Kerry McAllister, age 10, of Reno, Nev., for his question:

HOW DID NEVADA GET ITS NAME?

Nevada ranks seventh in size among all the states but it has one of the smallest populations. The name Nevada comes from a Spanish word meaning snow clad.

Miners and other settlers chose the name Nevada when the region became a territory in 1861. Nevada became a state in 1864 during the Civil War and was nicknamed the Battle Born State. Another nickname is the Sagebrush State although the most common nickname is the Silver State.

Less rain falls in Nevada than in any other state. As a result, farming depends on irrigation. The Newlands Irrigation Project, near Reno, was the first system of its kind built by the federal government.

Nevada lies mainly on a broad, rugged highland between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada mountain range. In the 1820s and 1830s, the trappers Peter Ogden, Jedediah Smith and Joseph Walker explored parts of the region in search of new fur sources.

John C. Fremont began the first thorough exploration of Nevada in 1843. By the 1860s, discoveries of gold and silver had brought thousands of miners to the area.