States – Page 12 – Kevin's America

Nevada State Museum

Carson City NV

The Nevada State Museum is located on the site of the original Carson City Mint. It is a pretty substantial museum. There is a ghost town and mining exhibit below the first floor, a fairly large exhibit on the Carson City Mint including many coins, silver items made from Nevada silver, minerals and wildlife.

This museum has a substantial ghost town/mine exhibit underground.

Square set stope, developed in the early days of the Comstock. These are now used the world over to hold heavy ground while extracting ore.

Incline winze, which hoists ore up to the main haulage area.

Cribbed shaft with crosshead and bailer, used to bail water and hoist rock.

Stamp mill. Ore is ground fine and washed over the mercury coated plate. The mercury gathers the gold to form an amalgam.

Copper stope. The ore is mined up from the level below, then lowered from this level on a timber slide.

Abandoned drift, showing the crushing effect of loose ground.

Gold quartz vein. When streaks or pockets of high grade gold are encountered the specimen boss removes as much “high grade” as possible before the heading is again drilled and blasted.

Cinnabar in kaolin. The miner is loading a round of holes for blasting. This method of timbering is spiling, used to advance the heading through loose ground.

Scheelite ore (tungsten). The miner is drilling with a stoper. The fluorescent colors of blue, blue-white and white are crystals of scheelite. The red is calcite (no commercial value).

Coin Press Number 1, which produced its first coins at the Mint in Carson City in 1870. Coins with the CC mint mark are highly prized by collectors.

Bullion wagon used in the Carson City mint to move ingots from one room to another.

Nevada State Capitol

Carson City NV

Nevada state motto, part of the current state flag

36 star flag, representing Nevada as the 36th state in 1864.

Early prospectors used tools like these: crucible used to melt ore, handmade assaying kit, gold/silver poke for carrying ore samples, gold pan, and rock hammer.

Some of the more famous people from Nevada’s history:

The Comstock Lode

Virginia City NV

High grade ore deposits were discovered near here in 1859, ultimately producing about $400,000 in silver and gold. The deposits became know as the Comstock Lode, after Henry T. P. Comstock, who claimed ownership of the ground where the discovery was made. For the next 20 years Virginia City became a boom town, which helped bring Nevada into the Union.

The Comstock Keystone Head Frame. This mine produced 15,074 tons between 1933 and 1939, equating to more than $68,000,000 in gold and $7,000,000 in silver, in today’s value.

Ore was put in a Battery Box, where the ore was crushed into powder, which went through amalgamation plates which captured the gold and silver.

Flat hoisting cable, steel wire flat cable, with a breaking strain of 1400 pounds, used to hoist from depths of up to 2000 feet.

Mark Twain started his career as a writer in this building in 1862 on the editorial staff of the Territorial Enterprise.

Reno NV

One night in Reno Nevada. After the Car museum, it is Italian Dinner, then comedy show.

I remember seeing this guy on Johnny Carson back in the 90s. He was pretty funny.

National Automobile Museum

Reno NV

This museum is one of the best automobile museums in the US. Here are some of my favorite cars.