Abstract
The Blue Diamond History Committee Collection (1920s-2012) contains materials related to the history of the Blue Diamond Mine and nearby village located about twenty-five miles outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. The collection contains materials including environmental reports, photographs of the mine and its employees and their families, maps, a photocopy of a diary, mine operation records and accident reports, community calendars, and correspondence and property documents of the local post office.
Finding Aid PDF
Date
Extent
Related People/Corporations
Scope and Contents Note
The Blue Diamond History Committee Collection (1920s-2012) contains materials related to the history of the Blue Diamond Mine and village located about twenty-five miles southwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. The collection includes materials on environmental reports, photographs, maps, a photocopy of a diary, mine operation records and accident reports, community calendars, and correspondence and property documents of the local post office. The photographs include aerial views of the mine and village, closer views of sections of the mined landscape and related buildings, and families who lived in the company owned village. The latter include large aerial photographs, two albums of family and village life, and some photographs related to mine operations, such as specific pieces of equipment.
Access Note
Collection is open for research. Where use copies do not exist, production of use copies is required before access will be granted; this may delay research requests. Advanced notice is required.
Publication Rights
Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections and Archives website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.
Arrangement
Materials are arranged alphabetically by subject.
Biographical / Historical Note
Blue Diamond, Nevada was once a small town named Cottonwood Springs. It was turned into a company town by the Blue Diamond Materials Company in the 1940s and today exists as an unincorporated, census-designated place (CDP).
The Blue Diamond History Committee began organizing in 2003, when community members of the village started discussing the preservation of a remnant of an old adobe house located in the village, the first dwelling of settlers in the area. The community decided to begin gathering oral histories to preserve the history of Blue Diamond residents, as well as its buildings. This oral history project captured around one-hundred stories with the help of Lied Library's Oral History Research Center in Special Collections at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Along with those efforts, people donated materials from their childhood in the village, and when the Blue Diamond Mine closed for a time in 2005, many of their documents were brought down and donated as well. The committee organized the donated materials into a variety of binders and boxes meant to represent the history of their town, and also potentially preserve the area as an open air walking museum. Other projects the committee worked on were developing educational lessons for the local school children to learn how the nearby Cottonwood Springs helped sustain settlement there, and how water is a vital resource for desert settlements in general. The overall goal of these projects was to connect their community to the children and pass on the importance of their history to the next generation of Blue Diamond residents in order to help preserve the area.
Sources:
van Betten, Patricia. Interview, 2007 February 6. OH-01864. Transcript. Oral History Research Center, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
Preferred Citation
Blue Diamond History Committee Collection, 1920s-2012. MS-00727. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Acquisition Note
Materials were donated in 2005 and 2013 by Patricia van Betten on behalf of the Blue Diamond History Committee; accession numbers 2005-015 and 2014-012.
Processing Note
In 2018, as part of an archival backlog elimination project, Billy Marino rehoused and arranged the materials, wrote the finding aid, and entered the data into ArchivesSpace.