Las Vegas (The Meadows)

The name is a description that came true. Spanish-speaking travelers crossing this valley on the Old Spanish Trail found streams feeding meadows of grass in the desert and called the place las vegas—the meadows. The springs had supported life here for thousands of years, drawing the Southern Paiute to a reliable oasis, and they made the valley an essential watering stop for the pack trains and emigrants who followed. Without the meadows there would have been no reason to stop, no mission, no railroad town, no city. The grass is gone, drawn down by the metropolis it made possible.

What the plaque says

Las Vegas (The Meadows). . The famous Las Vegas Springs rose from the desert floor here, sending two streams of water across the valley to nurture the native grasses, and create lush meadows in the valley near Sunrise Mountain. The natural oasis of meadow and mesquite forest was the winter homeland of Southern Paiutes, who spent the summers in the Charleston Mountains. An unknown Spanish-speaking sojourner, named this place “Las Vegas” meaning “The Meadows,” marking it on a map of the Southwestern Desert. Antonio Armijo stopped at the Springs in 1829-30, traveling a route, which became known as the Old Spanish Trail. After 1830, the route rested beside the Springs. On one of his western exploration trips, John C. Frémont camped here on May 3, 1844. Because of artesian water here, Mormons established the Las Vegas Mission and Fort in 1855; the Valley became a huge cattle ranch from 1866 to 1904; and the San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake Railroad Company acquired water righst and land, with which it created the City of Las Vegas in 1905.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fremont Street — 2.6 mi
  Glitter Gulch — the neon canyon where Las Vegas actually began
• The Mob Museum — 2.7 mi
  Organized crime, told in the downtown courtroom that first exposed it
• The Neon Museum — 2.8 mi
  The Neon Boneyard — where the Strip''s discarded signs are rescued and lit again
• Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort State Historic Park — 2.8 mi
  The 1855 adobe fort where Las Vegas began — a mile and a world away from the neon

More markers nearby

• Original Home of “Pop” Squires (1865-1958) — 2.7 mi
• The Morelli House — 2.9 mi
• Old Spanish Trail — 3.2 mi
• Las Vegas Mormon Fort (Nevada’s Oldest Building) — 3.2 mi