Videos

	Videos Published by the Churchill County Museum
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20 minute program on the history of Dixie Valley

VHS or DVD
$15 Each
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When settlers looked for land in Lahontan Valley in the early 1900s, a number of these hardy souls were attracted to Dixie Valley, Nevada, a site about 70 miles east of Fallon on today's Highway 50. Isolated, but blessed with water from many artesian wells and natural springs, a number of settlers moved in and improved on their homesteads.

In between the days of hard work on the ranch, local residents' spirits were often lifted by community gatherings -- potluck suppers, music, dancing, grade school performances and holiday lebrations.
In the 1980s, the United States Navy began a buyout of homesteads from families in this valley. One by one, Dixie Valley landholders left the area. Through vintage photographs and live interviews, this program records some of the memories held by those who lived and grew up in Dixie Valley -- those who lived inthis close-knit, caring community as they made a life for themselves and their families in the Nevada desert.

As the doors to the great American West opened, many women left behind established lives in search of new opportunities. Some followed their hearts; others, their elusive dreams of land and prosperity.

Though often touched by tragedy and sorrow, all were sustained by optimism and hope as they joined the national movement that changed the face of the nation. Upon their arrival in the Lahontan Valley these settlers learned to co-exist with their Native American sisters who were following age-old traditions.

Through song, story and vintage photographs, this video records the contributions of numerous pioneering women who put down roots and helped to establish a new society as they made the desert bloom!

Preview Part One: Living on the Land

Preview Part Two: Birth of a Community

Part I: Living on the Land	$20.00
Part II: Birth of a Community	$20.00
Parts I & II	$35.00

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Preview Newlands Video

Video $10.00
Book $15.00
Book and Video $20.00

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Turn This Water into Gold:
The Story of the Newlands Project

Since John Townley published the first edition of his book in 1977, much has happened regarding water issues in this area. The Nevada Historical Society in Reno, the Churchill County Museum and the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District in Fallon, Nevada, were anxious to see a new edition of this book published that could update these issues and concerns to the present day. Historian Susan A. James, who studies and writes about Nevada topics, edited portions of Townley's original text and wrote two new chapters.

Today, this book remains the definitive history of the first reclamation project in the United States and tells the story of the tremendous changes it brought to this rural area of Western Nevada.