The University of Nevada was originally founded in Elko, Nevada in
1874 as a small, makeshift prep school that really could not be considered a true
university. In 1887, the fledgling institution was moved, brick by brick, from Elko to its
current home in Reno.After several decades of struggling to implement requirements of federal Morrill land-grant legislation, the university made large strides toward becoming the modern institution it
is today with the opening of the Desert Research
Institute in 1960 and a medical school in 1967.
The University of Nevada, Reno remained the only four-year academic institution in the state of Nevada until 1965, when the current-day University of Nevada, Las Vegas attained university status as Nevada Southern
University.