Old Las Vegas Mormon State Historic Park brings history to life
It may be difficult to imagine Las Vegas without its sparkling neon lights but, as the Old Las Vegas Mormon State Historic Park will attest to, the city’s history is colorful even without them.
The discovery of Las Vegas, once just an oasis in the Mojave Desert, has been attributed to an 18-year-old Mexican scout named Rafael Riviera, who in 1829, came across Las Vegas Springs while in search of water for a trading party traveling the Spanish Trail to Los Angeles, Still, it wasn’t until 1855 when the Mormons, members of the Church of Latter Day Saints, arrived from Utah and made the first permanent non-native settlement that Las Vegas really began.
Building a fort from sun-dried adobe bricks along the Las Vegas Creek, William Bringhurst and 29 of his fellow Mormons planted fruit trees, cultivated vegetables, and made bullets mined at Potosi Mountain, some 30 miles from the fort. The outpost, equipped with a post office, served as a way station for travelers making their way along the Spanish Trail to California.
The Mormons tried farming by diverting water from the creek and even briefly dabbled in mining and smelting after lead was discovered in the mountain. But after two years of dissension between two of their leaders, beastly hot weather, and periodic Indian raids, the Mormons gave up and abandoned the fort in 1858.
In 1865, Octavious D. Gass, a miner from El Dorado Canyon, bought the land, built a ranch house, and established a small store and blacksmith shop onsite. As the story goes, Gass defaulted on a note in 1881 and the property was taken over by Archibald and Helen Stewart. Even after Archibald was killed in a gunfight in 1884, Helen and her father continued to operate the ranch until 1902 when, Helen sold it and the water rights to the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad. The railroad chugged into the valley in 1905, founding Las Vegas in its wake. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation leased and renovated the old fort in 1929 during the construction of Hoover Dam.
Visitors can still see the adobe building closest to the creek, which is the only original part of the Mormons’ 150-square-foot adobe fort that featured towers and bastions on the northeast and southwest corners. Also remaining is the ranch house built by Gass using part of the old fort’s foundation.
Running through the ranch is a re-creation of the creek that supplied water to the area. After Las Vegas was founded, the water was diverted and the creek dried up. There is also a 4,000-square-foot visitor center with interpretive displays and a gift shop.
- by Bobbie Katz, Las Vegas Reporter for HelloMetro
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