The Clark County Museum
Clark County Museum
1830 S. Boulder Highway
Henderson, NV
455-7955
Daily 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
General Admission: adults $1.50, seniors and children $1
Group Tours, please call for reservations and special rates
Museum memberships are also available
The Clark County Museum is both a fascinating way to spend some spare time and it is also low cost.
The museum is located in the south eastern portion of the valley off of boulder highway. it is all by itself and some what isolated. There are three main components of the museum; the indoor building, the outdoor museum and Heritage Street where the houses are.
Your first stop is the main building where you pay your admission. The display begins with early life in Nevada before man. There are several displays of Native American tribes and how they lived, this is followed by early settlers and miners. The history of early casinos with old casino equipment is on display.
Although some of the exhibits are very good, I did feel as if it was small.
From what I have heard, they have much more early Las Vegas items, especially show costumes to display but lack the room. When funding permits, they would like to double the floor space.
After you are through with the indoor portion you will have to do some walking (If it is late spring or summer, you might want to bring a hat and/or sunglasses).
After you leave the building you can visit the outdoor museum. This portion of the museum contains old mining equipment and decaying buildings. It is sort of like a mining ghost town, but mostly abandoned equipment. Most of the items are for looking but not touching, so you should stay on the path. There is some wild life to be seen also, such as rabbits, lizards, and white tailed squirrels. Look, but keep children from chasing after them, and you will be okay.
In the middle of the outdoor area is a barn which you can enter and see some vintage items. If you are not interested in old mining equipment you could skip this part of the museum, but at the end of the trail is a train depot and a caboose. These are worth seeing. The train depot has several vintage items on display and the caboose is real. Probably one of the last ones made as it is still in pretty good condition.
The last thing we saw was Heritage Street. This, is the most unique aspect of a museum I have ever seen and is it worth the trip alone. On this street are several houses. Each house is real and was donated to the museum. The houses were transported to this location and restored. Each house is from a different year, and as you open the front door and step inside it is like going back in time. the furnishings and decor are from the time period that the owners lived in the house There is plexi-glass to protect the exhibits but you can move through the main pathways of the houses.
You can go house to house moving down one side of the street and back up the other as if you were "Trick or Treating" on Halloween.
There is one structure that is not a house but a Printing Shop which houses early newspaper equipment.
On the whole the Clark Count Museum is one of my favorite places to visit in Las Vegas.
You can visit their website and see some photos at:
http://www.accessclarkcounty.com/depts/parks/museum/pages/museum.aspx |
