Lake County, Nevada Genealogy

United States Nevada  Lake County

Lake County was created in 2 March 1861 by renaming Nataqua County. At the time the California-Nevada border was in dispute. Lake County was partially in California and partially in Nevada. Most of the Lake County residents were in Honey Lake Valley (Susanville) on what a few years later was decided to be the California side of the border. But at the time they believed they were in Nevada because they lived in the Great Basin on the east side of the Sierra Nevada. The bulk of the land of Lake County was in present-day Nevada.

On 2 December 1862 the Nevada legislature asserted their jurisdiction over Honey Lake Valley by changing the name of Lake County to Roop County. In late 1864 an official survey set the border at the 120th west longitude, splitting Roop (formerly Lake) County. Both the California and Nevada legislatures ratified this settlement by 7 February 1865. Honey Lake Valley went to Lassen County, California but most of the Roop (formerly Lake) County land was consolidated into Washoe County, Nevada.

For Lake County records see:


 * Lassen County, California
 * Washoe County, Nevada