Silver City is located within one of the nation's largest federally designated historic landmarks, just 4 miles from Virginia City, 12 miles from Nevada's capital (Carson City), and 30 miles from Reno and from Lake Tahoe. The town's irreplaceable historic buildings and sites, and its crystal clear views of the Sierras and the Comstock, attract visiting plein air painters and photographers from near and far.
Where do I find out what’s going on in Silver City? Local events are usually posted at the US Post Office in Silver City on the bulletin board next to the service window. Town advisory board and other agendas are posted on the post office bulletin board, and also at other spots in Silver City such as the bulletin boards at the School House/Community Center. Events announcements and articles about Silver City can also be found frequently in the Nevada Appeal; the Mason Valley News; I Love Carson City (Facebook); CarsonNow.org, the Reno Gazette Journal; silvercityreads.blogspot.com; and arts4nevada.org. Also check The Save Silver City website, which offers information about Silver City and the challenges it faces with regard to mining. The site provides updates tracking legal, political, and regulatory mining developments, in addition to basic information about Silver City, its residents and history.
SaveSilverCity.org
Direct Services such as food banks, housing assistance, senior services,utilities, etc: see Lyon County's 2017 resource guide for the region:
http://www.lyon-county.org/DocumentCenter/Home/View/5966
Also, follow all of the groups below for information about their organizations and/or town events:
The Silver City Volunteer Fire Department was established in 1863. More here: http://www.silvercityfiredepartment.org/
The Save Silver City website offers info about Silver City and the challenges it faces with regard to mining. The site provides updates tracking legal, political, and regulatory mining developments, in addition to basic information about Silver City, its residents and history. SaveSilverCity.org
“Silver City Neighbors” - Quest Lakes' new weekly Mason Valley News column on local news, events, history, and trivia.
The Silver City Town Advisory Board normally meets the first Tuesday of every month at 7:00 pm at the Silver City School House (Community Center) located at 385 High Street, Silver City. Recently, the Lyon County Board of Commissioners, rather than residents of Silver City, began making the final decision regarding who is appointed to the Silver City Town Advisory Board.
Silver City Town Survey 2016 In 2016, a town survey with residents’ detailed responses to a broad range of questions, with brief overview of the community’s past and present, was completed and presented to county commissioners. The survey can be found here:
http://www.lyon-county.org/documentcenter/view/7129
The Silver City School House (community center) use/scheduling is managed by the Silver City Historic Preservation Society (SCPS), a non-profit group created by residents of Silver City. The school house is the center of many community dinners, holiday events, and art, music, poetry, and science events throughout the year. The building's maintenance, heating, cooling, etc is maintained by Lyon County. More here:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Silver-City-School-House/1511886055743937
The Silver Pavilion Outdoor Performance Venue: Silver City offers live music and other public performances on the new outdoor stage in the Silver City Park during warm months. For more information, see https://www.facebook.com/TheSilverPavilion/
Silver City Organic Community Garden and Compost: A dedicated group of local volunteers keep the beautiful garden thriving. Located across from the School House. Summer 2016 was the garden's 8th growing season! It is listed as a true "people's garden" by the USDA.
Silver City Arts group is composed of local volunteers who organize free public programming in arts and culture throughout the year, including fine art and photography exhibits, artisan shows, lectures, poetry readings and displays, music performances, and more. They've hosted pop-up shows with internationally known artists like Nes Lerpa of Denmark, as well as shows highlighting the many skills and talents of local residents. For instance, the arts group's Nevada 150 Exhibit, an official state endorsed event for the Nevada Sesquicentennial, featured work by locals such as Jean LeGassick, Karen Kreyeski, Larry Wahrenbrock, Jeff Nicholson, Larry Kotik, Julie LaCroix, and many others.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Silver-City-Arts/618872294885649
US Post Office in Silver City was established in 1860 and includes historical photos of Silver City, a special collections display case with changing displays, and a community bulletin board where you’ll find posts about local events. Collections displayed have featured publications by Silver City residents; artifacts and art from Silver City; photos from the annual children’s program in Silver City; photos and artifacts from the Comstock Cemetery Foundation, including Silver City's historic cemetery; antique toys of local residents; music by past and present Silver City residents, etc.
Silver City Summer Program: Silver City launched the popular summer series of arts and science activities for youths in the Comstock region in 2003 (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) programming). Over the years public programming for adults has also been added. The program is an example of multi-sector partnerships, with work and/or funding contributions from many Silver City volunteers and donors, nonprofits like Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey, county departments such as Lyon County Parks, Buildings and Grounds, and many regional groups, such as University Nevada Cooperative Extension, Western Safe Routes to Schools, Society of Women Engineers, the D.G. Menchetti Young Shakespeare Program, United Way, Resident Artist Program in Silver City, Silver City Arts, etc. Contact Quest Lakes at Healthy Communities for more info: 287-7598 or see healthycomm.org.
Resident Artist Program in Silver City: Those creating in the performing, visual, media, or literary arts are invited to apply to the Program. Inquiries: quest@theodata.com. Silver City was recently declared an "Arts and Culture Resources Production Center" due to the high output of visual art, music, publications, and historic preservation resources by residents over the last 50 years. The Resident Artist Program provides an opportunity for artists from other regions of Nevada, or from other states or other countries, to reside in the town at Resident Artist guest housing for periods of up to 4 months, in exchange for offering free public performances, exhibitions, workshops, etc. in the northern Nevada community. Visiting artists have included New Zealand-based artist Sophie Scott (Fall of2015 and Fall of 2017); multi-disciplinary artist Brian Schorn of Michigan; widely exhibited and published writer and artist Scott MacLeod of Oakland (spring 2016); London-based artists Stewart Easton and Claire Scully (summer 2016); internationally acclaimed photographer Frances Melhop (Aug. 2016); Utah’s first poet laureate, Dr. David Lee (Sept-Dec 2016 and May 2017); Danish writer Peter Krogh Andersen and Danish designer Christina Balsvardé (March 2017); the international cultural -research team Marksearch, which will come to Silver City after a 6 month project in Japan (visiting in both April 2017 and summer 2017); etc. The visiting artists are always quite prolific. For example, Brian Schorn created 22 mixed media assemblages while he was at the Resident Artist Program -those works were in a solo show at St. Mary's Art Center in August, and then on display in Reno at 50 West Liberty Street, and in a solo show at the Microsoft campus in Reno for 6 months in 2017. More info on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/silvercitynevadaresidentartistprogram/
Silver City Volunteer Library is located within the Silver City School House/Community Center. It includes a collection of thousands of books, many sets of reference works, a large film collection, magazines, music CDs, etc. thanks to donors from all over the U.S., Silver City, and the county. Most of the collection is stored in the basement of the school house so that there is plenty of room for other uses upstairs. The collection is rotated every 3 to 4 months, and new arrivals are added each month so there are always new things on the shelves. Borrow on the honor system when the School House is open for meetings and events. The library has its own blog site with local news: http://silvercityreads.blogspot.com/
Silver City Cemetery, and the Comstock Cemetery Foundation: The Comstock Cemetery Foundation Board formally took up the responsibility of co-managing the historic Silver City Cemetery with Lyon County and welcomed a new representative from the Silver City community in 2009. The Comstock Cemetery Foundation, a non-profit organization, was established in the year 2000. The Operating Board comprises members of organizations represented within Virginia City, Silver City, and Gold Hill Cemeteries. More here: http://comstockcemetery.com/meetthefoundation.html
How Do I Find Community and Social Services For the Silver City Region? Check these resource guides online:
Lyon County Community Resource Guide 2017:
http://www.lyon-county.org/DocumentCenter/Home/View/5966
Lyon, Carson, Douglas Region Family Resources: http://nv-douglascounty2.civicplus.com/DocumentCenter/Home/View/829
Short Overview of Past and Present Silver City, Nevada:
Below is a general overview about the past and present of Silver City from the rough draft of the 2016 Silver City, Nevada Town Survey document.
“During the 1960s, Silver City and the Comstock were portrayed, accurately or not, as a ghost town. New residents arrived to take advantage of vacant, low-cost property, alongside the remaining families who traced their tenure to Silver City’s mining days. This consummated Silver City’s change from a mining town to a residential or bedroom community, and reflected a similar change in the Comstock as tourism replaced mining as the economic driver of the region. The new arrivals also brought their own brand of activism, and a number of them and their family members continue to influence and participate in Silver City community life. The once-neglected buildings they refurbished are also among the most valuable residential properties in Silver City. The transformation of Silver City into a strictly residential community is long since complete, with residents either working from home or commuting to jobs in Reno, Carson City, and Dayton...(page 7).
Silver City’s population as of the 2010 Census was 180... Residents include a full range of white-collar and blue-collar workers, professionals, and retirees. Interestingly enough, a fair number of archaeologists and historians live in Silver City. In the 1980s, Intermountain Research (IMR), one of Nevada’s first Cultural Resource consulting firms, was based in Silver City. This attracted not only IMR staff but employees of other consulting firms, government agencies, and the Nevada State Museum.
Today, Silver City is home to several nationally and internationally recognized archaeologists and historians. Silver City also has a strong artistic and literary tradition, and includes several very prominent Nevada artists, along with writers, columnists, and the publisher of a local newspaper. Most recently, the town has established the Silver City Arts Group and an artist- in-residence program, which attracts visiting artists and coordinates exhibits and performances. The Silver City Advisory Board has declared Silver City an “Arts and Cultural Resources Production Center” in recognition of the town’s commitment to the arts.
Silver City’s sense and strength of community is widely acknowledged throughout Lyon County. Our relatively small population includes a high proportion of community minded citizens who have a strong sense of empowerment and civic responsibility. Silver City residents have served, and continue to serve, on the Lyon County School Board, Planning Commission, Citizen Advisory Board, Parks Board, and volunteer fire department.
The community has also been recognized for its activism and accomplishments on a number of occasions. In 1986, the American Planning Association gave the Silver City Residents Association its Outstanding Citizen Contribution to Planning in Nevada award for its successful opposition to the Nevex Gold Company open pit mine.
In 2007, the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office officially recognized Ron Reno and the Town of Silver City “For a remarkable effort, donated to excavate and document the Old School House.” In May, 2008, the Board of Lyon County Commissioners passed a resolution congratulating the citizens and community of Silver City’s “contribution towards the quality of life in the community through the completion of the Schoolhouse and subsequent dedication of the State Historical Marker 264.”
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