Reno is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, approximately 22 mi from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino & tourism industry, Reno is the county seat and largest city of Washoe County and sits in a high desert river valley at the foot of the Sierra Nevada and its downtown area (along with Sparks) occupies a valley informally known as the Truckee Meadows, which due to large-scale investments from Seattle & Bay Area companies such as Amazon, Tesla, Panasonic, Microsoft, Apple and Google has become a new major technology hub in the United States. The city is named after Union Major General Jesse L. Reno, who was killed in action during the American Civil War at the Battle of South Mountain on Fox's Gap.