum exhibit. Knievel's courtship and marriage to Linda was the theme of the 1971 George Hamilton movie, ''Evel Knievel''. Linda and Evel divorced in 1997.

In 1999, Knievel married his girlfriend, Krystal Kennedy, whom he began dating in 1992. The marriage was held at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The couple were married for two years, divorcing in 2001. Following the divorce, Krystal Knievel was granted a restraining order against him. However, Krystal and Evel would work out their differences, living together until Knievel's death. According to the investment magazine, ''Registered Rep''., Knievel left his entire estate to Krystal.

Marketing the image

Knievel sought to make more money from his image. He was no longer satisfied with just receiving free motorcycles to jump with. Knievel wanted to be paid to use and promote a company's brand of motorcycles. After Triumph, the motorcycle company he had been jumping with, refused to meet his demands, Knievel started to propose the idea to other manufacturers. American Eagle Motorcycles was the first company to sign Knievel to an endorsement deal. At approximately the same time, Fanfare Films started production of ''Evel Knievel'', a 1971 movie starring George Hamilton as Knievel. There have been two other movies made about Evel: A television pilot made in 1974 starring Sam Elliott, and made-for-TV film in 2004 starring George Eads. Also in 1974, Evel and Amherst Records released the self title album "Evel Knievel" which included a press conference, an anti-drug talk for his young fans, and four other tracks.

Knievel kept up his pursuit of getting the United States government to allow him to jump the Grand Canyon. To push his case, he hired famed San Francisco defense attorney Melvin Belli to fight the legal battle in obtaining government permission. ''ABC's Wide World of Sports'' started showing Knievel's jumps on television regularly. His popularity, especially with young boys, was ever increasing. He became a hero to a generation of young boys, many of whom were injured trying to imitate his stunts. A. J. Foyt made Knievel part of his pit crew for the Indianapolis 500 in 1970. Evel Knievel's huge fame caused him to start traveling with a bodyguard, Boots Curtis. Curtis became a long time friend to Knievel.

Ideal Toys

Between 1972 and 1977, Ideal Toy Company released a series of Evel Knievel related merchandise. During the six years the toys were manufactured, Ideal claimed to have sold more than $125 million worth of Knievel toys. The toys included the original 1972 figures, which offered various outfits and accessories. In 1973, Ideal released the Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle. After the release of the Stunt Cycle, the Knievel toys were the best selling item for Ideal.

During the next four years, Ideal Toys released various models relating to Evel Knievel’s touring stunt show. The models included a Robbie Knievel doll, the Scamble Van, a Dragster, a Stunt Car, and the Evel Knievel The Stunt World. Additionally, Ideal released non-Knievel-touring toys, including a Chopper Motorcycle, a Trail Bike, and a female counterpart, Derry Daring. The last item before Ideal Toys discontinued the distribution of Knievel toys was the Strato-Cycle, based on the film, ''Viva Knievel''.

In 1977, Bally marketed its Knievel pinball machine as the "first fully electronic commercial game"; it has elsewhere been described as one of the "last of the classic pre-digital games." (Both electromechanical and solid state versions were produced. The electromechanical version is extremely rare, with only 155 made).

Knievel made several television appearances, including frequenting as a guest on talk shows such as ''Dinah!'' and Johnny Carson's ''Tonight Show''. In 1977, Evel made a guest spot on ''The Bionic Woman'', where he played himself and gets inadvertently caught up in East German espionage while appearing in West Germany. Actual footage from Evel's L.A. Coliseum jump over crushed cars was used in the beginning of the episode and an indoor jump over 11 cars and 1 van was used at the end of the film. Also in 1977, Warner Bros. released ''Viva Knievel!'', a movie starring Knievel as himself and co-starring Lauren Hutton, Gene Kelly and Red Buttons. Similar to ''The Bionic Woman'', actual footage from the Wembley jump was used in the movie.

Assault charges

While Knievel was healing from his latest round of injuries, the book ''Evel Knievel on Tour'' was released. Authored by Knievel's promoter for the Snake River Canyon jump, Shelly Saltman, the book painted an unflattering picture of Knievel's character, alleging that he abused his wife and kids and he used drugs. Knievel, with both arms still in casts, flew to California to confront Saltman, a VP at 20th Century Fox. Outside the studio commissary, one of Knievel's friends grabbed Saltman and held him, while Knievel attacked him with an aluminum baseball bat, declaring, "I'm going to kill you!" According to a witness to the attack, Knievel struck repeated blows at Saltman's head, with Saltman blocking the blows with his left arm. Saltman's arm and wrist were shattered in several places before he fell to the ground unconscious. It took numerous surgeries and permanent metal plates in his arm to eventually give Saltman back the use of his arm. Saltman's book was pulled from the shelves by the publisher after Knievel threatened to sue. Saltman later produced documents in both criminal and civil court that proved that, although Knievel claimed to have been insulted by statements in Saltman's book, he and his lawyers had actually been given editorial access to the book and had approved and signed off on every word prior to its publication. On October 14, 1977, Knievel pleaded guilty to battery and was sentenced to three years' probation and six months in county jail, during which he publicly flaunted his brief incarceration for the press.

After the assault of Saltman and time served in jail, Knievel lost most marketing endorsements and deals, including Harley-Davidson and Ideal Toys. With no income from jumping or sponsorship, Knievel was eventually forced to declare bankruptcy. In 1981, Saltman was awarded a $13 million judgment against Knievel in a civil trial, but never received money from Knievel or Knievel's estate.

Post-daredevil years

During the 1980s, Knievel would drive around the country in a recreational vehicle, selling works of art allegedly painted by him. After several years of obscurity, Knievel made a significant marketing comeback in the 1990s, representing Maxim Casino, Little Caesar's, Harley-Davidson, and other firms.

In 1999, Knievel celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Snake River Canyon jump at the Twin Falls mall. His memorabilia was then stored at Kent Knigge's farm in Filer, Idaho, seven miles west of Twin Falls. During the same year, Knievel was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame.

On November 19, 1999, on a special platform built on the fountains at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip near Las Vegas, Nevada (site of Evel's jump New Year's Eve 1967), Evel married long time girlfriend, 30-year-old Krystal Kennedy of Clearwater, Florida. Long-time friend Engelbert Humperdinck sent a recorded tribute to the couple. They were divorced in 2001 but remained together until his death.

On October 9, 2005, Knievel promoted his last public "motorcycle ride" at the Milwaukee Harley-Davidson dealership. The ride was to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina. Although he was originally scheduled to lead a benefit ride through Milwaukee, Knievel never rode the motorcycle because he suffered a mild (non-debilitating) stroke prior to the appearance and limited his visit to a signing session.

On July 27, 2006, on ''The Adam Carolla Show'', Knievel said that he had idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and required supplemental oxygen therapy 24 hours a day.

On July 28, 2006, at Evel Knievel Days in Butte, Robbie jumped 196 feet in a tribute to his father, Evel. Robbie also appeared on stage with his father.

Shortly before his death, Knievel was saluted by ''Top Gear'' presenter Richard Hammond in a BBC2 Christmas special. The sixty minute programme ''Richard Hammond Meets Evel Knievel'' aired on December 23, 2007, less than a month after his death. The documentary was filmed in July 2007 around the annual "Evel Knievel Days" festival in his old home town of Butte. Knievel was clearly in severely declining health, but he still displayed the same spirit and showmanship that had driven his career.

Religious conversion

On April 1, 2007, Knievel appeared on Robert H. Schuller's ''Hour of Power'' television program and announced that he "believed in Jesus Christ" for the first time.

At his request, he was baptized before the congregation and TV cameras by Schuller, Founding Pastor of the Crystal Cathedral. ''Christianity Today'' reported that "...Knievel's testimony triggered mass baptisms at the Crystal Cathedral."

Evel Knievel: The Rock Opera

In 2003, Knievel signed over exclusive rights to Los Angeles composer Jef Bek, authorizing the production of a rock opera based on Knievel's life. Directed by ''Bat Boy'' co-creator Keythe Farley, the production opened in Los Angeles in September 2007 to excellent reviews.

Six Flags Evel Knievel roller coaster

Evel Knievel had partnered with Six Flags St. Louis to name a new wooden coaster after "America's Legendary Daredevil". The amusement park in Eureka, Missouri, outside of St. Louis, Missouri, opened the ride on June 20, 2008. ''The Evel Knievel Roller Coaster'' operated for three seasons before being renamed ''American Thunder'' in 2011.

Declining health and death

In the late 1990s, Knievel was in need of a life-saving liver transplant as a result of suffering the long-term effects from Hepatitis C. He contracted the disease after one of the numerous blood transfusions he received prior to 1992. In February 1999, Knievel was given only a few days to live and he requested to leave the hospital and die at his home. En route to his home, Knievel received a phone call from the hospital stating a young man had died in a motorcycle accident and could be a donor. Days later, Knievel successfully received the transplant.

In 2005, he was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable and terminal lung disease that required him to be on supplemental oxygen 24 hours a day. In 2006, Evel had an internal morphine pain pump surgically implanted to help him with the excruciating pain in his deteriorated lower back, one of the costs of incurring so many traumas over the course of his career as a daredevil. He also had two strokes since 2005, but neither left him with severe debilitation.

Knievel died in Clearwater, Florida, on November 30, 2007, aged 69. He had been suffering from diabetes and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis for many years. A longtime friend reported that Knievel had trouble breathing while at his residence in Clearwater, but died before the ambulance could reach the hospital. "It's been coming for years, but you just don't expect it. Superman just doesn't die, right?" In one of his last interviews, he told ''Maxim'' Magazine, "You can't ask a guy like me why [I performed]. I really wanted to fly through the air. I was a daredevil, a performer. I loved the thrill, the money, the whole macho thing. All those things made me Evel Knievel. Sure, I was scared. You gotta be an ass not to be scared. But I beat the hell out of death."

Knievel was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in his hometown of Butte, Montana on December 10, 2007, following a funeral at the 7,500-seat Butte Civic Center presided over by Rev. Robert Schuller (actor Matthew McConaughey gave the eulogy). Prior to the Monday service, fireworks exploded in the Butte night sky as pallbearers carried Knievel's casket into the center.

Posthumous recognition

On July 10, 2010, a special temporary exhibit entitled ''TRUE EVEL: The Amazing Story of Evel Knievel'' was opened at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The exhibit was opened in collaboration with Harley-Davidson Motorcycles and Evel’s oldest son, Kelly. Among the various artifacts from Knievel’s life, the exhibit included his “Shark Jump” Harley-Davidson XR-750, the X-2 Skycycle, his “Wembley Blue” jumpsuit, and his trademark “red, white and blue” jumpsuit complete with his helmet and walking stick. Evel Knievel merchandising, personal artifacts, and X-rays from his injuries were also exhibited.

The ''TRUE EVEL'' exhibit ran for approximately two months and ended on September 6, 2010. In December 2010, a traveling version of ''TRUE EVEL'' began a one-year tour of the United Kingdom and Europe. The tour began on 4 December in Gateshead.

In November 2010, General Motors premiered a television commercial featuring Knievel's Wembley Stadium footage of the crash, followed by Knievel getting onto his feet. The ad focused on GM's restructuring and emphasized the belief that "we all fall down".

Parodies and tributes

Throughout and following Evel Knievel's active career as a daredevil, his persona and notoriety as a fearless daredevil has been parodied and paid tribute within media, including the following:

Knievel's daredevil persona was parodied as "Super Dave Osborne", a fictional character played by Bob Einstein whose signature is to perform outrageous stunts which invariably go awry and result in grievous injury.

The Firesign Theatre parodied Knievel on their album Everything You Know Is Wrong as 'daredemon' Reebus Caneebus, who jumps to the center of the Earth.

Knievel was parodied in the episode "Bart the Daredevil" on ''The Simpsons'' in the guise of "Captain Lance Murdock". Murdock is a motorcycle daredevil whom Bart meets and is inspired by. Bart turns to daredevilism on his skateboard. The climax of the episode is when Bart attempts to jump his skateboard across "Springfield Gorge", an obvious parody of the Snake River Canyon jump. Homer then comes and stops Bart from making the jump and, while standing on the skateboard, begins to descend down the ramp into the Gorge. At first it appears that Homer is going to make the jump and then he falls to the bottom of the Gorge, suffering several major injuries.

The recurring character of Ernie Devlin from ''Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law'' is a parody of Knievel. Always seen on a motorcycle, with an overweight prostitute, he was sued for children imitating his stunts. The character was originally created in 1974 as the lead character of a children's dramatic animated series of the same name by Hanna-Barbera.

Knievel appears in the film ''Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery'', in which he is frozen along with Vanilla Ice and Austin Powers.

Knievel has been copied by Marvel Comics for the famous character Ghost Rider. His troop is known as "The Daredevils". Most of their scenes are based on Knievel's stunts and, in the movie, Johnny Blaze's costume is similar to Knievel's.

Knievel has been parodied in Kanye West's music video ''Touch the Sky'', for which Knievel actually filed a lawsuit on West for copyright infringement. The case was settled days before Knievel died.

Knievel has been parodied in the ''South Park'' episode "Pinkeye" as Chef portrays Knievel in a Halloween costume.

He is shown in Disney Channel's ''The Replacements'' as Dick Daring, an overactive stuntman who performs stunts and wears an outfit very similar to Evel Knievel's. He has a stuffed bear named "Evel Bearnievel".

He has a part in Disney XD's cartoon ''Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil''.

In the 2005 film The Sandlot 2, the main character refers to him when explaining that nothing could get over the junk wall saying, "Man, even Evel Knievel couldn't jump that wall."

The 2007 movie ''Hot Rod'' with Andy Samberg parodies Evel Knievel, with the main character attempting to become a stunt man and tries to clear fifteen buses to save his step father.

The 2008 series ''The Mr. Men Show'', has a character named Little Miss Daredevil who wears a similar crash helmet and pulls off stunts in a similar vein to Evel Knievel's more famous stunts.

The makers of MTV's ''Jackass'', in collaboration with Matt Hoffman, have released a tribute to the late stunt man, where the boys of ''Jackass'' attempt to set world records and emulate one of their heroes.

Stand-up comedian George Carlin, in his famous monologue about air-travel criticized the term "getting on the plane" saying "I'm getting IN the plane. Let Evel Knievel get ON the plane!"

Hip-hop artist, B.o.B aka Bobby Ray mentions Knievel in his song "Magic," saying,"I break all the rules like Evel Knievel."

In the 4 th season finale of How I Met Your Mother, Marshall compares himself to Evel Knievel, and implying Lily is his wife Linda Knievel, and Lily claims, "for the last time, I am not Linda Knievel, I will never be Linda Knievel!"

The electronic musician Aim samples an interview with Evel Knievel in his song 'Original Stuntmaster' on the album Means Of Production.

The Hip-Hop artist and Slam Poet B. Dolan has a piece called "The Skycycle Blues" from his album "The Failure" about Evel's life and often wears Evel's trademark jumpsuit on stage.

The German artist Jens Kabisch since 2000 performs as "Evil Knievel" wearing a helmet and the stars-and-stripes-costume.

The band ''James'' refer to Knievel in the song Johnny Yen from the album Stutter: "Watch Knievel hit the seventeenth bus".

He is mentioned within the movie 'The Damned United', in a scene set in 1968, suggesting he was reasonably well known in England at that time.

Movies and television

Evel Knievel has been the subject of a number of movies and films, such as :

The Hottie & the Nottie (2008) Played by Marcus Lindsey (as Evil Konieval)

Absolute Evel: The Evel Knievel Story (2005) (TV) Played by Nate Golon / Ralph Fontaine

Evel Knievel (2004) (TV) Played by George Eads (as Evel) / Jake Brockman (as Evel) / Jake Brockman (as Young Bobby)

Damselvis, Daughter of Helvis (1994) Played by Robert Gann (as Evel Knievelvis)

Evel Knievel (1974) (TV) Played by Sam Elliott

Evel Knievel (1971) Played by George Hamilton / John Dale McCutchan (as Evel at 12)

The Last of the Gladiators aka "Evel Knievel: The Last of the Gladiators"(1988) Archived footage of George Hamilton

See also

Richard Hammond Meets Evel Knievel – July 2007 television documentary

Bob Correll

Notes

References

External links

Evel Knievel on ''ABC's Wide World of Sports''

Evel Knievel TV Movie

Evel Knievel: The Rock Opera, a rock musical about Knievel's life, running in Los Angeles starting September 2007.

Transcript, Audio, Video of Knievel's religious conversion testimony at the Crystal Cathedral from AmericanRhetoric.com

Evel Knievel at Find a Grave

Category:Articles with inconsistent citation formats Category:American stunt performers Category:American motorcycle racers Category:Eastern Hockey League players Category:Motorcycle Hall of Fame inductees Category:Motorcycle stuntmen Category:American people of German descent Category:American Christians Category:American film actors Category:Deaths from diabetes Category:Deaths from pulmonary fibrosis Category:Stroke survivors Category:People from Butte, Montana Category:Wide World of Sports (U.S. TV series) Category:1938 births Category:2007 deaths

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