Well I have a problem with that. Did the government purchase that land? Was that purchase approved first by the state and then by the peoples representatives?
Yes the Government did purchase the land, for $15 million at the end of the US Mexico war per the treaty of Guadalupe Hildago. Note that was before Nevada was even a state. Further Nevada ceded any control or even taxation of the land in their state constitution.
Did they buy it? No. They took it from Mexico as a consequence of the war. In the case of Nevada and a lot of the other western states, government ownership of the land predates the creation of the state.