Why is Nevada County, California Shaped Like a Gun?

Problem Scenario
You look at a map of Nevada County, and it appears to be shaped like a gun. You were told it was due to anger over the State of Nevada "stealing" the name. Why is the County shaped like a derringer pistol?

Answer
It was not to get revenge against Nevada.

As of June 1, 1855, Nevada County did not have the northern protrusion (that could look like a hammer of a 19th century pistol). See this picture on the Brittanica website and notice the hammer on the pistol (not the map). But there was nothing called "Nevada" (no state and no territory) to the east to artistically "shoot."

The original name for Nevada was Washoe (according to BYU and findingnevadawild.com). The territory of Nevada was named in 1861 (see page 14 of this external PDF file). Nevada's statehood happened in 1864 (according to https://jic.nv.gov/About/History_of_Nevada/). The capitol of Nevada, Carson City, is in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Nevada County was already in its current shape (or extremely close to its current shape) in the 1850s.

It would have been a great deal of work for Nevada County officials to coordinate boundaries with surrounding counties. The theory that the one-line drawing showing disapproval of a neighboring state collapses when there was no state named Nevada -- only a region named "Washoe." Other nearby California counties were shaped as rectangular blobs. The whole theory was based on stealing of a name. If the political boundary map was drawn up before the name "Nevada" was "stolen," then the political boundary map was drawn up for other reasons.

The map has a fairly large handle with a short handle. With the map of Nevada County, where is the trigger guard? There is none. Were the political boundaries of Amador County designed to look like a rifle with a butt-stock pointed at Nevada because Amador County anticipated the Washoe region to be named the state of "Amador"? The answer is self-explanatory. Here is a map of Amador County in 1859 (to see the rifle-like image). Did Nevada County, California take aim to the east at Nevada County, Arkansas? No, the Arkansas Nevada County started in 1871 according to www.arcounties.org.

The Sierra Nevadas (which are primarily in California, but a small portion is in modern-day Nevada) were named in 1776 (according to nevadaappeal.com). Nevada County, California became a county in 1851 (nationalmap.gov).

If this map of Nevada County is correct in 1859, then the cartographic "gun shape" revenge theory is wrong. Nothing to the east was named "Nevada" as far as we can tell (besides some of the Sierra Nevada mountain range).

The boundaries of Nevada County, based on the randymajors.org website, were [at least substantially] finalized in 1856, before the Territory of Nevada existed. (Apparently there may have been boundaries between Sierra County and Nevada County that changed in the early 1870s according to casetext.com.)

Why would Nevada County have endeavored in its first six or seven years of existence to make sure it had political boundaries that could portray a one-line drawing of a gun pointed at some land that was not even an officially named territory? We believe randymajors.org is a reputable website. Did they go to great lengths to keep Nevada County's political boundaries because of its gun imagery? It is possible, but based on the randymajors.org website, we do not think it was intentionally designed to look like a gun.

A logical proof for this matter is as follows: there must have been something named "Nevada" to the east at the time the current shape of Nevada County was formed for the "get back at Nevada" motive. There was no official name of the Washoe region around mid 1856; in 1861 it would be called the Territory of Nevada, and in 1864 it would be called the State of Nevada. Therefore Nevada County was not shaped to look like a pistol any more than Amador County was shaped to look like a rifle.

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