the country exploring the american story. since 2011, we've been to mortar 200 committees across the nation. like many americans, our staff is staying close to home due to the coronavirus. next, a look at one of our cities tour visits. >> nevada is one of the few states where our first anglo-american industry here was mining. not agriculture. there has been mining in nevada as early as 1850, 1851. it really took off with the founding of virginia city in 1859 and 1860. reno was founded in 1868 as part of the transcontinental railroad, a hub for thee railroad. reno really grew up as being the last stop before the desert and the last stop before the mountains, the main rail hub silver was sent through on its

way to san francisco. so the comstock lode was a large deposit of silver in virginia city, on the virginia range. it was mined in earnest from the 1860's until about 1886, with boom and bust periods. but one of the largest discoveries of that period was the bonanza of 1873 when they struck one of the largest silver deposits we know of. that mine was owned by john mackey, the namesake of this building. john mackey was born in the early 1830's in dublin, ireland, and he and his family came to new york, where he grew up in the five points neighborhood of new york city. when he was old enough, he left new york and took a ship to panama, hiked across panama and got another ship, landing in the

gold fields of california as part of the 1849 gold rush, arriving around 1850 to 1851. he worked in the gold fields but did not find his fortune. in 1860, he walked from the gold fields of california to virginia city. according to the story, he entered virginia city penniless. because of his experience in the minds of california, he very quickly worked his way up through the mines of virginia city and became a superintendent of the mine in the late 1860's and was able to purchase the mines by the early 1870's. he was owner of the conn virginia when most thought it was defunct, and he and his business partners kept it open a few more weeks and it struck the big bonanza. by the 1870's, his mines were averaging about $300,000 a month in silver production, and that is 1870's dollars. john mackey was a major part of the mines of virginia city all the way up until they shut off the pumps of the combination shaft, which kind of signaled

the end of the golden age of mining in virginia city, in 1886. he went on to invest in telecommunications. his first investment was the transatlantic telegraph cable. and by 1902 when he passed away, the mackeys were knows as telecommunication barons, and owned a telegraph and telephone company. his son, clarence mackey, took over the business and build a relationship with the university starting in 1907 that led to the creation of the mackey school. one of the unique aspects of nevada, according to the 18 624 constitution, the land-grant university in nevada has to teach mining. unr is the land-grant university here in nevada. unr was founded in 1874 in elko, and the elko experiment was considered a bit of a failure.

nobody graduated in 10 years. so they moved the university to reno in 1885, and the first building was completed in 1886. the first class graduated in 1891. and mining education at unr in that time was a lot of starts and stops, was not very consistent. there would be a few semesters during which no mining classes were offered. and in those days, unr, in those days it was called the university of nevada, was just a few buildings on the south end of was -- what was then the evans alfalfa ranch. as the university moved north, they bought more of the alfalfa ranch. in 1907 several politicians in nevada thought it would be a good idea to honor john mackey by having a statue of him on the grounds of the capital building. so they approached john mackey's heir, clarence mackey, about funding the statue.

clarence mackey agreed and reached out to the artist, who would later go on to design and implement mount rushmore, to build the statue. by the time it was completed, 1907-1908, there was a lot of politics. people remembered john mackey and thought it might be inappropriate that one man, one individual was honored on the capitol grounds. so there was a bit of a debate, and dr. stubbs, the president of the university at the time, said, we will take it. that is how the statue of john mackey arrived at the university. clarence mackey saw this kind of plucky western university and wanted to "beautify the campus." he donated money for the quad and our elm trees that are now over 100 years old. in 1908, he donated $100,000 to build the mackey school of mines.

the keck museum, originally the mackey school museum, was founded in 1908 as one of the original fixtures of the mackey mining buildings. these are the original cases from 1908. the museum is still displaying and storing items as it would have in 1908. founded as a research museum, it endeavored to bring the world to the mackey students. we have collections from all over the world, and many of our collections are of ores from very famous mining discs and mines, some of which -- districts and mines, some of which have been closed over a hundred years. many were taken at depth, and in many cases we know the actual shaft and depth ore samples were taken from. the minerals and objects on display really show about less than 5% of the collection. the majority of the collection is still in storage. our three collecting areas is rocks and minerals with a

special emphasis on ores, paleontology and mining history. in the last 10 to 15 years we have really tightened our scope to focus on nevada, because not only is that what we are good at, but nevada is an extremely interesting state from a geological perspective with over 35 minerals discovered here in the state of nevada. we are now in the lower level of the w.m. keck museum and next to me is the marie-louise and john mackey silver collection. they owned several mines in virginia city, the sight of the comstock lode. the famous silver mine, the conn virginia which in 1873 was the source of the big bonanza. mary louise asked john to make her something molly silver being pulled from the mines. john mackey sent four boxcars from his silver mines in virginia city that likely went through reno on their way to new

york. they arrived at tiffany and company, and they manufactured this set. it took 200 artisans two years to make, and these are only 58 of the original 1200 pieces in the collection that originally sat 24 people. the mackeys would have used this set daily at their homes in paris and london, all the way up to the turn of the century. in the 1950's, the mackey family donated the silver service to the university, and "impractical pieces" like the candelabras, cigar stands. the university used the set as its state silver for many years. the service has been on display at the keck museum for about 20 years. many of the items in the service really show the opulence of dining culture in the gilded

age, and there are many pieces here we would not find in a modern dinner service. we have everything from crumb trays, so the footmen can brush up crumbs in between courses. we also have melon eayeters, used to eat cantaloupe. you slice with one side and use the fork on the other side to pick up the morsel. we also have wine siphons, olive forks, champagne holders. one of my personal favorites, a pair of ham-holders, so that while the footmen were serving, called service de russe, where everything would be held by a servant and carved by a servant at the table and then served. the footmen could hold the ham

without getting his white gloves sullied. i'm really glad that visitors when they come to the keck museum can see objects like the marie-louise and john mackey silver collection, that show not only the wealth of the mines in virginia city but also that this is owned by the people of nevada and is on display for people to enjoy. nevadans take their earth science very seriously, and it is hard-pressed to find a nevadan who doesn't claim they are a rock hound. nevadans love their geology, and mining has always been an important part of nevada's statehood. >> you can watch this and other programs on the history of communities across the country

at c-span.org cities tour. this is american history tv only on c-span3. university of dayton professors john heitmann todd uhlman teach a class about 1970's american call culture -- car culture and films of the era. they say these films reflected to many americans' disillusionment and glorified the open road. they talk about the impact of oil shortages, the rise of coast to coast races, and the popularity of trucker movies and music. >> today we are going to be talking about making sense of u s, or the united states, in this period of the 1970's. we will use three handles. we will