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| - The Nevada State Museum puts me in a nerdy State of Mind. I am a fan of museums because they are educational and inspiring.
After a rough week where drama and the Mount Charleston hiking trails that I go to to escape stress in the summer were on fire; I had to get away. On Saturday my get away was the Nevada State Museum.
The Nevada State Museum is the northernmost building of the Springs Preserve complex. It is bordered by museums and the parkland of the Springs Preserve. It is one of the six Nevada State Museums that include the Southern Nevada Railroad Museum in Boulder City and Lost City Museum in Overton. This museum is relatively small yet what it lacks in size it makes up for in quality. The best way to describe the layout is to compare it to a rectangle. The vertical line in the center is the primary corridor from the entrance to the balcony overlooking the Springs Preserve. To the right of the line is the changing exhibits and the left is the permanent exhibit a.k.a. main area. This review pertains to the permanent exhibit. Touring it at a casual pace, took me from 11:00 AM to 12:36 PM. For the record, the lighting ranges from slightly dim to moderate under a black ceiling. If you are travelling a distance to visit this museum, I suggest combining it with a hike in the Springs Preserve, which is free (unless it is over 110 degrees). This review discusses the sections in the permanent exhibit moving clockwise, as I toured them.
Entry Portal:
The first thing I saw when I walked in the permanent exhibits room was Christopher the Colombian Mammoth. This is a dinosaur skeleton that is a familiar display in many museums. He coexists with a Shasta ground sloth and Pacific horse fossil.
The Land:
Being a hiker I appreciated this area. I learned more about the fauna and mammals that I see and never want to see on Southern Nevada hiking trails. There was a video on geology. There was a menagerie of stuffed animals with cool facts such as the coyote population grew in the west when their enemies the bear and wolves died down. I learned cool facts about the temperature that included the hottest Nevada temp hitting 125 degrees in Laughlin in 1994 to the record low Nevada temperature of minus 50 in San Jacinto in 1937.
Early Days:
This exhibit covers Nevada's mining days, the railways, and boom town era. The most popular exhibit is where people press on what looks like handle bars to control a boom town railroad. There is neat displays dedicated to Hoover Dam, the Federal Government, and the Test Site.
People:
This exhibit really brought out the nerdy side of me. I enjoyed learning that Nevada became a state carved out of Utah Territory in 1861 because of President Lincoln's political needs not because of mining. All the facts I want to pass on will put me over the 5,001 character limit.
Viva Las Vegas:
This is a neat exhibit that showcases casino memorabilia, antique slot machines, show costumes, historic photos, and Las Vegas exhibits. Howard Hughs gets a lot of mention here. Being a geography nerd, I was really into the aerial 1950 map that showed a Vegas where Boulder Highway is a rural road, freeways are sand, and the Strip of today is mostly open space.
The Exit:
I walked out of the Nevada State Museum a smarter man than when I came in. If exhibits could take my mind off drama and keep me focused, the museum is doing something right. In all honesty I have learned more about history, science, and art at museums than I learned in school. In a City that encourages people to stand up and be proud of who you are, the Nevada State Museum makes me stand up and be proud of being a museum nerd.
The Daniel. S 2013 Yelp 100 Challenge. Review 96.
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