Clark County Heritage Museum
The Clark County
Heritage Museum, located at 1830 S. Boulder Hwy, is a fun and interesting look into
Nevada's past. From the early Pleistocene era to the days of Elvis and the Rat
Pack, the Heritage Museum offers many hands on displays and audio recordings to allow each
visitor the opportunity to feel and hear the past.
Inside the museum the trek begins, [once passed
the gift shop], with a diorama from the Pleistocene era of Southern Nevada. A display of
petroglyphs and pictographs show the art from an era many thousand years ago. A hands on
exhibit allows visitors to use a mortar and pestle and the mano and metate (me-tį-tay),
used to ground grain.
Early tribes such as the Anasazi (which
means Ancient Ones), (300 BC - AD 150), lived within the current borders of Nevada.
As did the Paiute, Mohave and the Chemehevi Indian people. Evidence of their lifestyles is
on display in dioramas and artifacts showing the tools, weapons and items they used. A
Paiute camp diorama shows a trigger trap used to catch small animals and reptiles,
which they had for dinner.
Moving forward in time one can see items of
early exploration and settlement, including etchings of Jedediah Smith and John C.
Fremont. Mining, pioneer life and riverboats on the Colorado are displayed in a variety of
hands on, audio, and carefully crafted scenes to enlighten visitors of the struggles the
early settlers went through to establish themselves in a hard environment.
The early war years are covered showing such
items as a .30 caliber Browning and the Peerless Automatic Mouse Trap, which
captured its victim then drowned it. A woman's dress shop, similar to "Fannys"
of Las Vegas, exhibits items women wore around 1941.
Gambling dates back as far as 1000 BC. The
first gamblers were the Anasazi Indians. They played games of chance. The Paiutes played
stick-dice games. A game played with twelve small sticks, one side rounded and blank, the
other side flat and marked in red. Four players sitting in a circle took turns tossing the
sticks into a basket or a tray. Five plain sides must turn up to count as one. Marking
their points in the sand, when one accumulated five marks it counted as one stone. Ten
stones wins the game.
The Strip began in 1941 with the
"El Rancho" and its early years are gracefully displayed with black and white
photos of various entertainers such as the Rat Pack, Jimmy Durante, Joe E. Lewis and
many more. Early photos of the El Rancho (1941), the Hotel Last Frontier
(1942), the Flamingo (1956), the Thunderbird Hotel (1948) are on exhibit. A
surge of casinos during the 50s is evident from the photos on display, showing the Desert
Inn (1950), The Sahara (1952), The Sands (1952), The Riviera
(1955), The Dunes (1955), the New Frontier (1955), The Tropicana
(1957), and the Stardust (1958)
Even though the strip was officially born in
1941 by the El Rancho, it was proceeded by The Meadows in 1931. Located at
the corner of Boulder Hwy/Fremont Street and Charleston, it was the local hangout for the
dam workers on payday.
I'm not quite sure what a Japanese Ariska
rifle, a British Enfield .303 rifle, a German Panzerschreck, a Russian .81mm Mortar or
other various Japanese, British and German pistols, daggers and swords have to do with
Nevada's history, but they are on display as well. There is also an exhibit of WW II
posters from assorted countries. These items belong in a different museum, or there should
be some connection as to how they relate to Nevada's history.
Exiting the museum to the rear, one will find
themselves at the head of a nature trail to the right or a path to the left. Taking the
path to the left there is a mock "Ghost town" which consists of several
buildings, including a jail, a general store, a blacksmith shop and a toll cabin.
Collected from various towns in Nevada these buildings were originally moved to an
attraction on the strip called "The Last Frontier Village" in 1950, (I would
assume at the Hotel Last Frontier).
After the closing of the Las Frontier Village,
the buildings were moved to "Fort Lucinda", later called the Gold Strike
Casino, located south of Boulder City. When the Gold Strike expanded their hotel, the
buildings were offered to the museum.
The Tuscarora Jail, c.1880, consists of
two cells with one window each filled with bars and mesh wire. One small room outside the
cells had only a wood stove to ward off the chill of winter. The General Store,
built as a "Sweet Shop" for the Last Frontier Village in 1950, no longer offers
any sweets, but is filled with pots and pans, kettles and livery equipment. A replica of a
1900 Blacksmith Shop offers a look at what this business might have been like 100
years ago. A Toll Cabin from Lamoille Nevada, c.1880, offers a glimpse inside a log
built structure, although there isn't an explanation as to what a "Toll House"
was. An unusual item was the horseshoe above the door. Traditionally the horseshoe is
mounted over the entrance as a sign of "good luck", with the open end up, so
that the "luck" wouldn't "run out". However, the horseshoe on this
building is upside down.
Several items in the yard, obviously mining
equipment, remained unidentified. There were posts at each item displaying a number, but
no reference beyond that.
Further up the trail more modern mining
equipment is seen. Trucks from the 1920s and 30s are on exhibit as is other motorized
equipment from an era long gone.
Beyond the mining exhibit is the "Boulder
City Depot" c.1931, of the Railway Express Agency for the Union Pacific
Railroad. One can see the office for the Depot as a Western Union Telegraph
continuously sends out a Morse code message. A caboose is open to the public allowing a
visitor to see the living arrangements of the rail men in the days of the caboose.
Across from the station is a collection of
historic buildings. Venturing down Heritage Street, the first structure is The
Beckley House, from Las Vegas, 1912. The Beckleys operated Beckley's Men's
Furnishings Store, located at the corner of 1st and Fremont.
Continuing down the street, the next structure
is the Goumond House, from Las Vegas, 1931. Originally located at 420 South 7th
Street. Sitting in the carport is a 1946 Plymouth Coupe. The house has been restored to
the 1950s era, as it was when last lived in. Mr. Goumond opened the Boulder Club on
Fremont Street, across from the Golden Nugget. The bathroom and bedroom are a
reminder of the bad taste Americans had in the 50s, from the "mint green"
color of the walls as well as the furnishings in the bathroom. The kitchen is
"yellow" and the living room is "pink".
Next is the Giles/Barcus House, from
Goldfield, 1905. Edwin Giles was a surveyor. The Giles' house remained in Goldfield until
1952 when their daughter, Edith Barcus, moved it to Las Vegas, near Hacienda and Giles
Street, where it was opened as The Odd Shop, an antique store.
Across the street is the Babcock/Wilcox
House, from Boulder City, 1933. Originally located at 441 Hotel Plaza, it was one of
twelve houses built April 1933 for Babcock/Wilcox employees.
The next structure is a replica of the Donald
W. Reynolds Print Shop, c.1890-1900. Inside are original pieces of printing equipment,
and copies of early newspapers. On November 30th, 1959, the Las Vegas Sun
ran a "headline" that read: Black Widow Bite Fatal to Vegan. Doesn't
sound much like "headline" news. But the man was a prominent 54-year old
chiropractor. He was bitten five times by the deadly insect.
The papers of yesteryear also display great
prices for 1942. Peanut Butter-2lbs for 52 cents; 2 pkgs of Kix cereal for 25 cents;
Albers Corn Flakes, 6oz pkg 2 for 9 cents.
Next door to the Print Shop is a small building
listed as the Motor Court Cabin, from Las Vegas 1935. Motor Courts began in the
1930s in Las Vegas. Tourism was beginning to expand with the building of Hoover Dam. This
particular Motor Court Cabin had no bathroom, no shower (or tub), and no AC. Toilets and
showers were located in a central building.
The final building on the tour of Heritage
Street is the Townsite House, from Henderson, 1941. One of a thousand built by
the U.S. Government for the employees of Basic Magnesium, Inc. in Henderson. This
house seemed to be constructed much cheaper than those of the 1930s. The walls and
ceilings were made of ¼ or ½-inch plywood, with redwood siding. Being mass-produced by
the government they were obviously inferior in furnishings. This particular house was
originally located at 302 West Basic Street.
One can gain quite a bit of insight and
knowledge about Nevada's past from a visit to this museum. There is a vast arrangement of
displays, dioramas and information to entertain the visitor. The museum offers a
membership program where one can learn local history and support the museum. They also
have upcoming events and exhibits, such as the 9th annual Clark County Gem
& Mineral Fair, October 20, 21, & 22; the 13th Old Fashion Christmas
Celebration, December 9th; and Photography & Old West Exhibit, December 16th
- March 26th, 2001.
This essay is copyright© by James Shown,
2000
And may not be reproduced in any form, electronically or otherwise
without the explicit permission of James Shown
(This essay was written 27 December 2000. Check with the
museum for upcoming events and current dates).
James Shown
Dr. Michael Green
Museum Essay #1
27 September 2000
Word Count: 1563