Page 41 - 2005 DT 12 Issues

I n T h i s I s s u e

Featured Article
Clayson & Griffith............................1

Special
Making a Difference.........................3
Departments
News & Notes....................................2
June 2005 Programs & Hikes.............................4
Desk Schedule...................................6
Bulletin Board...................................8

Clayson and Griffith us with a sense of pride in knowing
that a Clayson had been among the
by William Clayson city’s earliest pioneers.
I left Las Vegas in 1994 after
completing my degree in history at
think of myself as a Las Vegan, were a wonder for a kid like me. I UNLV to attend graduate school. I
though like most Las Vegans, remember following the trails around also got married and had three kids of
I
I wasn’t born here. My family the Visitor Center when Dad called me my own before returning to Las Vegas
moved to Las Vegas in 1983, migrants inside to show me something. There in ten years later to take up my position
from the East in search of the Sunbelt. the historical display was an enlarged at CCSN. We arrived in August and
My neighborhood, just west of Rain- black and white photograph. The photo one of our first orders of business was
bow Boulevard off Alta Drive, was showed two men sitting in front of a to head up to Red Rock. The drive
considered the far west side astounded me because the sub-
of town at the time. Buffalo urbs continued nearly to the
Drive was mostly a dirt road edge of the Canyon. We walked
and the 95 Freeway ended at through the Visitor Center and
Rainbow. The Community © UNLV Special Collections I was amazed to once again
College of Southern Nevada see the “Clayson and Griffith”
(CCSN) campus on West photo, still on display. I pointed
Charleston, where I’m now a the sign out to my son, who
faculty member teaching his- at six recognized his own last
tory, was an empty lot where name faster than I had twenty
my friends and I rode our years earlier. My historian’s
bikes. My Father taught me curiosity got me thinking more
to drive in the empty paved about who my early pioneer
streets of what would later Clayson and Griffith, circa 1905 ancestor was and what his life
become The Lakes, before was like in Las Vegas nearly a
Citibank opened its doors. store with a canvas roof, under a hand- century ago.
Since so much has changed in the past painted sign that read, “Clayson and My Father, an accomplished ge-
twenty years, I think of myself as an Griffith: House Furnishings, Miner’s nealogist, had learned a bit about the
old timer. Supplies, Burros and Saddles, New man and his family. Dad discovered
When we moved to Las Vegas, and Second Hand Goods Bought and that the man in the photograph was in-
one of the first places we ventured to Sold.” It took a second for me to rec- deed an ancestor of mine—my second
was Red Rock Canyon. Back then, a ognize my own last name. Dad got a cousin thrice removed to be exact—and
drive to Red Rock included a good copy of the photo, dated 1905, from his name was Francis “Frank” Horton
half-hour in open desert before reach- the UNLV library. It remains on promi-
ing the loop. The cliffs, with their nent display in his den to this day. As
mysterious forests in the crevices, transplants, the photograph provided Clayson, continued on p 6.