By AMY DAVIS
The Progress
Hundreds of people gathered at the newly reopened Nevada Welcome Center in Mesquite to celebrate Nevada Day on Friday, Oct. 30. Hosted by the Virgin Valley Heritage Museum, locals were treated to a whole range of activities to celebrate the history and culture of the Silver State.
“We are actually celebrating Nevada Day a day early,” said Elspeth Kuta, Coordinator at Virgin Valley Heritage Museum who is a stickler for history. Nevada was actually admitted into the union as a state on Oct. 31, 1864.
The event offered a free pumpkin giveaway to attendees. Animals from Windy’s Ranch Rescue were there offering a free petting zoo experience. In addition the young attendees could get an up close look at a fire truck, an ambulance, and a police car. There was even a birthday cake.
Raffle prizes were donated by Shanna and Terry McPheters in remembrance of their daughter.
Kuta, who originally hails from New Zealand, gave a talk on the history of Nevada. She joked that “they left it to the Kiwi to give the history of Nevada.”
She highlighted that Nevada was nicknamed the “Battle Born State” because it achieved statehood during the Civil War; only one of two states to hold that honor. It was the 36th state admitted to the Union.
Kuta also mentioned how Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, designed the Nevada State Seal. In the seal, a train with smoke billowing out of its engine is pictured next to a house with smoke coming out of its chimney. In the original drawing, Clemens thought it would be funny to have the two smokestacks blowing in opposite directions.
“Obviously, this prank didn’t make the final cut,” Kuta laughed.
Mesquite Community Resource Manager Janice Ridondo, who had coordinated much of the event, said that it had exceeded her expectations. “It is not even noon and we have 150 people in attendance,” she said.
Mayor Litman said that it was great to see the families of the community coming together in the Visitor’s Center location that has been closed to the public for so long. “This is going to be a viable, beautiful visitor center again after a long, long break,” Litman said. “I am really pleased with it.”
Ridondo expressed gratitude to the City Council for being bold in getting the welcome center back open. Ridondo hopes that, in the future, locals may be able to visit the facility often.
“As our community grows, we would love to do one or two events a month here at the visitors center,” Ridondo said. “The community needs to know that we love them, we are glad they are here, we wanna keep them safe but we want them to enjoy this beautiful community. There is just nothing like Mesquite.”
Ridondo expressed gratitude to all those who lent a hand in organizing the event. “Leora at the senior center made us a beautiful Nevada birthday cake,” she said. “Krissy and Elspeth are so amazing to work with. Our disposal company got me the dumpster at the last minute. Rik Eide from Great Basin Cooking went to Enterprise, UT and got all those pumpkins for us.”
“Planning these kinds of events with COVID restrictions is always tricky,” Ridondo said. “All I can say next year, for 2021, we will probably hold this event on a Saturday, I am going to need 100 volunteers! I am asking you now!”
“Hopefully, we won’t need to social distance by then and we will fill this place!” she said.
