Nevada State Museum

Bowers Mansion
to downtown
Carson City
is a short drive.

The Nevada State Museum houses a wide variety of exhibits.

It's housed in the old US Mint building. This branch of the US Mint was established in 1870.

Here currency was coined from silver bullion mined at the nearby Comstock Lode. Almost 50 million dollars in coinage was generated from 1870-1893!

Carson City also has ties to the Pony Express. A plaque commemorates the C.C. relay station and it's most famous Pony Express rider: Bob Haslam.

The Nevada State Museum showcases state diversity in a wide range of exhibits. The main atrium is a converted piece of mining equipment known as a man-skip.



August Fey is considered the Thomas Edison of slot machines. His innovations in this mechanical game may seem trivial. That is, until you consider the tremendous amount of wealth such machines have generated for the state of Nevada.



Upstairs the Nevada State Museum houses natural history and geological exhibits. Among the collections are mineral specimens, illustrated geologic timelines, a mammoth and prehistoric horse skeletons.

The geological exhibit is quite informative. The entire prehistoric history of the southwest is detailed era by era.

Downstairs the Nevada State Museum has an equally informative exhibit on silver mining and coinage.

It was startling to learn about the Coinage Act of 1873. The abundance of silver mined in Nevada was so great, that the price of silver became devalued on the world market!
 

Congress voted to switch from a silver standard to a gold standard. This had a major impact on the U.S. economy and played a role in the Depression of the 1890s.



Lastly, the Nevada State Museum illustrates regional history. A breadth and depth of exhibits range from Kit Carson to the Hoover Dam.



The Nevada State Museum is the perhaps the best concentration of Nevada State History I've come across...