Last week, I wrote about the Valley of Fire State Park being a terrific day trip from Las Vegas. If you make the trip, why not tack on a trip to the Lost City Museum to round out the experience? This museum, one of six state museums in Nevada, was created in 1935 by the National Park Service to house and preserve artifacts unearthed at the nearby Pueblo Grande de Nevada (“The Lost City”) site. With the construction of the Hoover Dam, this site was going to be flooded, and those artifacts might have been lost forever. The Civilian Conservation Corps helped dig up the artifacts and build this museum to house them.
You’ve heard of the Anasazi Indians, right? These ancient Puebloans inhabited this region well over a thousand years ago before suddenly disappearing for no apparent reason. The artifacts you’ll see here at the museum are from that civilization.
The museum is built on the ancient site of a pueblo and the state has taken pains to recreate dwellings such as the kind they would have lived in. In front of the museum building is an example of an underground pit house, only accessible via a hole and a ladder. Later, they lived above ground in pueblos. If you go for a walk behind the museum building, you’ll be able to see some reconstructed pueblos up close.
Inside the museum, take your time browsing through their collection of artifacts and fossils. There is a timeline of the region and a history of the archaeological digging in the area. If you’re into archaeology, you’ll learn a lot about the process here.
You’ll also discover that the Valley of Fire used to be underwater, and learn what creatures used to live here in the age of dinosaurs. (Dino-penguin, anyone?) The museum features rotating art exhibits and a small gift shop with very nice souvenirs and jewelry.
Make no mistake, this is a small museum. It’s a far cry from the Louvre. But bigger isn’t always better. If you’re interested in learning more about the region’s history and the culture of its ancient peoples, it’s definitely worth a stop. It helps put those petroglyphs that you saw in the Valley of Fire in perspective when you see more of the culture that created them.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Location: 721 South Moapa Valley Blvd., Overton, NV. (Don’t blink, or you’ll miss it.)
Hours: 8:30am – 4:30pm Thurs-Sun (closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day)
Expect to spend about an hour here, especially if you stop and read the histories.