Carson City's 'silver' capitol dome actually made of tin

This article by Guy Rocha, former state archivist with the Nevada State Library and Archives, originally appeared on Feb. 25, 2009.

Surely, the Silver State's Capitol "dome"— technically it's a cupola — was once covered with silver.

It was, if you believe virtually every tour guide and bus driver talking to unsuspecting tourists. The literature on the state Capitol is replete with references to a "silver dome." After all, other state Capitols have cupolas or domes covered with gold leaf or made of copper, and Nevada's Comstock was queen of the silver camps in the mid-19th century.

The oft-repeated story notes that with the seismic retrofitting of the Capitol in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the "silver dome" was replaced with a silver-colored Fiberglas cupola. However, the tale contin