From our Humanities Consultant

Over the past few years our local museum here in Las Vegas has seen many positive changes and improvements. For the last year and a half I have been fortunate enough to witness it first hand. Museums have always been of great interest to me, and having the opportunity to participate in the events at the Las Vegas City Museum has been an invaluable learning experience for me. Since beginning my work at the museum over a year ago I have gotten the chance to try my hand at archiving various artifacts, I have researched and developed a presentation for the Night On the Range Cowboy Event held at the CCHP on Bridge Street, and I have assisted Nellie Price, our museum educator, in developing Las Vegas Alive, an interactive learning game for children. The latter of these projects is my current assignment. Currently I am working on revising a few of the campaigns I have already researched and prepared. Campaigns are narrative descriptions of a historical event that either took place in Las Vegas, or had direct involvement with Las Vegas and its inhabitants. To date we have campaigns on the Civil War, Fort Union, the Santa Fe Trail, and the Mexican American War. Each of these are covered in the first timeline of the game, 1821-78. Once I research these topics and write a 3-4 page report I turn them into Nellie. Edwina Romero has been extremely helpful in editing my work. At this point in the process I am revising each report according the the corrections that Edwina has suggested. What I enjoy most about working on this project is that everyone works as a team. I look forward to the completion of Las Vegas Alive. I hope visitors will not only enjoy playing it, but will take a piece of Las Vegas with them to share with others!


Laura M. Gonzales