Library Awarded $74K Grant

Churchill County Librarian, Carol Lloyd, announced last week that the Virtual Reality Hidden Cave grant has been funded in the amount of $74,240. This funding will create a virtual reality experience of the Hidden Cave tour, located in the Grimes Point National Register Historic Site.

First “discovered” by four local farm boys in the early 1920s, Hidden Cave was explored in the early 1930s, mined for bat guano during the 30s, and became a major archeologic site and tourist attraction in the early 1940s. Since 1972 the cave has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has significance to the local Fallon Paiute Shoshone Tribe. For the past 3,500 years the cave has been a sort of storage space for artifacts including tools, spears, fishing gear, and baskets.

For decades, the Churchill County Museum has partnered with the Bureau of Land Management to provide public and private tours of Hidden Cave. And now the partners in this project: Churchill County Museum and Archive, Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, University of Nevada Reno, Bureau of Land Management, Nevada Department of Transportation, Nevada Museums & History, and the American Museum of Natural History-Division of Anthropology will be able to offer “virtual reality” tours to anyone who is interested.

“I am so pleased to be working with these great partners on this exciting project,” said Lloyd.

The grant is funded by the Library Services & Technology Act (LSTA). The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) supports libraries in Nevada through the LSTA program, and the grant is administered by the Nevada State Library, Archives & Public Records. LSTA funds are intended to help libraries develop their central roles in the community and are used to promote improvements in services to the users of all types of libraries.

The museum’s public tours are scheduled on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month, exclusive of Federal holiday weekends. Private tours can be scheduled by calling the museum, and a fee is charged for this service.

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