9/10 Yȁ.

My understanding is that the population was relatively small, but the discovery of silver in the late 1850s brought a lot of prospectors from California. Then Lincoln needed more electoral votes to win the 1864 election and another state to ratify the 13th amendment, so Nevada became a state really quickly, especially when compared with, say, Utah's fifty-year effort to gain statehood next door.

Nevada only had a population of about 40,000 at the time, making it the least populous state in US history. It would remain the least populous state for the next 100 years, holding that status longer than any other state.

So a lot of people (not unreasonably) didn't consider it to be a stable enough population to be made a state, however when succession began, Lincoln's Republican party became an absolute majority, and in order to maintain that majority, they needed more senators from the West. This also affected decisions like splitting Dakota Territory into two states to maximize congressional representation.

Early Nevadan history is interesting because their small voter base shifted quite easily, so control of the state alternated between the Mormons and the Mafia 🤣