Early Las Vegas, Las Vegas

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by
James Shown

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        The first attempt to settle in the Las Vegas area was made by the Mormons in 1855, when Brigham Young sent 30 men, (missionaries), to the Las Vegas spring area to establish a mission.  The intent of the mission was to develop peaceful relations with the local Indians and convert them to Christian Mormonism, and to establish a station half-way point between Utah and the Mormon settlements in California.
        There were upwards of 2000 Indians, Southern Paiutes, living in the area at this time.   "President Brigham Young instructed the missionaries to teach the Indians how to raise crops and livestock; further to teach them cleanliness, virtue, and truthfulness."   Treaties were made which allowed them to settle there and the Mormons agreed to treat the Indians well in exchange.
        The Mormon party arrived on June 14^th after traveling for 35 days from Salt Lake City.  They built a 150 square foot adobe fort “near a creek running through some meadow land”, which was appropriately named the Mormon fort.
        They only spent two years at the fort before the harsh desert land defeated their ambitions.  As well, there were political problems going on between the U. S. Government and the settlers in Utah, and all the outlying settlers were called in.  They fort was thusly abandoned and forgotten.
        Then in 1865 Octavias Decatur Gass, a gold prospector from Eldorado Canyon, along with a partner, William Knapp, one of the original missionaries to the fort, acquired the property with plans to restore the fort and use it as a way station on the preferred route between Utah and California much the same as the original Mormons had intended.  It included a small store and blacksmith shop. William’s brother, Albert had returned to the fort in 1860 and opened a small supply store selling to travelers and miners.
        Gass built a ranch house using part of the foundation of the original walls of the old fort, and using local natives for labor. It eventually became the center of the 640-acre Los Vegas Rancho.  He deliberately misspelled the name so as not to have it confused with Las Vegas, New Mexico. The area is now North Las Vegas.
        But in 1879, Gass took out a loan against the property with Archibald Stewart, and when he was unable to pay by 1881, Stewart foreclosed.
        Helen Stewart had lived at the ranch since 1882 and had been owner and operator since her husband Archibald was killed in a gun fight in 1884.  The object of his death was disputed in court but without proper evidence and the lack of appropriate witnesses it led to the dismissal of all homicide charges against Conrad Kiel and  Schyler Henry of the Kiel Ranch. She and her father continued to operate the ranch, which grew to 960-acres, until she sold it to San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad in 1902.
         For 35 years the ranch had used the water from the desert spring which kept Las Vegas a green oasis for weary travelers.  The sale of the ranch marked the end of an era at this isolated outpost of what was then Lincoln County.

Who came first . . . the chicken or the egg?
        When most people think of Las Vegas’ roots they think of it as Clark’s Las Vegas Town Site.  But there was another who came at the same time as Senator William A. Clark, and even began to build a town site before him.
            By mid 1904 Las Vegas Valley was the center of restless activity in the south.  Most anyone who lived there, and was most assuredly not a railroad worker, did so in tents or shanty’s made of canvas and wood.
            In 1904 Sen. William A. Clark’s railroad, the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Line, (SP, LA & SL RR) made its way from the north and south, from Los Angeles to just outside the Las Vegas area with intentions of continuing on to Salt Lake City.  The first depot was no more than a rail car.
            A construction camp for the rail workers was established and the area bustled with workers, merchants, freight wagons hauling ties, rails and equipment for the railroad.
            By 1904 the railhead, the farthest point where the rails had been laid, was a mere nine miles from Las Vegas, and the town site had become a major point for shipment of supplies going north to Rhyolite, Beatty and the Bullfrog Mining District.
            Rhyolite had become a boomtown ahead of Las Vegas.  By 1904 it supported about fifteen saloons, dozens of business’ and rooming houses. (For complete details on Rhyolite, check it out on this site).
            One of the prime driving forces behind the growing community of Las Vegas was J. T. McWilliams, an occasional prospector and surveyor.  McWilliams had been in southern Nevada for several years already and had taken up a section of land adjoining the Las Vegas Ranch, which in itself is what put Las Vegas on the map.  But money talks.
            By early 1905 he’d filed a map of the “Las Vegas Town Site” and lots sold like hotcakes.  To the many awaiting the opening of the railroad town site, this displeased them.  Clark’s rail company hadn’t established it’s town site office yet, and wouldn’t do so until April or May of 1905.
            McWilliams had already appropriated the name – Las Vegas – for the town site, and many that already bought early from him felt cheated as they believed at the time of purchase their lots were in the railroad town site.
            When Clark’s office finally announced that it wasn’t going to sell the lots, but auction them instead, those who’d bought  from McWilliams were even more disappointed.
            Even though a thriving community had already started a year prior to Clark’s auction, the auction is generally regarded as the birth date of Las Vegas.
            Following the auction those living in the McWilliams town site area migrated to Clark’s town site, within a few weeks, moving houses and all.  The original town site became deserted, and was referred to as “Old Town” or “McWilliamstown”.  In September a major fire destroyed the business’ along Railroad Avenue and “Old Town” ceased to exist.  That area became known as the West Side and Clark’s Town Site became the core of the modern city of Las Vegas.
            Senator Clark had a powerful angle other than the railroad, but it was because of this powerful edge that the railroad came into that area.  When he purchased the ranch from Helen Stewart securing the only water rights in the area, he purchased the right to control.  Sometimes water was almost as valuable as silver.
            Was it arson that destroyed McWilliam’s town site?  No one will ever know for sure, but rest assured Las Vegas began with a power struggle, and it seems like it’s been that way ever since.