The North Central Nevada Historical Society (NCNHS), also known as the Humboldt Museum, recently published a walking tour book highlighting the history and lineage of many downtown Winnemucca properties, funded in part by a Nevada Main Street Revitalization grant.
The walking tour book is a 108-page full-color book focusing on 73 historic downtown Winnemucca properties including photographs, historical information and maps. The properties include commercial and public structures still standing in Winnemucca and books can be purchased at the Humboldt Museum as well as many business locations in town.
Humboldt Museum Executive Director and Historic Resources Commission Board Member Dana Toth said that since 2017, NCNHS staff has been working to create a digital historic walking tour of downtown Winnemucca, focusing solely on commercial and public properties.
In partnership with the Humboldt County Chamber of Commerce, the NCNHS applied to Main Street of Nevada earlier this year for a grant to fund the printed book project to go along with the smartphone application and website previously released, as a need was identified for a printed copy of the information.
The property numbers in the book correspond to both the property numbers on the application and website.
The total cost of the project was $11,687.67 paid for by the NCNHS with $8,506 in grant funding to be reimbursed by Nevada Main Street. The funds raised by the books will be used to cover the difference in funding between the total project price and grant funding, and the funds generated by book sales after that threshold has been reached will be utilized to fund future projects of the Main Street program and/or part two of the walking tour book.
Toth said a walking tour was drafted in 1990 and contained approximately 20 properties, which became the foundation on which the information for the walking tour information contained in the newly released book was compiled.
The NCNHS staff donated over 150 in-kind hours to completing the research, photo scanning and organization of files for information to be printed in the walking tour book. Resources utilized include deeds, tax rolls, newspapers, Sanborn maps, photographs and oral histories.
Toth said that on the cover of the book is displayed the 1881 bird’s eye view of Winnemucca because it placed a historic image of Bridge Street prominently on the cover.
“We really wanted to encompass the whole area after talking to SHPO (Nevada State Historic Preservation Office) that would potentially become a historic district but in order to maintain privacy, we’ve only focused on commercial and public properties rather than residential with the exception of the Shone House and the Overland Hotel,” said Toth.
The Nevada Main Street Program is a division of the Nevada Governer’s Office of Economic Development.
The Humboldt Museum also announced that they have teamed up with Winnemucca’s Basque Club, Euskaldunak Danak Bat and will be opening a Basque exhibit at the museum later this year in the upstairs of the main building of the museum.
