Museum Collections

The Churchill County Museum Association’s Board of Trustees are guided in artifact collection by our mission statement: to collect, preserve, exhibit and share those artifacts, photographs and documents that serve to illustrate the story of man and nature in Churchill County.

Our artifact collection, numbering over 16,000 items, is continually growing thanks to generous donations from our visitors and members of the community. Our photograph collection, procured in the same manner, numbers nearly 25,000 images.

Our Victorian lady is getting ready to receive her morning callers in her raspberry colored Teagown (a formal housedress of the period), circa 1890s.	A feminine exhibit of hats and personal accessories includes a pair of white kid leather wedding shoes, a perfume bottle with its original box, a delicate scarf, a black handbag, ostrich plumes, 2 hats from the 1920’s and an oil painting of roses.
This flow blue patterned dish, c. early 1900s, has hand-painted gold scrolling along the edge of the platter.	Detail of an appliqued quilt. Done in the Dogwood pattern, it was made by Mamie Dunn in 1933. Mamie’s technical skills and tiny quilting stitches earned her quilt a blue ribbon at a state fair back east.
This rototiller/cultivator from the early 1900s was used in the Lahtonan Valley. Pulled behind a tractor, it helped prepare fields for planting.	While mining in Churchill County was not as prevalent as in other parts of the state, there were still a number of mines that made a profit for their owners. Ore carts like these were a necessity for miners during the early years of the 20th century.

What kinds of artifacts does the Churchill County Museum collect? Here’s a small example: archival reference materials, bound newspapers, photographs, clothing and accessories, textiles (including quilts), decorative arts, household and kitchen accessories, Native American baskets and arrowheads, petrified wood and an extensive rock collection, wagons (including a doctor’s buggy), an extensive blacksmith shop with tools, a 1908 Oldsmobile (on loan), a refurbished Red Crown gas pump, outdoor farming equipment including tractors, mowers, a large steam-powered tractor, local school bells and the familiar outhouse next to our Woodliff building.