Places
Harry Reid
Harry Reid had a long, hard fight to get to the top of Nevada politics, and he's had to struggle just as hard to stay there. Born December 2, 1939, in Searchlight, Nevada, Reid attended high school in Henderson, where one of his teachers was future Nevada governor Mike O'Callaghan. Reid was... more
Harolds Club Roaring Camp Gun Collection
Roaring Camp was a specific room in Harolds Club, but it was more than that: It was the name of general manager Raymond I. "Pappy" Smith's floating tribute to antique guns, a massive collection of weapons displayed throughout much of the casino. It was a museum of the highest order in... more
Harolds Club Mural
Places: Reno, Washoe County, Northern Nevada
In 1949, Harolds Club commissioned a mural honoring the pioneers of the Old West. The design was created by painter Theodore McFall, and the mural itself was constructed by artist Sargent Claude Johnson of San Francisco, California, then fired into porcelain by Mordecai Wyatt Johnson at the Paine-... more
Harolds Club Innovations
Places: Reno, Washoe County, Northern Nevada
Harolds Club in Reno was the first modern casino in Nevada. Although it struggled financially following its opening in 1935, it soon began to flourish, due in large part to several innovations that changed the nature of the state's relatively new business of legalized gambling.First came... more
Harolds Club
Places: Reno, Washoe County, Northern Nevada
On his twenty-fifth birthday, February 23, 1935, Harold Smith Sr. opened a tiny gambling club in Reno, Nevada. He had come to “the biggest little city” because California was cracking down on the carnival games his family ran in the Bay Area, and in 1931 Nevada had legalized gambling.... more
Hares of Nevada
There are three species of hares (genus Lepus) native to Nevada: the blacktail jackrabbit (Lepus californicus), the whitetail jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii), and the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus). Of these, the blacktail is the most widely distributed within the state.Commonly seen dashing across... more
Hardrock Mining
Early hardrock miners in Nevada used a traditional technology derived from medieval Europe, Spanish Colonial America, and China. They dug open "glory holes" or shallow shafts down to a depth of 100-200 feet to reach the ore body. Once underground, the miners dug "ratholes" to... more
Hank Monk
In 1859, noted eastern journalist Horace Greeley visited the region he promoted with the oft-quoted recommendation "Go West young man." During his travels, he came to Genoa, the period's chief settlement on the eastern slope of the Sierra. Pressed to arrive in time to give a speech in... more
Hamilton and Treasure Hill
Places: White Pine County, Northern Nevada
A mineral strike in January 1867 resulted in the "White Pine Excitement" and the founding of Treasure City (originally Tesora) perched on Treasure Hill. Silver ore assayed at as much as $15,000 per ton. The astounding figure was over three times greater than some of the best ore from the... more
Hacienda Hotel
Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
By the mid-1950s, Warren "Doc" Bayley, a former travel writer and one-time farmer from Wisconsin, owned a small but profitable chain of motels under the name Hacienda in California. Bayley used a model unusual for the cut-rate motel room business, providing his patrons—mostly... more
Gypsum Cave
Places: Clark County, Southern Nevada
Gypsum Cave is a five-room limestone cave in Sunrise Mountain, approximately 12 miles east of Las Vegas. For a twelve-month period, between January 1930 and 1931, noted early archaeologist Mark R. Harrington (1882-1971) and a small crew of Native Americans dug through most of the cave's deposit... more
Guy McAfee
Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
Born in Winfield, Kansas, in 1888, Guy McAfee eventually joined the Los Angeles Police Department. He rose to the rank of vice squad captain in his twenties and became acquainted with the proprietors of nightclubs, illegal gambling operations, and brothels.McAfee eventually decided he could make... more
Grimes Point
The Grimes Point site is a part of a much larger archaeological complex, which includes a wide variety of materials, caves, shelters, and other archaeological sites. The site is located on what was once a shoreline of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan and is best known for the cupules, which are small pits... more
Greek Revival Style Architecture in Nevada
Places: Lander County, Northern Nevada
In recognition of the legacy of democracy the United States inherited from the ancient world, classical architecture repeatedly became an inspiration for design in the American Republic. Architectural historians refer to one of the earliest phases of this borrowing as Greek Revival, with eighteenth... more
Greater Sage-Grouse
Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) are large, chicken-like birds found in sagebrush habitats in the western United States. They are the largest North American grouse—males weigh up to 7 lbs—and are known for the impressive aggregations of displaying males at traditional... more
Great Basin Prehistoric Footwear
In Nevada, people have been making woven sandals and leather moccasins for the last 10,000 years. Prehistoric footwear, however, is relatively rare. Among the historic tribes in Nevada (Washoe, Western Shoshone, Northern Paiute, Southern Paiute), people preferred to go barefoot as much as possible... more
Great Basin Bristlecone Pine
The Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) Nevada's state tree, includes the oldest living trees in the world (maximum recorded age of 5,062 years as of 2013). This species is characteristic of the subalpine zone in some Great Basin mountain ranges where it is the dominant tree species... more
Great Basin Alpine Vegetation
Places: White Pine County, Northern Nevada
Alpine tundra is broadly defined as the zone of low-growing herbaceous or shrubby plants found above the tree line (the uppermost elevation where trees occur). This definition is inadequate for the Great Basin, where subalpine forest is not always present to form a tree line. A more apt definition... more
Grapevine Canyon Petroglyphs and Creation Mythology
Places: Clark County, Southern Nevada
Grapevine Canyon is located about five miles outside Laughlin at the base of Newberry Peak in the Newberry Mountains. For thousands of years, the Mojave Indians have called this their homeland. Although it is unknown whether the Mojaves created the panoply of rock art that adorns the cliff sides of... more
Grafton Brown: Lithography
Places: Virginia City, Storey County, Northern Nevada
Grafton Tyler Brown (1841-1918) was born of free parentage in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In all likelihood, he had the distinction of being the first professional African-American artist to venture into Nevada. In the 1860s, Brown created numerous hand-drawn black and white lithographs of... more
Grafton Brown
Grafton Tyler Brown, perhaps the first African American artist to depict California and the Pacific Coast, was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, February 22, 1841. Before he was twenty, Brown moved to San Francisco and learned the art of lithography from C. C. Kuchel. In 1861 and again in 1864,... more
Governor's Arts Awards Recipients
While traditional and folk arts are grounded in communities and accessible to all, there inevitably arise exemplary practitioners of any art form who take those traditions to new heights. All of these artists would practice their skills regardless of payment or recognition, and many of them would... more
Gothic Revival Style Architecture in Nevada
Gothic Revival architecture in Nevada is easily identified by its pointed window and doorway arches, and its gingerbread bargeboards along the eaves. In more elaborate manifestations, the style included tracery in the windows, pinnacles, and battlements, but these are often absent in the more... more
Gordon Newell Mott
Gordon Newell Mott sat on the Nevada territorial supreme court, playing a role in the pivotal single ledge case, which determined the ownership of Comstock mines; additionally, he served as a territorial delegate to Congress.Born in Zanesville, Ohio, in 1812, Mott was admitted to practice law in... more
Good Time Coming?: Black Nevadans in the Nineteenth Century
In 1975, Elmer Rusco (1928-2004) published Good Time Coming?: Black Nevadans in the Nineteenth Century (Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 1975). To date, this remains the most complete and significant scholarly work on the history of 19th century African Americans in Nevada.Rusco, a political... more