The Nevada State Railroad Museum in Boulder City has opened a $25 million visitor center that gives the 35-year-old museum its first indoor exhibition space. The roughly 9,000-square-foot building at 1000 Boulder City Parkway opened to the public after a grand opening on Sept. 19. It is also the first new facility opened by the Nevada Division of Museums and History in 20 years, according to museum officials. The exhibits follow railroads’ role in Nevada’s development, from mining booms and construction of Hoover Dam to rail operations at the site now known as the Nevada National Security Site and modern transportation. Displays combine historic artifacts, photographs, interactive features and multimedia presentations. Among them are an exhibit on the origins of copper-riveted blue jeans in Nevada and their ties to workers who helped build the West, and a model of Union Pacific’s M-10000, an early streamlined train that visited Boulder City during the dam’s construction. A large mural depicts the changing relationship between rail transportation and Nevada’s landscape, while a projection-map theater offers another way to explore the state’s history. The center also includes a museum store, research archive and reading room, and a multipurpose room for educational programs, school trips, community gatherings and special events. Outside, a shaded passenger platform serves as a new boarding area for the museum’s weekend excursion trains. “For 35 years, this museum has shared Nevada’s railroad history largely through the incredible locomotives, railcars and experiences visitors can see and enjoy outdoors,” museum director Christopher MacMahon said. “The visitor center gives us an entirely new way to tell those stories.” The project took more than two decades to develop. After three design concepts and legislative approval of funding in 2023, construction began Dec. 6, 2024. A Conserve Nevada bond provided through the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources funded the project. The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday through Monday. Excursion train rides operate Saturdays and Sundays from September through June.