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Museum details Mesquite’s history

Tuesday, July 29, 2003 | 8:14 a.m.

MESQUITE -- Befitting a city with an increasing population base, up from 5,000 in 1996 to more than 15,000 today, this community on the Nevada-Arizona border now has a venue for local artists.

The Mesquite Heritage Museum and Art Center officially opened in June.

The new Art Center building, accentuated by a silo imported from Utah, is part of a complex that also includes a museum housed in a structure built as part of a public works project in 1941.

Funding was through the National Youth Administration, a program to provide job training for unemployed youth.

The Heritage Museum initially was the Mesquite branch of the Clark County Library, then it became a hospital. In 1984, the year Mesquite incorporated, the building was turned into a museum.

In front of the museum stands a historical marker for the Old Spanish Trail with additional information inside.

Among items on display in the museum are the first slot machine brought into the area, photographs, quilts, wedding dresses, a 1945 television and a whiskey still.

-- Jerry Fink

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