Saturday, March 8, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
"This is the first we've heard of it; the first I've heard of it," city public information officer Sharon Spangler said.
Reno was first incorporated on March 8, 1897 by an act of the Legislature. It was Nevada's only town of notable size then, with about 4,500 people.
But legislators voted to eliminate its incorporated status two years later at the request of Reno's utility company, which had opposed the city council's attempt to buy the water system and turn it into a public utility.
The threat to the company never resurfaced and Reno residents succeeded in re-incorporating the city in 1903.
Reno Mayor Jeff Griffin, on vacation in Hawaii, is an avid history buff who would have staged a celebration had he been aware of the date, Spangler said.
"If you go into his office, you can see old-time Reno photos all over the walls," she told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "He just really loves history."
State Archivist Guy Rocha said the centennial birthday is an important occasion that should have been observed.
"The '97 legislation was the beginnings of what we might call modern Reno," he said. "Prior to this time, Reno was just a dusty little town waiting for an opportunity.
"I think we should celebrate the incorporation of our cities."
But Phillip Earl, curator of history at the Nevada Historical Society in Reno, said Reno's birth is regarded by many to be May 9, 1868, when a railroad sold property that eventually became downtown Reno.
"Nobody ever celebrates the day of incorporation that I know of," he said.
Nevada was in the midst of a severe mining depression when Reno first became incorporated in 1897. Virginia City lost about 6,000 residents in the 1890s, leaving it with just 2,695 in 1900.
"Reno was really the oasis in Nevada. It was the commercial center," Rocha said. "Reno was the only place in Nevada that had all the aspects of a small city."
Reno's status as Nevada's largest city would last until Las Vegas began to gain on it in recent decades.
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