By NICK YAMASHITA
The Progress
The Lost City Museum is seeing a bit of an overhaul this summer as a new exhibit will be featured at the downtown Overton museum.
“We have a few changes coming, and a very interesting set of presentations that are open to the public this summer,” said Museum Attendant Jesse Davie of the summer plans for the museum.
Firstly, the museum will hold its Lost City Lecture Series this summer.
First up in the series will take place on Saturday, June 15 starting at 11 a.m.. This presentation is titled “Pre-Contact Domestic Dog in the Moapa Valley.” The lecture will focus on the domestication of the canine, covering the earliest dog burials in North America and the early possible uses of dogs in the Moapa Valley.
The lecture will be presented by archaeologist and museum curator Virginia Lucas. Davie said she will be presenting some information from the excavations of the Pueblo Grande de Nevada performed under the supervision of Dr. Mark Harrington in the 1930s.
Harrington was the curator of archaeology at the Southwest Museum of the American Indian in Los Angeles, CA. He held that position from 1928 – 1964.
Harrington was called in by the state of Nevada to excavate the ancient Pueblo structures in Overton, beginning in 1933.
Lucas is originally from Lebanon, Tennessee, but she moved to Las Vegas in 2015 where she is a current candidate for her doctorate in Anthropology, specializing in zooarchaeology. She is attending UNLV and works as the Curator of Archaeology at the Lost City Museum.
Davie said this lecture series will be presented monthly throughout the summer.
July’s presentation will be held on July 6. It will be about Paleolakes in the Mojave Desert by Archaeologist Kara Jones.
In addition, some changes are being made to the exhibit space at the museum. The art gallery is being moved to a new section of the museum to make room for an all new exhibit. The new exhibit will be a revolving exhibit provided by the new Ice Age Fossils State Park in North Las Vegas. Items that are discovered from there will be present for viewing Davie said.
“Unfortunately due to the changes being done, the annual Hot and Dusty art show will not be hosted by the museum in August this year,” he said. “We hope that all understand that this is to allow for better educational and historical tools and exhibits here.”
Davie said the current art exhibition is featured around the work of local Moapa Valley resident Kim Delgadillo and will be running through the end of next month. He added that all are welcome to attend the museum for any of the events and to see Delgadillo’s art.
The Lost City Museum is located at 721 S. Moapa Valley Blvd. For more information, visit www.lostcitymuseum.org or call (702) 397-2193.
