Nevada's State Capital, and one of the state's oldest towns, was first established in 1851 as Eagle Station, a trading post and small ranch on the Carson Branch of the California Emigrant Trail kept by Frank and W. L. Hall and George Jollenshee. The station and surrounding valley took their names from an eagle skin stretched on the trading post wall.

From 1855 to 1857, Mormon colonizers under Elder Orson Hyde settled in Eagle, Carson and Washoe Valleys. In 1857, they were called back to Salt Lake City by Brigham Young.

Carson City itself was founded and laid out in 1858 by Abraham Curry, who bought the Eagle Station and ranch when he found lots at Genoa too expensive. Curry named his town after the Carson River and left a plaza in its center for his predicted location of the state capital.

In the 1860's, Carson City was a station on the Pony Express and the Overland Mail under both Butterfield and Wells, Fargo and Co.

In 1861, true to Curry's prediction, and aided considerably by his own shrewd maneuvers, Carson City became the Capital of Nevada Territory. When Nevada became a state in 1864, Carson City was the state's capital, and in 1870 the present capitol building was completed in the plaza Curry had reserved for it.