Pioneer Bishops of Nevada

The hierarchy was not established in Nevada until 1931.  For more information about Nevada, see my blog of May 4, 2018.

A Franciscan priest, Francisco Graces, was the first European to see Nevada, when he traveled from Mexico to California in 1775 and celebrated the first Mass near what is now Laughlin.  Other Franciscans passed through the next year and were followed in subsequent years by fur trappers and later by gold miners going to California, but even as late as 1860, there were fewer than 7,000 residents.  Nevada became part of the United States in 1848 and most of Nevada became part of the Utah Territory in 1850.  Greater attention was focused on Nevada after the discovery of the Comstock Lode silver mine in 1859.  Nevada became a separate territory in 1861 and the 36th State in 1864.

For the rest of the 19th Century, Nevada’s population fluctuated greatly, depending on the economics of the mining industry.  By 1880, the population was 62,000.  The population dropped to 42,000 in 1900 before rebounding to 82,000 in 1910.  The first Catholic parish was established in Douglas County in 1858 and by 1875 there were more than half a dozen parishes in Nevada.  Nevada was for many years divided between the Dioceses of Sacramento and Salt Lake.

Pope Pius XI created the Diocese of Reno in 1931, which included all of the State of Nevada.  Reno was the largest city in Nevada at that time, with about 19,000 people.  There were about 8,500 Nevada Catholics then—about 9 percent of the total population.  Nevada was the 48th state to have its own diocese.  The name of the Diocese was changed in 1976 to the Diocese of Reno-Las Vegas.  Pope John Paul II split Nevada into the Diocese of Reno and the newly created Diocese of Las Vegas in 1995.