Monday, April 11, 2011

Clark County Museum – Henderson

Clark County Museum
Clark County Museum - Truck

If you are in Henderson Nevada, outside of Las Vegas, and you want to pass a few hours looking at something historical, then check out the Clark County Museum located at 1830 S. Boulder Highway. The obvious place to start is - right after purchasing a ticket - in the main exhibit hall. Here you will find a “timeline of Southern Nevada from prehistoric times through the 20th century.” In the exhibit you can learn a few things but the one that stuck out in our minds is that the Paiute played stick-dice games in Las Vegas long before the legalization of gambling in 1931, so gambling must be in the water, right? Speaking of water, the origin of the name Las Vegas comes from the Spanish terms vegas or meadows referring to the artesian wells (not artisan!) that supported large meadows at one time.

You wouldn’t miss too much if you left the cramped (and slightly kitschy) exhibit hall for later and headed to the outdoor exhibits first. The Heritage Street of Historic Homes, followed by the Boulder City Depot and the Ghost Trail proved to vastly more interesting – in our opinion. They literally have moved houses from around the area to this mocked up Heritage street so that if you are fan or just have a passing interest in architecture this will be interesting. Nearby there is the popular structure called the Candlelight Wedding Chapel that was built in 1966 and moved to the museum site in 2007. There are some real dummies waiting to get married in there! Beyond the Heritage Street of Historic Homes there is a lot to poke around and see in the Ghost Town Trail. The museum closed on us as we got there late and spent only about 1.5 hours. We could have used 2-3 hours easily.

The Goumond House
Clark County Museum - Goumond House

Some Real Dummies Waiting To Get Married at the Candlelight Wedding Chapel
Clark County Museum - Candlelight Chapel

Clark County Museum Map
Clark County Museum - Brochure Map

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