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The Nevada State Song

Home Means Nevada

words and music by Mrs. Bertha Raffetto (1885-1952)

    Way out in the land of the setting sun,
    Where the wind blows wild and free,
    There's a lovely spot, just the only one
    That means home sweet home to me.
    If you follow the old Kit Carsen trail,
    Until desert meet the hills,
    Oh you certainly will agree with me,
    It's the place of a thousand thrills.    

   CHORUS:
    Home means Nevada,
    Home means the hills,
    Home means the sage and the pines.
    Out by the Truckee's silvery rills.
    Out where the sun always shines.
    There is a land that l love the best,
    Fairer than all I can see.
    Right in the heart of the golden west,
    Home means Nevada to me.

    Whenever the sun at the close of day
    Colors all the western sky,
    Oh, my heart returns to the desert grey
    And the mountains tow'ring high.
    Where the moon beams play in shadowed glen
    With the spotted fawn and doe
    All the lifelong night until morning light
    Is the loveliest place I know.

   CHORUS:

Origin of the State Song

The year was 1932, it was summer and Mrs. Raffetto had been asked, by the Nevada Native Daughters, to sing a song about Nevada at the annual picnic at Bowers Mansion. She completed "Home Means Nevada" at 4:00am on the day of the picnic and sang her composition that afternoon. The song was very well received and former Governor Roswell K. Colcord said to Mrs. Raffetto, "Honey, that's the prettiest Nevada Song that I have ever heard. It should be made the state song of Nevada!"

The song that Mrs. Raffetto sang that afternoon, "Home Means Nevada," did become the official state song of Nevada. It was adopted by the legislature on February 6, 1933. Read the interesting story behind the composition of "Home Means Nevada" written by Mrs. Bertha Raffetto in May, 1949.

Nevada Revised Statutes

The following information is excerpted from the Nevada Revised Statutes, Title 19, Chapter 235, Section 030.

TITLE 19—MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS RELATED TO GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS
CHAPTER 235-STATE EMBLEMS; GIFTS AND ENDOWMENTS, STATE SEAL AND MOTTO
SECTION 035

NRS 235.030 State song. The song entitled "Home Means Nevada," written by Mrs. Bertha Raffetto, of Reno, Nevada, is hereby adopted and declared to be the official state song of the State of Nevada.

    [2:6:1933; 1931 NCL § 7615]-(NRS A 1959, 107)

Source: Nevada State Web Site, (http://www.state.nv.us), December 2, 2004
Source: Nevada Legislature, (http://leg.state.nv.us), December 2, 2004
Source: State Names, Seals, Flags, and Symbols by Benjamin F. Shearer and Barbara S. Shearer, Copyright 2002
Source: State Songs America, Edited by M.J. Bristow, Copyright 2000
Source: State Names, Flags, Seals, Songs, Birds, Flowers, and Other Symbols by George Earlie Shankle, Ph.D., Copyright 1938

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