Wasn’t there a weird agreement that brought Nevada into the union where the Feds basically confiscated all the land?
Like most western states, Nevada was all almost all federal land to begin with. When Nevada was granted statehood, the feds kept the unsettled land that they already owned. That was true elsewhere, as well. The major exception is Texas. Since they came in as an independent nation, their unsettled lands were owned by Texas and they kept them.