The Nevada State Museum presents an evening with Eilley Bowers, a Chautauqua performance by Kim Harris.
In her time, Eilley Oram Bowers was one of the wealthiest women in the United States. Born on a farm in Scotland, Eilley married as a teenager, converted to Mormonism and the couple immigrated to the United States. She became an early Nevada pioneer, farmer and miner, and was made a millionaire by the Comstock Lode mining boom. Eilley was twice divorced by the time she married her third husband, Lemuel “Sandy” Bowers. With their new wealth, they built the Bowers Mansion in Washoe Valley, one of the largest houses in the western United States.