National Register Listing

Boulder Dam Park Museum

a.k.a. Lost City Museum

NV 169, W side, Overton, NV

The Lost City Museum of Overton, Nevada, is significant under Criterion A for its association with the Lost City (Pueblo Grande de Nevada) archaeological excavations performed in the 1920s and 1930s. It is also significant under Criterion C as a vernacular adaptation of the Pueblo Revival style of architecture, constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and rarely seen in Nevada.

The Lost City played an important role in the development of archaeological research in the state. The ancient city was an early center of the population it what is now Nevada Archaeologist M.R. Harrington began excavations there in 1925. These excavations continued sporadically into the 1930s. The site received national publicity when it became clear that Lake Mead, created by the construction of Boulder Dam, would flood most of the prehistoric city. The National Park Service, encouraged by the state of Nevada, began a salvage program to dig as many sites as possible. Intensive excavations continued until 1938 when the lake inundated much of the site. These excavations were among the earliest government-sponsored archaeology projects in Nevada and predated the Historic Sites Act of 1935, which provided for federal funding of archaeological and preservation work.

The CCC participated in both the excavations at the Lost City and the construction of the museum itself. The Franklin D. Roosevelt administration created the CCC as part of its New Deal to pull the United States out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. The Civilian Conservation Corps Reforestation Relief Act, which was enacted into law on March 31, 1933, established a program to provide conservation service jobs for unemployed single men during the depression. This act represented the federal government's effort to promote the welfare of American society. It authorized the CCC to offer work for 250,000 male citizens, aged 18 to 25, in reforestation, road construction, prevention of soil erosion, flood control projects, and national park and forest projects under the direction of army officers. The CCC established work camps; participating youths received $30 per month, part of which went to dependents. Four government departments (War, Interior, Agriculture, and Labor) cooperated in administering and implementing the program. The CCC had as many as 500,000 men on its rolls at one time; by the end of 1941, it had employed over 2,000,000 young men.

The CCC worked on a number of public works projects in Nevada, most notably constructing ranger stations for the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service (NPS), and reconstructing Fort Churchill (built in 1860) in Lyon County. CCC workers became involved in the Lost City project as part of the NPS's development of Boulder Dam State Park. The museum served as the centerpiece of the park. During World War II, the NPS used the museum building as its Overton headquarters. The federal government ran the site until 1952 when the state of Nevada assumed control of the property. The museum became part of the Nevada Department of Museums and History in 1979. The Lost City Museum continues to play a significant role in southern Nevada by educating the public about the Anasazi culture, the early twentieth-century excavations of Pueblo Grande de Nevada, and the CCC project to construct the museum itself.

The Lost City Museum is also significant for representing the early twentieth-century interest in Native American cultures and artifacts. In the late nineteenth century, with the loss of a significant number of North American Indian tribes, many Americans, particularly collectors and artists, began acquiring Native American artifacts as a means to preserve these disappearing cultures. By the 1920s and 1930s, numerous artists including the painter Georgia O'Keeffe and the photographer Paul Strand had traveled extensively through the Southwest, seeking what they considered to be pure American objects and forms to inspire their art. Although the Lost City Museum was founded as an archaeological and anthropological institution, it reflected a broader enthusiasm for Native American arts and culture. The exhibits of baskets, pots, and tools present the artifacts in an artistic as well as an anthropological context.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1996.