The David Coons Photograph Collection contains photographs and postcards depicting railroads in Nevada, California, and Utah from 1907 to 1956. The photographs depict trains and locomotives from the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad, Union Pacific Railroad, San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake City Railroad, Bullfrog-Goldfield Railroad, Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad, and Tonopah & Goldfield Railroad. The photographs also portray Arden, Nevada and the Arden Plaster Company Plant, Las Vegas High School after a fire, and early Fremont Street in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The David Coons Photograph Collection contains photographs and postcards depicting railroads in Nevada, California, and Utah from 1907 to 1956. The photographs depict trains and locomotives from the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad, Union Pacific Railroad, San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake City Railroad, Bullfrog-Goldfield Railroad, Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad, and Tonopah & Goldfield Railroad. The photographs also portray Arden, Nevada and the Arden Plaster Company Plant, Las Vegas High School after a fire, and early Fremont Street in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Collection is open for research. Some collection material has been digitized and is available online.
Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.
Materials remain in original order.
Radio reporter and Nevada history enthusiast David Coons was born on September 25, 1939 in Lebanon, Indiana, but he spent most of his life in Las Vegas, Nevada. He graduated from Las Vegas High School in 1958 before studying broadcasting in Los Angeles, California. Coons, a longtime member of the Nevada Historical Society, was especially interested in railroads, and he collected memorabilia and ephemera from railroads in the American Southwest. Coons died in 1983 in Las Vegas.
Source: "Ex-newsman dies at 43," Las Vegas Review-Journal, March 1, 1983.
David Coons Photograph Collection, 1907-1956. PH-00029. Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
Materials were donated in 1977 by David Coons through Art Rader; accession number 1977-272.
Materials were processed by Special Collections staff. In 2015, as part of a legacy finding aid conversion project, Lindsay Oden wrote the collection description in compliance with current professional standards.