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Preface

This is the second in a series of articles covering historical locations in and adjacent to Red Rock Canyon.
It may be helpful to first understand how and why Las Vegas became a destination.

Early Settlement and Military Intervention

While traders and travelers continued to pass through and even camp in Red

Rock Canyon on the way to and from California there were no settlements in the
area. This was about to change. The route would start to see wagon usage which

increased travel difficulty immensely. The portion of the trail/route through
southern Nevada was considered to be the most difficult section of any route to

California, and the springs at Las Vegas became the favorite resting place for
Crossing the plains ca 1856 travelers going in either direction.

“The caravan consisted of some two or three hundred Mexican traders and nearly a thousand head of mules
and horses. Their appearance was grotesque in the extreme. Dressed in every variety of costume, from the
embroidered jacket of the wealthy Californian, with its silver bell-shaped buttons, to the scanty habiliments of
the skin-clad Indian.” (George Douglas Brewerton on the Old Spanish Trail in 1848)

In 1855, the Mormon Church sent a group of 30 men, under the direction of William
Bringhurst, to establish an Indian mission at Las Vegas. The Mormons built an adobe fort

alongside Las Vegas Creek. The Mormons made a treaty with the Indians and taught farming
in addition to teaching religion, and operated a lead mine at Mt. Potosi. Additional Mormon
families joined the mission to provide assistance, however the fields could not support the 100
members of the mission and the estimated 1,000 Indians that lived in or near the Las Vegas
Valley. A drought in 1856 also hurt the traditional supplies of wild food and hunting and the Ruins of Mormon Fort ca 1858
Indians began stealing grain and melons from the mission’s fields. The lead mine proved to be
unprofitable and, in the fall of 1858, Indians stole the harvest from the fields and church authorities officially abandoned
the mission. Octavius Gass took over the abandoned Mormon Fort at Las Vegas in 1865 and turned it into a 640-acre
ranch and way station for travelers. He planted orchards and a vineyard as well as vegetables.

Sometime during the 1860s sandstone buildings were built on the Williams Ranch. In 1876 James Wilson would file a
claim on the land and start a cattle ranch which would eventually become Spring Mountain State Park.

Congress approved funding in 1856 for Lieutenant Joseph Ives to determine if
Colorado River travel would be feasible to the Virgin River. Ives had a steam-
boat constructed and shipped to the mouth of the Colorado River. The boat
proved to be slow with too deep a draft and ran aground shortly after launch-

ing, much to the delight of the Indians who were watching. Captain Robinson
later claimed he became able to recognize sandbars ahead by the number of
Indians gathered on the shore. The party made it as far as the Black Canyon
before it was forced to stop.
Lt. Ives steamboat U.S. Explorer
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