Map. Was a modest town and a railroad stop. Divorce en the first came. The media started to focus on reno and that was the publicity they didnt have to try to get. People were fast nayed by this little western town where these people were coming and getting divorces. So that was the beginning of kind of tourist trade for reno. The state of nevada legalized gambling in 1931 and depam bling was on the pooks before then but they said depampling is legal and we mean it and open clubs and casinos and that then became the heart of the tourist industry through the 1970s and 1980s. So it was the combination of being the divorce capital of the world where wideopen gambling was possible that made reno an International Tourist destination. Vertent. Ort of inadd reenoove has laws on the books but it wasnt intentional. They had transient. They were working on mining or the railroad. And then at the same time, nevada had a lot of grounds for divorce. There was no differences at that time. You had to sue on the grounds of something to get a divorce. And a lot of states have few grounds. New york state had adultery. Vada had seven grounds for divorce like cruelty, desertion and lack of support. And people came toll sue and only took six months which was unbelievely short. The first really celebrated case happened in 1905, a woman arrived and wife of the president of the u. S. Steel. And she was a very wealthy socialite. A lot of other wealthy people from other Eastern States came here for divorces, too. They came to reno, it was right on the railroad. Divorce was an incredible economic boom to the state of nevada, because people had to find a place to stay, like guest ranches where the more welltodo wanted a divorce in private. They needed to go out and eat and buy things. Divorce was incrud apply lucrative for the state of nevada and reno. Legislators tried to ensure that time that you had to live here to be shorter. They were successful in 1927. In 1931, they reduced it to six weeks which was the fastest divorce. And so we had an enormous amount of people. It was a whowho. Name a familiarous family got divorced. The vanderbilts, the roosevelts, the rock fellers, carol lombard, a lot of writers got divorced here. So it was something that people from every walk of life from the most famous to people who needed to get a divorce came here. The process for the divorce was very formal. They took it seriously because they knew that people were counting on this divorce being final. The process was very straightforward. Someone would arrive and meet with their attorney. A spouse who did not come would have to have an attorney, but a person who is accomplishing their residency where a witness could testify they seen them, they hadnt left the state and been here the whole duration and when the period was up, six weeks, they would come to this courthouse and this courtroom and stand in front of the judge and witness would testify they seep them the whole time and explain the reasons they were getting a divorce and hit the depaffell and they would be off. The doris industry is a such a unique part of renos heritage and having the ability for people to come and get divorced t a time in the early 20th century was something that was an important contribution to american culture. A lot of other states started to loosen their divorce laws you understanding that womens rights were demanding that there are more ways to get out of marriage. And that is an important cultural role. And the divorce industry influenced the landscape of reno. We owe what is here to that very unexpected and unique trade. Up next, more from reno as we sit the items from the american gaming archives. The history of gaming in nevada, you could say in a sense begins here. The northern part of the state is predominant up to 1950s. Las vegas wasnt incorporated until 1905, there was little gaming in the state initially and gaming in the northern part of the state continued to develop along the cities and towns bordering along the Railroad Lines or mining camps such as va city or manhattan towns. And the union continued to operate in nevada until 1910 when there was a Strong Social movement that won a referendum in the state and made gaming illegal in 1910. Train. People got on the n 1919, the attorney germ said poker was legal by the statutes and by 1923 they were licensing 23, machines and 1931, marr 1931, they legalized all forms of gambling. The only form of gaming that isnt performed is state lottery. The the gaming collection puts gaming not only here in the state of nevada but throughout the United States and the way it occurred, i was fortunate enough between 1995 and 2005 to acquire the major gaming manufacturing companies, many of them were chicago. One of them was also out of l. A. And we put those records together along with artifacts hey had and it they reflected gaming throughout nevada but throughout the United States and we have the largest gaming records to my knowledge. You have to remember when gaming started, it was kind of a contest between the person operating the game and the various players and if you couldnt control the game in the early days of gaming in things like that, you were probably going to lose your money. And the ability of the gambler tore basically cheat ensured him a win. This has actually changed and cleaned up a lot. We have some items that reflect the earlier games days of gaming. A oneman tub. It could be operated by a single dealer. F this were in a small club or like a Basement Club or prohibition, a game like this was easy to operate. In order to control a game like this, they would use various forms they would use special equipment which was loaded dice that could be controlled put into a game to ensure a specific outcome. There are other ways to cheat. We have a vest where they could take a card, hold a card for you, up your sleeve and take a deep pregnant and activate the mechanism. This would be for a dmp ice cheater and take the d inch ce off a club table and substitute and could be loaded or tops from things like that. It is a complete setup and you wonder why someone would go to the amount of work to have all this equipment when they could get a normal job make as much money. This was a normal way of cheating read we talked about how early days of gambling, gamblers wanted to have an advantage. One way would be to purchase the for cheating through a number of distributors and manufacturers, many from the chicago area. They put out gaming devices such as crooked dice and cards. They had a catalog of them. One of the more famous was the kansas city blue book. This display we have here has portions or information relative to that. These are original illustrations, drawings used for the catalogs. You have samples of various types of dice and paraphernalia they offered. If you come over to this next case, grab some information that pertains to how these products were made. We have a page out of the kansas city blue book. Lot of the card marking was done by women because they have the ability to hold a very small brush, put very small marks on cards. One of the ways they had consistently marked cards, was that they created a master card to show all cards in a contrasting color that they would use when they marked a deck of cards. Deck that shows the marks on the cards. We also have edge work. The card on the left has appointed image which indicates that is an ace. The card next to it has a slight bump on the design by the upper lefthand corner. That indicates it is a king. If you go down these cards you have ace, queen, king, jack, 10. We have card cover, a traditional device for marking cards, shortening aside of a card. We also have a corner rounder. Once you trim a card, the rounded edge of the card is destroyed, so you have to put around cornerback on a card. Differentnumber of things, including one of the last 1961 blue books in the kansas city blue book company. Cheating in gaming was largely resolved the beginning of the 1940s when the state of nevada became much more active in the control of gambling. One of the issues they had is they had to clean up gaming. There was tremendous concerned by the state of nevada federal authorities. If they found it cheating in gaming, they would institute federal legislation. The state took it upon themselves to develop rules for gaming that would prevent cheating. Today when you really think operation, casino or it is put millions of dollars invested into a casino, it is not going to go out and cheat and risk their license. They still have problems today with regards to customers cheating. Gamingte of nevadas control officers are constantly trying to Police Gaming to make sure there is no cheating involved. Here, we havewn one of the first control Board Officers badge. A smallsitting next to display with regard to the black book. The nevada black book is a listing of what they call undesirable individuals who are not allowed access to a casino. You could lose your license of one of these individuals is found in your casino. Showsarticular display giancana. And sam rules for gaming institution, it allows the state to control it. They ask questions, like where is this coming from, who is supporting you . Initially it was very hard for casinos to develop in the 1950s because regular banks were very reluctant to loan the money for development so the gaming industry went through various things such as the Teamsters Pension fund and obtained funding for a lot of casinos. By 1967 Howard Hughes came to the state of nevada. In of the effects of hughes the state of nevada, it legitimized gaming operations. On1974 they had gone public the Stock Exchange not heralded the new era of gaming throughout nevada and eventually the United States. Here are things from our educational collection which allow people to look at things, physically hold them, handle them, like this. The purpose of the aga is to gather, protect and present the history of gaming. This allows us to give demonstrations with various types of things that are considered to be special work, cheating devices. If you see, i take a magnet here. You have a dice cube, it is what dice, magnetic ice. It also works in an opposite direction. This is a magnetized ball that will stick to the magnet. This is an unprocessed dice cube out of the 20s 1920s. This cube is interesting because it is what i call a tap die. This has not been spotted, but you can see the mechanical device in the cuba itself. By tapping the dice against the table, it will shift the center part, making it special. You can tap the opposite side and bring it back to here. Dose records allow us to research into various clubs and casinos operating throughout the United States. Were illegal. A lot of these companies at one time in 1949 were forced by the u. S. Senate to reveal their records. They were investigating interstate racketeering and gambling and things of that nature. Also another committee of the u. S. Senate. The records represented where gaming was occurring. Not only in the state of nevada, but throughout the United States. I started researching reno because i was very interested in this idea of how a city that became a tourist town very early had that relationship with what outsiders wanted the place to be and what the residents wanted the place to be. I wrote a book about how reno dealt with fame and what became notoriety for many years and how it played out on the landscape. Happens to trace what when the city decides to turn their Central Business district into tourist space. This is what reno did. For a while that works very well. A big gamble i write about the gamble, the risk you take, when you cater more to outsiders than maintaining a vision, and identity of what your city will be. It was an interesting struggle reno had, its fame, notoriety, catering to the divorce trade, legalizing gambling, and having casinos take up more and more space in a traditional downtown, which worked very well when it was something unique to it to nevada. In the 1980s you have the legalization of tribal casinos, riverboat casinos, casinos in colorado mining towns. Suddenly it was not that unique an asset. That started to play out in the landscape of renos downtown. What has happened in the decades where we had competition, reno has started to diversify. Not only its tourism industry, where there is focus on outdoor recreation, but also diversification of the economy for the kinds of businesses that are encouraged to establish here and are nourished, including small businesses. The cspan cities tour is in reno, nevada to highlight his history. Next, we hear about the importance mining played in the statess development. Nevada is one of the few states were the first single american industry here was mining. It was not agricultural. There has been mining as early in nevada as 19 for 1850. 1868 as partded in of the railroad, we were a hub for the Pacific Railroad and connected with Virginia City through the virginia truckee railroad. Reno grew up as being the last stop before the desert and the mountains. On the the main rail hub way to San Francisco. Largemstock load was a deposit of silver in the Virginia City on the virginia range. It was mined in earnest from 1860 to 1866, with boom and bust periods. One of the largest discovery was the big bonanza of 1873, when they struck one of the largest silver deposits we know about. By james was owned mackey, the namesake of this building. He was born in the early 1830s in dublin, ireland. He and his family grew up in new york, the five points area. When he was old enough he left new york, took a boat to panama, then another ship, then landed in the goldfields of california. He was part of the California Gold rush around 1850. He worked in the goldfields, but did not find his fortune. 60 he walked to Virginia City and entered penniless. Because of his experience in the ofds of california mines california, he worked his way up and became the superintendent of a mine and was able to buy in and purchase the mines by the early 1870s. He was the owner when most people thought it was defunct. They kept it open a few more weeks and it struck a huge bonanza. Mines weres his averaging 300,000 a month. Dollars. In 1870s he was a big part until they shot out the pumps of the combination shaft, which signaled the end of mining, the golden age of mining, in 1886. He went on to invest in telecommunications. His first was the transatlantic telegraph cable. By 1902 when he passed away, the mackeys were known as telecommunications barons and owned a telegraph and telephone company. His son, clarence mackey, took over the business, and build a relationship with the university in 1907 that led to the creation of the Mackey School. One of the unique aspects of nevada, according to the 1864 institution, the Land Grant Institution has to teach mining. That is the landgrant university here in nevada. It was founded in 1874. Elco experiment was considered a failure. They moved the university to hall was morrow completed, the first at unr. The first class graduated from unr in 1891. Wasng education here at unr a lot of stops and starts. There were semesters where no mining classes were offered. , in thoseays, unr days called the university of nevada, was just a few buildings on the south end of the evans alfalfa ranch. As the university moved north, they bought it up. 907, several politicians in nevada thought it would be a good idea to honor john mackey by having a statue of him on the grounds of the capital building. They approached john mackeys heir, clarence, about funding the statute. Clarence mackey agreed and reached out to the artist, goldblum, who would later implement mount rushmore, to complete the statute. Here was a lot of statue there was a lot of politics. A lot of people remembered john mackey. They did not want one person honored on the capitol grounds. Ande was a bit of a debate dr. Stubbs, president of the university of the time, said, we will take it. That is how the statue of john mackey arrived. Clarence mackey wanted to beautify the campus. Donated elm trees and in 1908 donated 100,000 to build the Mackey School of mines. 1908,seum was founded in one of the official fixtures of the mackey mine buildings. Still displaying and storing items as it would have in 1908. Founded as a research museum, it endeavored to bring the world to the mackey student. We have collections from all over the world. Many of the collections are from famous mining districts, some have been closed for over 100 years. These samples were taken at depth. In many cases we know the actual shaft and depth the ore sample was taken from. The minerals on display and the objects on display show less than 5 of the collection. The majority is still in storage. Our three collecting areas are rocks and minerals, with special focus on ores, paleontology and mining history. In the last 15 years we have tightened our scope to focus on nevada. Not only is that what we are are extremelyhey interested from a geological perspective with over 35 Minerals Discovered here in the state of nevada. We are now in the lower level of me is the and next to silver collection. Mary louise and john mackey owned several mines in Virginia City, the site of the comstock load. 1873, the source of the big bonanza. The 1870s, mary louise asked john to make her something from all the silver being pulled out of their mines. Boxcars of sent four Silver Bullion from the mine in Virginia City and most likely went through reno on the way to new york. From there they went to tiffany and company. Two years0 artisans to make. These are only 58 of the original 1200 pieces in the collection, which originally sat 24 people. They would have use this daily. All the way up into the turnofthecentury. Mackey familythe donated this Silver Service to the university. The impractical pieces, like the candelabras, cigar stands and celery vases. They kept the silver for many years. The service has been on display here for about 20 years. Many of the items in the