Calendar of Events

Upcoming Events

Jazz to the World Holiday Music and Museum Open House
Saturday, December 5, 2009 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Stop by the Museum for a nog and some cheer between bouts of holiday shopping. As usual, collections will be open and docents will be showing off some of our stored treasures.

Silent Film
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 6:00 PM TO 8:00 PM
Join us in the dark days of winter when the Friends of the City Museum continue the tradition of presenting a film from the heyday of the silent era. The film, with live musical accompaniment, follows a brief annual meeting of the membership of the Friends, including the election of some members of the Board of Directors.

Current Exhibits

Git Fer Vegas, Cowboy!
October 23, 2009 through December 2010
In the early 20th century, the Las Vegas Cowboys’ Reunions were one of the biggest annual cowboy gatherings this side of the Mississippi. This exhibit documents how the event engaged all segments of the community, adapted over time, and answers the question “Why Las Vegas?”

Scrapbooking Las Vegas
May 2009 through April 2010
A scrapbook is more than a collection of papers. Each entry captures a particular moment in time — a link that connects us to the past and helps to anchor us to the present. In these images schoolhouse friendships and the excitement of commencement are preserved, service is honored and camaraderie is celebrated. Some images record milestone events. Others are keepsakes of the everyday.

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Educational Activities

Schedule your unique class or family visit now!

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Continuing Exhibits

The story of Las Vegas is a tale of travel routes, the natural environment, and the community’s dueling traits of adaptation and resistance. Our permanent exhibit includes:

La Casita Material culture is a good indicator of the larger environment. This typical northern New Mexico home shows the continuity and adaptation of traditional materials and acceptance of new technologies and ideas in its rooms that date from 1865, 1880 and 1935.

The Duncan Opera House For decades, Las Vegas was one of the major commercial and cultural stops along the Santa Fe Trail and then the Atcheson, Topeka and Santa Fe railway. At one point, Las Vegas could boast four opera houses. The Duncan was the most famous and longest lived.

Rolling along the Santa Fe Trail Long after the Trail ceased to be a major travel route, it remained a romantic image in the minds of Americans. The Trail, or its memory, found its way into movies, songs, books, tours and trade goods. Many portrayals were less than accurate, but the public loved them anyway.

Theodore Roosevelt, the Rough Riders and New Mexico In 1898, Theodore Roosevelt was granted his wish of raising a volunteer regiment from the nation’s frontier of Indian, Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico Territories. The enlistees followed Roosevelt into the battles of Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Although the regiment was commissioned for only 150 days, the personal ties remained for decades, renewed at reunions of the regiment, many held in Las Vegas.