Places
Folklife of Tribal Groups
The four tribes native to the state of Nevada are the Washoe, the Western Shoshone, the Northern Paiute and the Southern Paiute. In adapting to the extremes of the high desert environment, all of these peoples have developed similar ways of life and cultural forms over the thousands of years they... more
Folklife
Folklife is the traditional expressive culture shared within groups of people. The definition used in the establishment of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in 1976 says, "American folklife is the traditional, expressive, shared culture of various groups in the United... more
Folk Groups
Folklore is shared in groups of people; this is the "folk" in folklore. Folk groups share something in common—a heritage or a place or an interest—that makes them distinctive and gives them their identity. Folk groups can be based on such elements as ethnicity, tribe, religion... more
Folk Genres
The "lore" of folklore can be divided into genres or the categories of expression that people learn and create as a part of their heritage. At the broadest level, genres can be categorized as oral, performance, material, or customary. Specifically, the list of folk genres is almost... more
Florence Shilling McClure
Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
Florence Shilling McClure earned the nickname, "Hurricane Flo" because of her strength and relentless advocacy for women and children in Nevada. McClure is a co-founder of the Las Vegas organization, Community Action Against Rape, and she has also worked to improve conditions for... more
Florence Lee Jones Cahlan
Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
In a town and an era in which women often were second-class citizens, Florence Lee Jones was a true Las Vegas leader and pioneer. Born in 1910, Jones was raised in Missouri where she earned a journalism degree from the University of Missouri in 1933. She soon moved to southern Nevada to join her... more
Flora Dungan
Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
Flora Turchinsky Dungan—social worker, accountant, university regent, and state legislator—brought the successful lawsuit that forced Nevada to reapportion its legislature and the governing board of its university system, giving Southern Nevada equal representation in state government.... more
Flora and Fauna of the Great Basin Mountains
Places: White Pine County, Northern Nevada
The Great Basin, despite its name, is a mountainous region. It contains hundreds of mountain ranges, including thirty-three that reach a height of more than 10,000 feet. As with mountains everywhere, those in the Great Basin house many plant and animal species not found in the neighboring lowlands... more
Flamingo Hotel
Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
The opening of the Flamingo Hotel in late 1946 signaled the beginning of the modern era of Las Vegas hotel-casinos on Highway 91, later known as the Strip. The Flamingo set a new standard of luxury for hotel guests and became the first of many stylish casino resorts constructed on the Strip after... more
Welcome to Las Vegas
Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
[VR Morph by Howard Goldbaum]In any list of Las Vegas icons, the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign ranks high. Its mastermind, Betty Willis, was a commercial artist in the 1940s who started designing neon signs in the 1950s for Thomas Young's YESCO and other sign makers. She was... more
Ffolliott (Fluff) LeCoque
Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
Ffolliott LeCoque's career in dance spans the history of the Las Vegas Strip. She continues to work in the Las Vegas entertainment industry as manager of the show "Donn Arden's Jubilee!" at Bally's.Ffolliott, better known as Fluff, was born in Butte, Montana in 1923. She began... more
Wells
Places: Elko County, Northern Nevada
Located in Elko County, Wells became a natural rest area for emigrants heading west because of its open meadows and natural well water. The first written report of the area came from a pioneer's journal in 1845. Because the springs, (or "wells") are the source of the Humboldt River,... more
Fernley
Places: Lyon County, Northern Nevada
The city of Fernley owes its existence to the Newlands Project, which began irrigating a small number of farms in an arid region of western Nevada in 1905. The project, which diverted water from the Truckee River, was the first of its kind to be federally funded. The overall success of the endeavor... more
Welsh: Nineteenth-Century Immigrants from Wales
Places: Northern Nevada, Southern Nevada
For centuries, the Welsh gained international fame as miners. Nevertheless, they were slow to come to Nevada's mines. This was largely due to the fact that coal dominates Wales's industry, giving its workers experience more useful in the coal fields of the eastern United States than in... more
Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction
Nevada's varied settings and history have provided fantasy, science fiction, and horror genres with two very different urban settings, snowy mountains, empty deserts, isolated towns, mining history, near-mythic characters, and, of course, gambling and prostitution.Four novels utilize the... more
West Wendover
Places: Elko County, Northern Nevada
West Wendover, which sits on the eastern edge of Nevada, is a flourishing community, and a testament to the powerful lure of the gaming industry. The city is an offshoot of Wendover, Utah, which was established by officials of the Western Pacific Railroad as a watering station in 1907. In the... more
Fallon Indian Day School
Places: Churchill County, Northern Nevada
Churchill County, like other counties throughout the West, attempted to comply with federal mandates for Native American education in the early 1900s. Federal policy called for Native American children to be educated in English-speaking schools. The paternalistic goal was to assimilate Native... more
Eureka County Courthouse
Places: Eureka County, Northern Nevada
The Nevada legislature created Eureka County in 1873. Officials renovated a former ice rink donated by Judge John O'Darrow to serve as the first county courthouse. A fortified jail and fireproof vault were added to the 40-by-100-foot wooden building located on Main and Bateman Streets. The jail... more
Eureka
Places: Eureka, Eureka County, Northern Nevada
The Eureka Mining District began with a few claims staked in 1864. Initially, miners sent limited silver ore to Austin mills. By 1866, new discoveries attracted more attention, but the presence of lead made milling the silver ore difficult.In 1869, Colonel G. C. Robbins constructed a draft furnace... more
Establishing a Cold War Continental Testing Site in Nevada
Places: Nye County, Southern Nevada
On January 27, 1951, Nevada became the United States’ cold war continental nuclear proving ground when a one-kiloton nuclear device was detonated over Frenchman Flat. The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) chose the Nevada Test Site after carefully considering complex factors involving... more
Esmeralda County Courthouse
Places: Esmeralda County, Southern Nevada
When the seat of government moved from Hawthorne to Goldfield in 1907, county commissioners authorized the construction of a new county facility. The first courthouse still stands in Hawthorne where it later served Mineral County.At a cost of $80,000, the construction contract for the Goldfield... more
Episcopal Church in Nevada
IntroductionThe Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534 and retained an episcopal polity (governance by bishops) of its own. During and after the Revolutionary War, colonial churches avoided the names “Church of England” and “Anglican” and began to... more
English Immigrants
English immigrants, particularly men, came to Nevada in large numbers during the nineteenth century and frequently occupied significant social and economic positions, often becoming community leaders who helped shape the state. English immigrants were active in the western Great Basin prior to the... more
Empire, San Emidio Desert Geothermal Field
Places: Washoe County, Northern Nevada
The San Emidio Desert is an area of major displacement of a fault southwest of Gerlach, Nevada. Geothermal potential in the San Emidio Desert was unknown until the late 1960s, when exploration drilling for sulfur along the east side of the desert encountered hot water. An approximately 4.4 km long... more
Emilie Wanderer
Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
Emilie Wanderer was the first female attorney to open her own practice in Las Vegas. Despite threats, she represented the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the 1950s. She was also the first woman to run for district court. Wanderer worked to protect the interests... more