Lyon County, Nevada

Lyon County, Nevada
County
Lyon County
Lyon County Courthouse
Location in the U.S. state of Nevada
Nevada's location in the U.S.
Founded	1861
Named for	Nathaniel Lyon
Seat	Yerington
Largest city	Fernley
Area
• Total	2,024 sq mi (5,242 km2)
• Land	2,001 sq mi (5,183 km2)
• Water	23 sq mi (60 km2), 1.1%
Population (est.)
• (2015)	52,585
• Density	26/sq mi (10/km²)
Congressional districts	2nd, 4th
Time zone	Pacific: UTC-8/-7
Website	lyon-county.org

Lyon County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2010 census, the population was 51,980. Its county seat is Yerington.

Lyon County includes the Fernley, NV Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of the Reno-Carson City-Fernley, NV Combined Statistical Area.

Lyon County was one of the nine original counties created in 1861. It was named after Nathaniel Lyon, the first Union General to be killed in the Civil War. Its first county seat was established at Dayton on November 29, 1861, which had just changed its name from Nevada City in 1862, and which had been called Chinatown before that. After the Dayton Court House burned down in 1909, the seat was moved to Yerington in 1911. There were stories that it was named for Captain Robert Lyon, a survivor of the Pyramid Lake War in 1860, but Nevada State Archives staff discovered a county seal with the picture of the Civil War general, settling the conflict.

The Central Pacific (the first transcontinental railroad) ran through the county, although a portion of the original route has been shifted for a new route south of Wadsworth in favor of Fernley. The Central Pacific later became the Southern Pacific Railroad which was merged into Union Pacific in 1996.