Carson City Mint celebrates 150 years

On Sept. 24, 1866, there might have been an occasional horse whinnying or a freight wagon to interrupt the Free and Accepted Masons of Carson Lodge No. 1 during the original dedication of the Carson City Mint’s cornerstone.

With traffic flowing down Carson Street, speakers and Masons had to work to make themselves heard over the motorcycles and horseless carriages during Saturday’s rededication.

With about 50 onlookers, including a squad of Civil War re-enactors, the Masons conducted the same ceremony they did 150 years ago when construction on the mint began.

Museum Curator Bob Nylen thanked two of Carson City’s historical figures during his portion of the program, city founder Abe Curry and Judge Clark Guild.

Curry was the mint’s first superintendent.

Nylen pointed out that on Sept. 24, 1866, Carson City was a metropolis of 1,500 residents and only eight years old. Nevada had become a state less than two years before work began on the mint.

From 1870 to 1893, the mint created $49.27 million in coins. The federal government operated the mint as an assay office until 1933,

Nylen said Guild was sitting on a bench in front of the Mint in 1938, when he realized it was up for sale. With his support, Carson City bought the Mint for $5,000 and turned it into a museum that opened on Nevada Day 1941.

Mayor Bob Crowell praised the Mint as a link between Carson City’s past and future.

“As life goes faster, and faster, and faster, we need to do things like this to remember the past,” he said.