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March 28, 2024 10:08 am
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EDITORIAL: Ancient History…In Our Own Backyard

It is easy, and not uncommon, to take important hometown historical attractions for granted. It is not hard, for example, to find people living in the Washington D.C. area who have never been to the Smithsonian. Many people residing in Boston have never visited Lexington and Concord. And, yes, many people from Logandale, Overton and Moapa seldom ever make visits to the Lost City Museum.

Living here, it is easy to forget just how rare it is for a community the size of the Moapa Valley to merit such a respected and renowned museum. It is true that many rural communities maintain a small historical society for the preservation and display of local history. The OLSHACS organization, housed in the Old Logandale School building, serves that purpose for this community; and it is does an admirable job at it. But, even so, very few small towns have anything that approaches what we have in the Lost City Museum.

Last weekend the Museum celebrated Nevada Archaeology Awareness and Historic Preservation Month with the opening of a new exhibit entitled Southern Nevada Landscapes of Change. The new exhibit was compiled and researched by Museum Archaeologist Eva Jensen and designed by Exhibit Designer Tom Cunningham.

The exhibit offers a huge array of history going back to the earliest settlement of this valley. The prehistoric culture that built a puebloan city at the convergence of the Muddy and Virgin Rivers was here from around AD 400 until it mysteriously disappeared around AD 1150. The new exhibit presents this ancient civilization in an orderly, beautifully displayed and easy-to-understand format. Here are beads, arrowheads, hunting implements, pottery, baskets, tools and even original foundations (and replicas) of adobe dwellings left behind by an apparently prosperous group of ancient people living right here in this valley over a millennium ago.

Almost as fascinating as the story of the ancient Lost City is the story of its discovery back in the 1920s. Hearing rumors of a lost puebloan civilization in Southern Nevada, and desiring to develop tourist attractions for the struggling state, then-Nevada Governor James Scrugham recruited well respected experts to find and uncover the legendary Pueblo Grande de Nevada. Once it was found, and excavation had begun, Scrugham launched a brilliant publicity campaign to make the discovery known to the entire world. The new exhibit documents this discovery, and its accompanying publicity, thoroughly with old photographs, working implements, building materials, press clippings and detailed record books.

In addition to the fascinating objects and artifacts contained inside the museum, the building is, itself, an historic structure. It was built in 1935 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, a federal work program that was part of FDR’s New Deal. It was under construction during the final months of the Lost City excavation, while the waters of Lake Mead were rising around the Pueblo Grande de Nevada site. It was built especially to house the artifacts found at the dig sites.

The fact that this museum is located just down the street makes it easy to forget its great importance as a repository of history. Indeed, the remnants of the local prehistoric Puebloan society have been, and still are, an internationally-renowned attraction. It was so in the 1920s and -30s when people came by rail from all over the country into the Moapa Valley to witness, and even participate in, this famous archaeological expedition. And it is so today as the Lost City site is still well known and studied among archaeological scholars, students of ancient anthropology and archivists all over the world.

This wonderful local facility should not be taken for granted. The opening of the new exhibit provides an excellent opportunity for local families, old and young, to go and re-experience this fantastic local resource.

Truly, the community owes a debt of gratitude to Museum Director Kathryne Olson and her excellent staff for their vision and persistence in maintaining and caring for this historical attraction which continues to draw multitudes of people from all over the world into this community.

We encourage all in the community to take advantage of it as well. Visit the Lost City Museum and become experts on some real ancient local history!

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