The Halleck Bar Party, sponsored by the Northeastern Nevada Museum Guild, is held each year to celebrate the gift of an historic, antique bar and back-bar which was given to the Northeastern Nevada Museum in 1970.

In the early 1880s, the bar was part of a saloon in Halleck, a rough and tumble railroad town that also served as headquarters of several large ranches. The combination of ranch hands and railroad workers was a volatile one and the saloon was the site of many brawls, knifings, and even a few murders.

The bar and back-bar was purchased in Salt Lake City in 1916 and shipped by rail to the town of Halleck, where it was installed at Len Rathfon’s “social establishment.” Bill Rahas bought the property in the 1920s and operated Bill’s Place until the bar closed in the 1950s.

Two Halleck ranchers, the late Arthur Glaser and the late Norman Glaser, along with Charles “Chach” Evans, an Elko attorney and Lamoille-area rancher, arranged through Jeffrey and Kathleen McAdam, grandchildren of the late Bill and Edythe Rahas, to have the bar donated to the Northeastern Nevada Museum. Arthur Glaser and his wife, Marianne, restored the bar to its former glory. It was donated to the museum on condition that a party be held each year and a bottle of Beefeater Gin be served over the bar. This has come to be known as the Halleck Bar Party, and has been held every year since. An open bar and hors d’oeuvres are part of the celebration.

This year's Halleck Bar Party will be held on April 16, 2010 from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. A $10 per person donation is suggested. The public is invited to join in celebrating a part of our local history. For more information, call Claudia Wines ext. 152

If you are unable to attend but would like to make an online donation for the Halleck Bar Party please click on the button below.

Meet the newest staff member of the Northeastern Nevada Museum. He is the new chairman of the Great Humboldt Duck Race. He is going to be in charge of training the ducks to get them in top physical condition for the big race and also will be going out into the community to ask for support for the ducks who are working so hard this year.

The Great Humboldt Duck Race is an annual fundraiser for the museum. You can adopt a rubber duckie who will race in the big event and vie for the chance to win $2,000.

Every spring the Museum puts thousands of ducks up for adoption, when conditions in the Humboldt River are just right (meaning not to high… not to low…) they hold the Great Humboldt Duck Race. Race day is a huge event that attracts 100s of people to watch all the little rubber duckies floating down the river. The race goes from the 12th street bridge and the finish line is at the Eerrcart Bridge. Watch for race dates this year, and be sure to adopt your duck for a chance to win $2,000 and to help support your museum.

Every year around Thanksgiving, the museum holds our annual Holiday Raffle.  Local artists and businesses donate the prizes and after the New Year, five lucky tickets are drawn from our raffle barrel.  This is a great fund-raiser for the museum and we receive so much support from our members and the community in raffle ticket sales and prize donations.  Look for your tickets in the mail next fall or watch the newspaper for raffle information!

Have you ever wondered what life is like on a ranch – what you would find if you were to visit a ranch? Here’s your chance to view Elko County’s version of Americana.  Every fall, the Museum and a 4H Club in the area sponsor a Barn Tour, where attendees travel to a local ranching area and tour five or six barns.

Past years have featured tours to barns in Tuscarora, North Fork, Ruby Valley, North Ruby Valley, Starr Valley, Jiggs, and Lamoille.

The tour in 2009 featured other barns in Lamoille that were not visited during the last tour. The Lamoille 4H Club conducted the tour and club members presented information about the history of each ranch and barn. Some of these barns have been in existence as long as the county has, and others are modern, high-tech facilities.

There is no charge for the popular Barn Tour, and the 4H kids, as a club fund-raiser, provided lunch after the tour.

The Barn Tour this year will be in late September or early October. Watch this site for more information, as soon as a date is firm and the barns for the tour have been selected.

During the Northeastern Nevada Museum’s 50th birthday celebration in 2006 the staff at the museum decided to sponsor a classic film festival to mark the occasion. They got old newspapers from the museum archives and picked movies that were shown in Elko theaters in 1956 (the year the historical society was formed) and projected them onto the back of the museum. Since the museum is in the City Park the setting is beautiful for movie watching on cool summer evenings.

The event was so popular we have made it an annual event. The movies are free to the public and everyone is encouraged to bring a lawn chair, bring a picnic, bring your sweetie and enjoy the movies Elkoans enjoyed 50 years ago. Movies are shown every Saturday in July at sundown.

Admission is FREE but donation of the price of a movie ticket is appreciated to help the museum to continue to sponsor events like this.