Humboldt Museum

A small free regional museum in a former church building, the Humboldt Museum holds the best collection on Humboldt County history — Paiute and Shoshone material, ranching and mining tools, 19th-century photographs, a fine carriage room, and the famous Columbian mammoth bones from a local quarry. Volunteer docents are knowledgeable and chatty.

Donations welcome but not required. Allow an hour. The mammoth display and the basketry are the highlights.

things to do museum
A story
The museum's collection includes the bones of a Columbian mammoth excavated from a local sand pit, displayed alongside artefacts referencing a long-running northern Nevada folk legend about giants — supposedly red-haired humanoids said to have lived in Lovelock Cave nearby. The mammoth is real; the giants are not. The museum staff are good-humoured about the steady flow of visitors who come looking for them.