Nevada State Museum Docent Training Lecture
On Wednesday, January 23, Rusty and I made our way down snowy Highway 395 to the Nevada State Museum in Carson City, Nevada to present a PowerPoint lecture entitled “Meaningful Memories of the Carson City Mint,” to a room of thirty future docents (otherwise known as museum tour guides to you and me) during the annual NSM winter training seminar.
The hour long lecture focused on the most significant years and events that took place at the Carson City Mint. Along with his lecture, Rusty also handed-out a long list of significant dates concerning the mint, for each participant to take home and study for future use. Do you think you could list some of these off the top of your head? A few of these points included (and see if you got these):
1866 – Ground-breaking for construction of the mint in Carson City
1870 – First coins struck at the Carson Mint
1874 – James Crawford appointed superintendent
1876 – Highest coinage production year
1885 – Operations suspended at mint
1889 – Operations resumed at mint
1893 – Coinage operations suspended for good
1933 – All operations cease for good at mint
1941 – Mint building transformed into the Nevada State Museum
During his talk, Rusty was sure to point out that the even though the museum boasts lots of different exhibits, the most important exhibit (and really the only reason the museum is where it is located today) is the Carson City Mint. He further explained that the future docents play such an influential role in regards to relaying that importance of the Carson City Mint to the crowds of visitors that wander into the museum daily.
It is surprising how few people know about the existence of the Carson City Mint and what an impact it had on not only the local economy but also the national economy during its time. It is our hope that all of those thirty future docents feel passionate enough about their heritage and about the significance of our hometown federal mint to share that information with many others.
Our journey to teach more people about the “CC” mintmark continues!
…Amy