I have lived in Las Vegas for exactly three years. In about two months, I will no longer live in Nevada.

Years ago, I observed an interesting pattern when reading about places in Nevada. The Las Vegas strip? It’s not in the city of Las Vegas. It’s in the unincorporated community of Paradise, in unincoroporated Clark County. Summerlin, where the Las Vegas Aviators play minor league ball? Also not a city, it’s another unincorporated community in Clark County. Real-world places found in my first few hours playing Fallout: New Vegas, such as Primm, Goodsprings, Nelson, and Searchlight? All unincorpirated communities in Clark County.

After reading up a bit, I discovered that, despite having over three million people and being the seventh largest state by area, Nevada only has nineteen cities and seventeen counties. Nevada only allows for places to incorporate as a county or as a city. Most other states have other types of municipalities, such as “towns” or “villages”. Nevada law appears to not make such allowances.

With only thirty-six places total and a desire to get to know Nevada better, the first thought in my head was “why don’t I just to to all of them?” It’s a silly idea. It’s an incomplete way to experience Nevada, as, beyond its living cities, Nevada has tons of nature, hundreds of ghost towns, and sizeable unincorporated towns that wouldn’t be included on this list. Following this list meant I’d be stopping in cities that lack a single museum, but skipping the entire Nevadan side of Lake Tahoe.

The idea stuck. How many people have visited every incorporated place in a any state? Sure I’ll have plenty of time in Wisconsin, and I’ll be in California for a few weeks at a time visiting my parents for the forseeable future. But Wisconsin has 72 counties and California has 58, and they have far more cities. Why not just visit all of them in Nevada? How hard could it be?

This trip’s dumbest, but most philosophically direct inspiration is the Eddy Burback video “I ate at every Rainforest Cafe in the Country” and its follow-up piece “I ate at every Margaritaville in the Country“. Both stem from the very absurd idea of visiting all of the things. As with Eddy Burback’s misadventures in gastronomical overlanding, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I set out, but ended up finding a lot to think about along the way.

There’s no thesis statement to this series of posts. Photos will be sparse and Spartan as I 1) had to travel at an absolute breakneck pace as we’re a one-car household with one person who commutes to work and 2) I have an extreme aversion to getting in anyone else’s way while taking photos, and 3) I frequently had to hit the road before 5AM each day of travel, so I was a little bleary-eyed when setting up some shots. Further, I realized midway through my first stop that, even under ideal conditions, I’m not particularly adept at taking photos of myself or posing for photos.

That having been said, here’ a list of incorporated places in Nevada, in the order that I visited them:

PlaceType of PlaceIf County, County Seat LocationNotes/comments
Las VegasCity
Clark CountyCountyLas Vegas
MesquiteCity
North Las VegasCity
HendersonCity
Boulder CityCity
Esmerelda CountyCountyGoldfieldYes, it is named after the character from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Nye CountyCountyTonopah
Mineral CountyCountyHawthorne
FallonCity
Churchill CountyCountyFallonNo, it’s not named after that Churchill. However it is named after a distant relative of Winston Churchill.
LovelockCity
Pershing CountyCountyLovelockYep, named after that Pershing.
WinnemuccaCity
Humboldt CountyCountyWinnemucca
Lander CountyCountyBattle Mountain
CarlinCity
ElkoCity
ElkoCountyElko
WellsCity
West WendoverCity
ElyCityRhymes with “wheelie”. NOT like the name “Eli.”
White Pine CountyCountyEly
CalienteCity
Lincoln CountyCountyPioche
Eureka CountyCountyEureka
FernleyCity
SparksCity
RenoCity
Washoe CountyCountyReno
Storey CountyCountyVirginia CityDespite the name, Virginia City is not legally a city.
Carson CityCountyLegally, it operates as both a city and as a county.
Carson CityCity
Carson CityState Capitol
Douglas CountyCountyMinden
YerringtonCity
Lyon CountyCountyYerrington

I’ll be writing a series of posts about planning and exploring everywhere on this trip. Because it was conducted at breakneck pace, with early mornings, minimal stops, and a low budget, this will not be any sort of food blog.

Lunch at Mesquite City Hall parking lot.

I cannot stress the extent to which this series of posts will not be a food blog. I had one meal at a restaurant in all my travels, whilst delusional with altitude sickness after a grueling 12 mile run in the hills around Tonopah at 6,000 feet.

Anyway, here’s photographic evidence of me at every incorporated place in Nevada:

I couldn't get the text on the capitol building to show well in the light
Me, at the State Capitol building. Clear evidence that I have unambiguously been to Nevada.
took me 20 min of walking to find the pedestrian entrance
Las Vegas City Hall, in the historical LV downtown area.
The Clark County admin building, also near downtown/the convention center. Clark county stretches from Mesquite on the border with Arizona all the way to Primm on the border with California and to the tri-point border with California and Arizona near Laughlin.
Mesquite city hall. Right on the Arizona border.
North Las Vegas city hall. NLV is so patriotic that I couldn’t frame the shot without having the flagpole obscure the NLV city hall signage.
This is part of a huge pedestrianized area in downtown Henderson.
Henderson city hall, the only place which I visited via ebike. Henderson, not Reno, is Nevada’s 2nd most populous city.
If this photo looks better, it's because it's the only photo someone else took of me. Thanks, Emilie!
Boulder City’s city hall. Despite being the largest city in Nevada by area, BC has a great little downtown!
Esmerelda County courthouse in Goldfield. The least populous county in Nevada (approx 730 people).
Nye County seat in Tonopah. I was so out of it with altitude sickness that I thought this shot was framed correctly.
The old, historical courthouse in town is much cooler.
Mineral County seat in Hawthorne.
Fallon city hall.
Churchill County Court, in Fallon.
Once again, the old historical courthouse is MUCH cooler than the current building.
Pershing County seat in Lovelock. Across the street from the park containing the original courthouse.
There is a "Lovelock" town where you can do the lovers' lock thing on the way into town.
Lovelock city hall.
The most fun city name to say in Nevada.
Winnemucca city hall.
Humboldt County courthouse in downtown Winnemucca.
Lander County seat building, in Battle Mountain. The Dance Gavin Dance album “Downtown Battle Mountain” is named after this community, though the actual downtown is a mile and a half northeast of here.
Carlin city hall, probably the physically smallest city hall I saw.
I think this is the only photo in which I am seated.
White Pine County court, in Elko. There were SO MANY old casinos I didn’t have time to visit in Elko.
Right next to the big park in town.
Elko city hall, right by the main city park.
Wells city hall.
West Wendover city hall. This is the only city in Nevada that observes Mountain Time, due to its position on the Utah border and the volume of business done with Utah residents.
Got a few looks from court workers and avoided eye contact with the people getting bailed out of jail for the weekend LOL.
White Pine County courthouse in the city of Ely. I unknowingly stopped at the court on Saturday morning when people were actively getting bailed out of the drunk tank.
Ely city hall. Much like Elko, the old downtown had SO MANY old buildings and casinos I didn’t have time to check out.
Caliente city hall, in the historical train station. Definitely one of the coolest city halls in the state!
Lincoln County courthouse in Pioche. The original courthouse is even cooler!
The docents at the opera house and at the Eureka Sentinel museum were INCREDIBLE.
Eureka County courthouse. Eureka has cold mornings year round- there was snow on the ground in August on the way into town!
The city hall of Nevada’s newest city, Fernley.
Sparks city hall. Unfortunately not named after Bubba Sparxxx.
Reno city hall. Truly bizarre how different Reno feels from Las Vegas, despite being Nevada’s other population center.
Washoe County courthouse in Reno.
Despite its name, Virginia City is neither a city nor is it located in Virginia.
Storey County seat in Virginia City. The historical downtown is really, really cool and the admin building doesn’t do the rest of town justice.
Carson City city hall. Carson City operates as both a county and as a city, and hosts the state capitol and governor’s mansion.
Douglas County courthouse, in Minden.
Lyon County admin building, in the city of Yerrington.
Yerrington City Hall. The little downtown area is a lot more photogenic and welcoming. The volunteers at the Lyon County Museum were great!

I learned so much about the Transcontinental Railroad, the Pony Express, the first Transcontinental Phone Call, Nevada’s role in the Civil War, and so much more. I’ll have some more thoughts about planning this absurd trip all around the Silver State in future posts. After all this travel, I’ve realized that there’s so much more history and nature to this state, even after all my travels.

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