The Boundary Shift of Aurora in 1863

In September of 1863, Aurora had an official boundary survey determining it was inside the Nevada Territory, not the State of California. Some were very happy about this, however most feared the transition. While Aurora was operating as part of California, businesses only dealt in hard gold and silver coins. California law specifically banned paper money and protected merchants from being forced to accept it. Nevada was a federal territory heavily reliant on the U.S. government. Under the federal Legal Tender Acts, Nevada businesses were forced by law to accept unbacked federal paper currency ("Greenbacks") at equal face value to gold which crushed their profit margins. Merchants were harassed by the tax collectors from both states and were forced to pay twice until it was sorted out. It also instigated a gold rush for lawyers to straighten it all out and to prevent claim jumpers from grabbing mines. It caused a lot of confusion in the courts. While it was being determined voting was also going on which caused a lot of confusion as well. People were voting in both states.

California was benefiting from the discovery of gold and silver in Aurora. California saw this as an opportunity to increase its revenues through bullion and precious metals. Especially since California was on the gold standard and largely funded by San Francisco banks.



    At the time Nevada was not officially a state and pretty uncivilized. Nevada was a heavy supporter of the Civil War and still in a pretty fragile condition.  No one knew that Aurora was starting to run dry of precious metals. Although everyone feared the boundary shift would devastate the California economy, both states grew richer because of it. The California economy was more diversified than they thought. Abraham Lincoln was a big supporter of Nevada becoming a state, as it worked to his benefit in being re-elected president. The irony was that President Lincoln was a professional land surveyor before getting into politics.