90°F
weather icon Clear

Historian, Nevada native to lead train museum

The Nevada Division of Museums and History has selected historian Christopher MacMahon as the new director of the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Boulder City.

He replaces Randy Hees, who retired Sept. 30 and moved to Little Rock, Arkansas.

MacMahon will oversee the open-air museum, which preserves and displays railroad equipment of the Boulder Branch line that supported construction activities at the Hoover Dam in 1930s.

The museum works closely with Friends of the Nevada Southern Railway, the nonprofit group that runs excursion trains at the facility on Yucca Street.

MacMahon is a Navy veteran who grew up in Carson City, where he developed a love of history and a passion for education. He began volunteering at the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City in 1996, working various volunteer positions, including as a museum docent. He also helped create temporary exhibits and in steam train operations.

MacMahon holds a doctorate in history with an emphasis in the environment and society from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research areas include the history of the American West and United States. As a graduate student, he researched examined environmental settler colonialism and the creation of water policy in the state between 1840 and 1890.

He has worked as an education curator with the Las Cruces Museum System in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and as an adjunct professor of history at Santa Barbara City College in Santa Barbara, California, and California State University, Channel Islands in Camarillo, California.

His volunteer experience includes serving on the boards of the Friends of Nevada State Railroad Museum and Goleta Valley (California) Historical Society.

“Please join me in welcoming Christopher MacMahon to the Nevada state museums family,” said Myron Freedman, director of the Nevada Division of Museum and History. “The Boulder City railroad museum tells the story of a very significant time in the history of Nevada and the United States, and we are pleased to have Christopher at the helm of this operation.”

Hali Bernstein Saylor is editor of the Boulder City Review. She can be reached at hsaylor@bouldercityreview.com or at 702-586-9523. Follow @HalisComment on Twitter.

MOST READ
LISTEN TO THE TOP FIVE HERE
THE LATEST
Really better buy that helmet

With a couple of significant amendments, the city council voted unanimously to pass an ordinance regulating the use of e-bikes and e-scooters in Boulder City. The ordinance passed unanimously Tuesday and will take effect on Sept. 18.

Nevada Way to go Pink … and pay for the privilege

The main topic of discussion was color. As in color of a building when the board of the Boulder City Redevelopment Agency (aka the city council) met two weeks ago.

It’s Been Too Long

Photos by Ron Eland/Boulder City Review

City to nix admin services dept. in favor of deputy city manager

In a move that is really little more than “cleanup” (i.e., bringing official city code into sync with decisions made by the city council more than a year ago), the council voted to approve changes to city code related to the created-but-not-yet-filled position of deputy city manager.

BCHS alumni invited to sit in with the band

In the 1986 film “The Best of Times,” Robin Williams has lived with the regret of dropping a ball thrown to him by quarterback Kurt Russell in the big game in high school. That is, until he gets a chance at redemption more than a decade later.

Better buy a helmet …

It was just the opening salvo, but it appears that lost patience with riders of e-bikes and scooters are to the point that they are ready to go well beyond the “Well, how about more education” approach they opted for back in April.