Carson City celebrates Smithsonian Museum Day

Three Carson City museums are linking up programs Saturday to celebrate Smithsonian Museum Day.

The Nevada State Railroad Museum, the Nevada State Museum and the Children's Museum of Northern Nevada are all featuring exhibits this weekend highlighting the state's history of mining and its connection to railroads.

"What we've kind of done is try to unify," said Deborah Stevenson, Nevada State Museum education coordinator.

All three museums are located on Carson Street. The state museum and the children's museum are two blocks apart on North Carson and the railroad museum, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, is several blocks away on South Carson.

"We thought people could make a day of it," Stevenson said.

Linking the exhibits is an effort to present a more cohesive history of Carson City, said Rich Reitnauer, of the Nevada State Railroad Museum.

The Comstock Lode is well-known and the state museum is a reminder of when a U.S. Mint was located here, so coins could be pressed from the metals taken from the hills. But there is little visible information explaining how that history is linked with the history on display at the railroad museum, Reitnauer said.

"Without the railroad, the mines never would have developed as fast or become as successful as they did, and they wouldn't have had the U.S. Mint here," he said.

The children's museum on Saturday will host several railroad crafts and family activities from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the railroad museum will present the "family-oriented" program "Railroading and Mining on the Comstock" from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.

The Nevada State Museum from 1-4 p.m. will feature prospectors' tales, artifacts, the popular mine exhibit, an opportunity to make rock art stencils. The sate museum will also be making a major effort Saturday to welcome Spanish-speaking visitors, giving all tours in Spanish as well as English.

"The Latino population is the fastest-growing population the American West, so we want them to feel welcome in the museum," Stevenson said.

"We want to expand our customers and we wanted to see what would happen if we invited Spanish-speaking people."

Admission to all three museums will be free with a coupon from the April issue of Smithsonian Magazine. To celebrate the publication's 35th anniversary hundreds of museums across the country are participating in Smithsonian Museum Day.

n Contact reporter Cory McConnell at cmcconnell@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1217.

If you go

What: Smithsonian Museum Day. Ride a handcar, make a rock-art stencil at three Carson City museums.

When and where:

Saturday

• 1-4 p.m. at the Nevada State Museum, 600 N. Carson St.; 687-4810 ext. 237

• 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Nevada State Railroad Museum, 2180 S. Carson St.; 687-8291

• 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Children's Museum of Northern Nevada, 813 N. Carson St.; 884-2226