Preserving the Past: Lost City maintains area's connection to American Indians

The foundation of an adobe dwelling is re-created at the Lost City Museum
Photo by John Gurzinski.


4-year-old Maximilian Stumvoll peers into a Pueblo home on the grounds of the museum in Overton.
Photo by John Gurzinski.

      While much of Southern Nevada gets demolished or built over in the name of progress these days, the Lost City Museum of Archaeology in Overton is preserving the past.
      The museum is the home of American Indian artifacts and dwellings dating back more than 1,000 years, and is believed be the site of the oldest structures made by humans in the area.
      Preserving the past for future generations is the museum's purpose.
      "Most excavation work is salvage work," says the museum's archaeologist, Eva Jensen. "The philosophy in archaeology today is to preserve a site."
      Outside the entrance, a Basketmaker's subterranean pit house is still standing, probably made around 655. The pit houses were 10 to 15 feet in diameter and about 6 feet deep. It's the oldest dwelling at the site. The inhabitants used spears for hunting.
      Inside the museum, which is curated by Kathryne Olson, American Indian artifacts, including arrowheads and tools, are on display.
      A wall of the museum is devoted to photos of the excavation conducted in the 1930s.
      The museum is noted for its collection of Pueblo pottery, which is seldom loaned out to other museums.
      "This is a unique museum that's dedicated to archaeology," Jensen says. "It shows how archaeology was done in the past, and it's a tribute to the Pueblo people."
      There's also a section devoted to early pioneer settlers of the area, including turn-of-the-century farm equipment.
      Museum attendance runs from 30,000 to 50,000 visitors each year, according to museum attendant Betty Westbrook. "We get people from all 50 states and as far away as Zimbabwe to Iceland," she says.
      Informational talks are offered for groups who call ahead and request them.
      A gift shop sells books on archaeology, nature and wildlife, and items made by American Indians.
      In back of the museum, reconstructed pueblo dwellings have been built on the foundations of the actual ruins. "The houses were built with mud and stone, but not much was left after 1,000 years of no maintenance," Jensen says. "This is the best representation" archaeologists could come up with.
      Visitors can go inside the pueblos, which have cottonwood logs for beams. Some have an entrance at the top with a ladder going down into the pueblo, possibly as a means of escaping enemies or wild animals, while most have openings at the side.
      In addition, petroglyphs carved into stone slabs, which were salvaged from an area that now is covered by Lake Mead, are on display outside the museum.
      The National Park Service stopped operating the museum in 1952 and the state took over the following year.
      The museum was built with the help of the Civilian Conservation Corps by the National Park Service in 1935 to show Anasazi Indian artifacts that were being excavated from Pueblo Grande de Nevada. Because Lake Mead was being built, the valuable site was threatened by the rising lake water. Still, about five miles of the sites were covered by the lake.
      The museum building was made of sun-dried adobe brick in a pueblo style. It is one of six museums maintained by the state.
      The Lost City was originally occupied by the Basketmaker people after the first century, then by the Virgin branch of the Anasazi Indians and later by the Pueblos from 700 to 1150. Some of the sites were reoccupied by the Paiute Indians who moved into the area after 1000.
      Explorer Jedidiah Smith was the first non-American Indian to discover the site when he came through the area in 1826-27. He found stone tools in salt caves along the Virgin River where Lake Mead stands today.
      Two brothers from Overton, John and Fay Perkins, made their "discovery" of the dwellings in 1924. M.R. Harrington, a New York archaeologist then excavating in northern Nevada was asked to investigate the sites.
      Harrington checked it out and named the complex Pueblo Grande de Nevada because of it's large size, but the media dubbed it Lost City.
      He began excavations in 1924. From 1933 to 1938, he supervised the excavations and built the Boulder Dam Park Museum (now called the Lost City Museum of Archaeology).
      Archaeological research is still conducted by the museum staff.
      Festival Americana, celebrating American Indian and pioneer crafts, music and food, is held the first Saturday in November.
      Overton is about 60 miles northeast of Las Vegas off Interstate 15.
      General admission is $2 for 18 and over, but members and children are admitted free.
      The museum is closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.
     
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      What: Lost City Museum of Archaeology
      When: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily
      Where: 721 S. Moapa Valley Blvd., Overton
      Admission: $2