The Blue Diamond Mine Photograph Collection depicts operations at the Blue Diamond Mine from approximately 1950 to 1971. The photographs include images of heavy machinery, mining structures, and workers. The photographs also contain aerial views of Blue Diamond Mine and the surrounding landscape.
The Blue Diamond Mine Photograph Collection depicts operations at the Blue Diamond Mine from approximately 1950 to 1971. The photographs depict the operation of heavy machinery, mining structures, and workers. The photographs also contain aerial views of Blue Diamond Mine and the surrounding landscape.
The collection is open for research.
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.
Blue Diamond Village, which is about twenty miles southwest of Las Vegas, Nevada and was originally called Cottonwood Springs, served as a stop on the Old Spanish Trail for traders traveling between Santa Fe, New Mexico and California in the mid-nineteenth century. The Paiute people used the area for agriculture. In 1923, the Blue Diamond Materials Company of California purchased the land, renamed the town, and began mining operations for gypsum. Blue Diamond Village became a company town, used exclusively by miners and auxiliary businesses run by the company. The company began selling workers’ housing to the public in 1965.
Sources:
Fryman, Jessica. “Southwest of Las Vegas, village of Blue Diamond upholds Nevada's legacy,” Las Vegas Review-Journal. August 2, 2011. http://www.reviewjournal.com/life/las-vegas-history/southwest-las-vegas-village-blue-diamond-upholds-nevadas-legacy
Geary, Kim. “Gypsum Production at Blue Diamond, Nevada, 1924-1959,” Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, 26, no. 2 (Summer, 1983): 111-121
Blue Diamond Mine Photograph Collection, approximately 1950-1971. PH-00338. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
Materials were donated in 2013 by the Blue Diamond History Committee via Patricia van Betten; accession number 2014-12.
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. In 2018, Melise Leech updated the finding aid in ArchivesSpace.