Carson City is an independent city and the capital of the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 58,639, making it the sixth largest city in Nevada. The majority of the city’s population lives in Eagle Valley, on the eastern edge of the Carson Range, a branch of the Sierra Nevada, about 30 miles (50 km) south of Reno. The city is named after the mountain man Kit Carson. The town began as a stopover for California-bound immigrants, but developed into a city taking into account the Comstock Lode, a silver strike in the mountains to the northeast. The city has served as Nevada’s capital in the past statehood in 1864; for much of its chronicles it was a hub for the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, although the tracks were removed in 1950.

Before 1969, Carson City was the county seat of Ormsby County. That year the confess legislature abolished the county and included its territory into a revised city charter for a Consolidated Municipality of Carson City. With the consolidation, the city limits extend west across the Sierra Nevada to the California confess line in the middle of Lake Tahoe. Like further independent cities in the United States, it is treated as a county-equivalent for census purposes.

The Washoe people have inhabited the valley and surrounding areas for virtually 6,000 years.

The first European Americans to arrive in what is now known as Eagle Valley were John C. Frémont and his exploration party in January 1843. Fremont named the river flowing through the valley Carson River in award of Kit Carson, the mountain man and scout he had hired for his expedition. Later, settlers named the area Washoe, in citation to the original people.