Reno has served as a literal and figurative crossroads for much of its 150-year history. Consider:
- In the 19th Century, pioneers and prospectors passed through on wagons and by train.
- Placing the state university there in the 1880s made it a cultural crossroads, even though the city had only a few thousand residents.
- In much of the 20th Century, people taking advantage of Nevada’s liberal divorce laws made Reno their personal crossroads.
- And today, its proximity to Silicon Valley and Interstate 80 helped it become a growing tech and distribution hub.
That intersection theme fuels Reno at the Crossroads, an exhibit running at UNR until the end of the year.
“It's a good way to physically describe the place, but it's also a crossroads of people and cultures,” said author and historian Alicia Barber, who curated the exhibit. “It has always been that combination of a tourist destination with people coming though, but also a home; a crossroads is a place where people gather.”
Barber said even Reno’s iconic arch is part of the city’s history as a crossroads: It was created in 1926 to celebrate two highway projects that ran through Reno.
Rather than presenting the city’s history in a linear fashion, the exhibit that takes up parts of five floors at the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center library focuses on themes such as economy, environment and culture.
“I really wanted people to see the variety,” she said of the exhibit.
By variety, Barber said, she wanted newcomers to the area to understand how much Reno has changed and how much different industries, cultures, and communities have changed the city.
Barber said change is really the one constant in the city. From its days as the junction to Virginia City during the Comstock mining days to gambling to the divorce era - Reno is always changing.
“To me, it is not one constant narrative but this idea that we’re always at some sort of crossroads and that Reno has been shifting throughout its history is to me the narrative that links everything together,” she said.
Reno at the Crossroads, part of city’s sesquicentennial celebration, is sponsored by IGT.
Alicia Barber, author, historian and curator