NHS Artown Talks – On The GO! (off-site, NSW) Sat. July 12

NHS Artown Talks – On The GO!

Program Schedule
Saturday, July 12, 2025

Discover this year’s NHS Artown – On the GO! talks.

The Nevada Historical Society’s building may be closed for an exciting remodel, but you can still enjoy these fascinating lectures at the Nevada Sunset Winery during the closure. NHS Artown Talks – On The GO! Series is their Artown summer program that delves into Nevada and Reno history. Make sure to visit Nevada Sunset Winery every Saturday in July to spark your interest in the captivating past of Reno and Nevada with eight engaging programs that are geared towards audiences of all ages. A FREE Artown event!

1-2 pm Nevada’s First Mine, The Mormon’s Potosi Lead Mine, Joe Tingley, mining historian
2-2:30pm Break, switch speakers
2:30-3:30 pm Three Hotels: Reno’s Historic Lodging: A Retrospective, Debbie Hinman, historian

Goodsprings, Potosi Mine, 1983

1-2pm
Nevada’s First Mine, The Mormon’s Potosi Lead Mine
Joe Tingley, mining historian

In May 1855, a group of Mormon missionaries left Salt Lake City to establish a Mission at Las Vegas in what was considered the western New Mexico Territory. They arrived at the Las Vegas site in June and began to plant crops and to build a “fort” for living quarters. Almost a year later, in April 1856, they discovered lead in the Spring Mountains northwest of the Mission, and in May, a second lead occurrence was found to the southwest near Cottonwood Springs. The first location proved to be of no interest, but the second mine they found “a great quantity of lead.”

Mining, at what they named the Potosi—Nevada’s first mine—began in August 1856. In January 1857, only five months later and producing some

Joe Tingley

9,000 pounds of lead, work stopped. By March, most missionaries abandoned the Las Vegas Mission and returned to Salt Lake City—why?

Joe Tingley boasts a remarkable career in mining. He holds degrees in mining engineering from the University of Idaho and Nevada. Tingley is an exploration geologist focused on uranium, copper, and gold across several western states. He worked as a research geologist at the Nevada Bureau of Mining and Geology, where he remained until his retirement in 2004. Tingley authored several geologic guidebooks for NBMG and volunteers as a docent at the NHS and has given several presentations on mining topics for Artown. Joe and his wife love taking trips into the desert in their motorhome, loving to smell the sagebrush and collecting a few rocks along the way.

2:30-3:30pm
Three Hotels: Reno’s Historic Lodging: A Retrospective
Debbie Hinman, historian

This talk will introduce attendees to the three hotels, Riverside, El Cortez, and the Mapes, which have a fascinating history and

contributed to Reno’s reputation as the Biggest Little City in the World. Two of them are still with us but are

Debbie Hinman

greatly changed from their original purpose.

Debbie is a Reno native and UNR graduate. For the past twenty years, she has been a researcher, writer, and editor with the Historic Preservation Society and a commissioner on the city’s Historical Resources Commission since 2016.

We would like to thank our community partner, Nevada Sunset Winery for hosting our lecture series. Nevada Sunset Winery is located at 415 East 4th Street, Unit B, Reno, NV 89512.