Springs Preserve

Las vegas means “the meadows” in Spanish, though the sprawling desert metropolis might seem at odds with such a bucolic name. But the answer to how it got such a name can be found at the Springs Preserve. The site was originally named for the fields of vegetation surrounding a large spring on the Old Spanish Trail connecting Santa Fe, now in New Mexico, with Los Angeles. A major part of this trade was the export of horses and mules to Santa Fe, so a campsite with abundant forage and water was particularly attractive.

When the Los Angeles and Salt Lake railroad (now part of the Union Pacific) was built through the Las Vegas valley in 1905, the springs were attractive to the railroad as a water source, and so they established a settlement there. The city of Las Vegas now celebrates this as its founding. An imaginative replica of 1905 Las Vegas called “Boomtown” is at the site, and visitors are free to walk around among the buildings.

The springs were later acquired by the city and were its main water source for many years. A network of trails now winds around the site of the original springs, with interpretive signs on the ruins of infrastructure to maintain the springs, including water well derricks, the collapsed “springhouse” that kept dirt out of the springs, the remains of a caretaker’s cabin, and decaying waterworks. Interpretive signs describing local wildlife are also found, as are descriptions of the ongoing efforts to restore some of the original wetlands. Even a tiny patch of the original “vegas” remains.

By the 1950s it was becoming obvious that the city was rapidly outgrowing its original water supply. The main spring itself ceased to flow in 1960, and wells were going dry. Las Vegas began drawing water from Lake Mead on the Colorado River in the 1950s, and now water from the Colorado constitutes about 85 percent of the city’s supply. Maintaining that flow has become a challenge, however, as the level of Lake Mead has dropped below the original intake pipes. In the early 21st century, a “third straw” was built: a “drainplug” on the floor of the lake. The Waterworks Museum at the Springs Preserves describes the story of efforts to bring water from Lake Mead, focusing on the extraordinary effort to construct the “third straw.”

The Origen Museum and the Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas, are also on the grounds of the Springs Preserve. They display other historical and cultural artifacts, including a large section on natural history, and are also worth a visit.