Dave Maxwell
New historical markers have been placed at Pahranagat Valley and Crystal Springs.
Several of the historical markers in Lincoln County are going to be, or have already been, replaced.
Governor Brian Sandoval announced last Friday that more than 100 markers were being replaced as part of the Nevada Sesquicentennial celebration held in 2014.
Rebecca Palmer, Nevada State Historic Preservation Officer in Carson City, said eight of the 14 markers in Lincoln County are being replaced.
The historic preservation office, a division of the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, manages 266 total markers. Many were in need of repair after being vandalized and neglected.
The Nevada Sesquicentennial Commission contributed $165,000 to the project, and $50,000 more came from private donations.
Palmer said markers at Pahranagat Valley, Panaca, Caliente, Delamar, Panaca Springs, Panaca Chapel, Crystal Springs and Hiko are being replaced with new text plates.
She said the reason for this is two-fold. “When they were originally installed, many in the 1970’s, they were installed with some haste and not necessarily with the participation of a professional historian. So they do contain some errors of fact and some, just generally bad writing.”
Former state historic preservation officer Ron James began the process of reviewing the texts of the markers in 2011, “but we didn’t have any funding at that time,” Palmer said.
She explained that as “history evolves and we learn more about certain areas, and more evidence there of certain events becomes known, we want to update and refresh the marker texts. A second reason is the state’s Sesquicentennial Commission last year was looking for several really good projects to leave as a legacy. The historic markers are one of those projects.”
Palmer said the markers will still look the same, but the text will be different and they will contain the Sesquicentennial logo.
Work is being done by Young Electric Sign Company in Las Vegas and is expected to be completed by the end of September. “All they have to do is unbolt the text plate on the marker and replace it,” she said.
James, a professional historian, did the text revisions, and Palmer said “When we had all of his changes, we then worked with some of the local organizations, county commissioners, or others, to get their opinions on whether or not they wanted to participate and/or contribute.” Some did and some did not.
