NHS Educational History Videos

Fourth Grade Educational History Videos


NHS goes “Ken Burns”—we are working to create online tours, beginning with our most popular tours, the Nevada History tours that augment the 4th grade Nevada History curriculum. Pre-COVID the NHS served our schools’ needs through onsite tours and paid for the school bus transportation. Because this onsite service is currently not possible, we are using staff and docents’ hidden talents and are becoming filmmakers. Covid-19 has made sharing history to students challenging this year.

Our educational docents and staff decided that creating videos would be the best way to fulfill our mission. What a wonderful opportunity to share the history of the state and provide better access to students and people interesting in Nevada’s varied history.

Everyone worked very hard in researching and writing scripts, reviewing and selecting images and artifacts for their virtual tours. It has been a long but worthwhile project.

Behind the Scenes Photos

Here are some behind-the-scenes images of our docents and two AACT High School Seniors working on these 4th Grade Nevada History Videos.

Pam and Linda waiting to film scaled
Lorraine audio recording with Ian
Larry as MT Man for filming

(left to right images)

Pam Walker and Linda Burke are waiting to record their next audio scripts about the early Mountain Men.

Lorraine Petersen and Ian Thunder, AACT Senior are recording her audio segment about eating insects.

Larry Walker, Mountain Man Re-enactor and Educator taking a break between filming.

Educational History Videos List


Mountain Men Explorers
In this video, you will be introduced to some of the early explorers of the Great Basin, the fur trappers or mountain men who became legends in their own time and remain as pathfinders today.


Mountain Men and Fur Trappers 

In this video, you will be introduced to the mountain man or fur trapper: their way of life in the past and present featuring Larry Walker of the American Mountain Men Association.


Living on the Land Gallery 

In this video, you will be led through the Living on the Land Gallery and learn about the Native American Indians who lived in the Great Basin.

Mining: Then & Now
Historian and storyteller Sam Macaluso tells the story of mining in Nevada through the ages, from the deposits of obsidian, opalite, chalcedony, agate, jasper, and quartz that were utilized by the early inhabitants of Nevada to fashion arrowheads, spear points, and various tools, to gold mining in the 1850s, to the open-pit mining of today. * This is a Zoom lecture so the video is longer.


Traveling the California Trail through Nevada, 1841- 1869 

In this video, you will join the thousands of people who journeyed by wagon train from the eastern United States to California along the California Trail in the 1840s and 1850s.


Prehistory of Nevada 

In this video, you will learn about Nevada’s watery distant past, what sea creatures used to live here, what fossils can be found today in Nevada, and about how earthquakes and tectonics transformed the Nevada landscape.

Here are some behind-the-scenes images of our docents and AACT High School Seniors working on these videos along with our five 4th Grade Nevada History Videos.

Behind the Scenes Photos

(left to right images)
Lorraine Petersen is filming her introduction while Izaac Zorn holds the sound mic and Ian Thunder is filming.

Ian Thunder and Izaac Zorn, AACT Seniors are reviewing their footage while using the gimble tripod.

Izaac Zorn and Ian Thunder are discussing the script with Lorraine before filming begins.

(left to right images)

Jana Dunn is discussing what she will be covering in her Prehistory video.

Marc Ullom is checking the shot before filming Betsy.

Miss Wakayama, Nevada’s Japanese Friendship Doll

The Nevada Historical Society received Miss Wakayama in 1928, after the Japanese Friendship dolls toured the United States. Learn more about her story from Educational Docent, Betsy Morse.