Revamped Battle Born Hall museum exhibit to be unveiled
CARSON CITY, Nevada – “Trailblazing Nevada,” a new museum experience inside Battle Born Hall at the Nevada State Capitol, will be unveiled Wednesday, Oct. 10 at a public reception headed by Gov. Brian Sandoval.
The event starts at 10 a.m. in the old Assembly Chambers on the second floor of the capitol building and will celebrate a months-long renovation of Battle Born Hall made possible by $700,000 in funding from the NV150 Foundation. It is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the ceremony in the Guinn Room.
Joining Sandoval in the ceremony will be former Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, who served as chairman of NV150 Commission, the entity that produced Nevada’s sesquicentennial celebration in 2014. Bud Hicks of the NV150 Foundation and Peter Barton, administrator of the Nevada Division of Museums and History, will also take part in the ceremony.
“I am incredibly excited for the unveiling of Battle Born Hall,” Sandoval said. “This project has been in the works for some time and to see it come to fruition just a few weeks before Nevada Day is a great moment for all Nevadans.”
Seattle-based Pacific Studio, working with staff of the Nevada State Museum, created the new exhibits, which celebrates both Nevada’s wide-open and free spirit and its ingenuity that helped shape the state and the nation.
“Trailblazing Nevada honors the remarkable characters who blazed new paths and found new ways to help our state and nation grow,” Barton said. “It focuses on the historical events that defined Nevada before and after statehood.”
Located inside the former Senate Chambers on the second floor of the capitol, Battle Born Hall is 2,000 square feet and the new exhibit is presented in five exhibit areas that lead visitors on a tour from prehistory, to the mining boom, to statehood, to early Carson City through the 20th Century and looks ahead to the new Nevada of the 21st Century. It includes panels on many of the people and events that defined Nevada in its history.
Each exhibit area also includes interactive interpretive experiences designed to align with 4-grade curriculum to enhance learning. Fourth- and fifth-grade students from Bordewich-Bray Elementary School in Carson City will be on hand to participate in the opening ceremony.
In addition, as part of the Battle Born Hall celebration, a commemorative special edition “Battle Born” medallion will be minted on the Nevada State Museum’s historic Coin Press #1, beginning at noon. Visitors will have the opportunity to purchase a silver blank in the museum store and have it minted as they watch on the coin press. Admission to the museum is free all day on Wednesday, Oct. 10.
After Wednesday, the Battle Born Hall will be open to the public from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. Guided tours of the capitol with docents from the Nevada State Museum take place on Saturdays at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.