My sister and I struggled a bit to come up with things to do while visiting my mom earlier this month.  Usually we like to do a bit of hiking at either Red Rock Canyon, The Valley of Fire or the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.  But with temps over 100° every day, hiking was not really an option.

In addition, we’ve pretty much done most of the other touristy things in the Las Vegas area like visiting the strip or the Hoover Dam.  We’ve toured the Ethel M factory, and we’ve been to the bird viewing preserve. We’ve seen quite a few Cirque du Soleil and other shows over the years too.

But strangely enough, we’d never bothered to check out the Clark County Museum despite that fact that it is literally 1.3 miles from my mom’s townhouse.

We’ve driven past it countless times, but it just doesn’t really look like much from Boulder Highway.

However, this time around I googled the museum to look up the hours and found that their website describes the museum as “a 30-acre site that features a modern exhibit hall with a timeline exhibit about southern Nevada from pre-historic to modern times and a collection of restored historic buildings that depict daily life from different decades in Las Vegas, Boulder City and Henderson.”

Wait a minute.  What?!  A collection of restored historic buildings?  If that isn’t right up my alley I don’t know what is.  I first fell in love with open air museums in Denmark, Sweden and Norway.  Since then I’ve been to others in the U.K. (the Beamish) and the Netherlands (Zaanse Schans).  We even have a couple of smaller ones right here in the Twin Cities (the Gammelgården Museum in Scandia and The Landing in Shakopee).

An open air museum is basically a museum that collects and displays historic buildings that usually have been moved from their original location for preservation.

Had I realized that the Clark County Museum was mostly an open air museum, I’m sure I would have visited much sooner.

And had I known that there was so much to explore I definitely would have worn better walking shoes that day!

The museum is broken down into several different sections.  There is a desert garden area, which frankly wasn’t looking so good.  That is not a criticism.  My garden isn’t looking so good at this time of year either, and we didn’t just break a record for 100 days over 100° in a year.  I may have to go back and check out the garden area in the spring.

There is also ghost town.

I’ve never actually been to an authentic ghost town, but my sister has been to several and she said this reproduction felt very authentic with its ramshackle buildings …

a cemetery …

and old cast off vehicles.

There is also a railroad exhibit with a depot building and some train cars.

However, that area was being re-painted and thus was closed while we were there.

My favorite area by far though was the Heritage Street of Historic Homes.

It was so interesting to see these historic homes and imagine what it was like to live in them, in the Las Vegas area, back before they had things like air conditioning!

The first home we toured was the Beckley House.

This craftsman style bungalow was built in 1912 on Fourth Street in Las Vegas at a cost of $2,500.  It’s interesting to me that this house looks like it could be anywhere in the U.S. with its green lawn and shade trees.  You don’t see much of this style of architecture or landscaping in the Las Vegas area anymore.

All of the houses were fully furnished to represent a particular time period and when you entered there was music playing from that decade which was a nice touch.

The next house on the street, the Goumond House, was a Tudor Revival style house built in 1931.

It was restored to represent the 1950’s, which I found to be quite fun.

I especially got a kick out of the mint green bathroom.

It’s complete with not only a mint green tub, sink and toilet, but even the toilet paper was authentic vintage mint green t.p.  Do any of you remember back when t.p. came in colors other than white?  Check out this article from Talking Crap if you’re wondering whatever happened to colored toilet paper.

My sister and I had to chuckle at the mannequins in the living room, especially the gal with a cigarette in her hand giving an authentic 1950’s vibe.

Am I the only one now picturing the atomic bomb test scene from the Indiana Jones movie?  You know, the one where Indy stumbles into a fake town full of mannequins performing everyday tasks only to realize they are about to blow it up with an atomic bomb.

This doesn’t feel too far from reality seeing as they did test nuclear bombs 65 miles north of Las Vegas from 1951 to 1992 (is this why we only drink bottled water when visiting my mom?)

I also enjoyed the Babcock & Wilcox house that was built in 1933 in Boulder City to house workers during the construction of the Hoover Dam.

That screen porch on the front could be used as a sleeping porch in the summer.

This house has a marvelously mint green bathroom as well.

Although the house is small and rather basic, it does have a pleasant kitchen/laundry room for the wife to slave away in while her husband was off building the dam.

You’ll also find a little section of Heritage Street devoted to “mobile America” with its motor court cabin.

and travel trailer.

These made me think about the road trip that my grandparents took my mom on in 1953 (I shared the story of that trip here).  They traveled through Las Vegas on that trip and in her scrapbook my grandmother noted that it was “mostly gambling places & motels”.

They stayed at the Monterey Lodge Motel in a double cabin for $8 per night.

I don’t really know why I find the history of this area so interesting.  I suppose I’m a bit fascinated by the idea of a city that sprouted up in the middle of the desert going from a population of 22 people in 1900 (for comparison, the population of Minneapolis in 1900 was just over 200,000) to a current metro area population of nearly 3 million.  It’s interesting to learn about the things that drew people to the area, first a railroad stop, then the building of a dam, then military facilities and finally legalized gambling.

These days I suspect most people don’t bother with a car when visiting Las Vegas, and unfortunately the Clark County Museum is not easy to get to without a car.  It’s about 30 minutes away from the strip, and I don’t know if there are any public transportation options available.  But the next time you’re in Las Vegas, consider renting a car for a day or two.  Check out the museum on your way to see the Hoover Dam and learn about the history of the area.

I’m curious, have any of you been to this museum?  Leave a comment and let me know.