Your browser is missing components required for this site

This site requires the Adobe Flash Player 8 plug-in and Javascript.

If you don't have the plug-in, download it for free by clicking the link below.

If you have Javascript disabled, update your browser settings to view this site.

Download the Flash Player
Natural springs once bubbled to the surface, sustaining explorers and early settlers.Natural springs once bubbled to the surface,
sustaining explorers and early settlers. Photo
courtesy of the UNLV Lied Library Special
Collections Department.

In 1776, Friars Athanasio Dominguez and Velez de Escalante tried to find a path from New Mexico to California. At the same time, Father Francisco Garces left Arizona and traveled up the Colorado River to present-day Needles, California.

Neither expedition entered the Las Vegas Valley, but this marked the beginning of the end of isolation for the Native Americans who lived here.

In 1829, New Mexican merchant Antonio Armijo led an expedition along the Virgin River to find a new trading route between New Mexico and California. During the trip, a group of scouts set out to find water and camp sites.

A teenage scout, Rafael Rivera, wandered away from the scouting party on Christmas Day and got lost. For two weeks, he wandered down the Virgin River to the Colorado River to Black Canyon.

He followed the Las Vegas Wash up to a mesa where the Southern Nevada Vocational Technical Center is now located. From this mesa, he could see springs and meadows.

Rivera returned to his caravan and led the party to the lush meadows and springs. The route they followed became known as the Old Spanish Trail. The area Rivera discovered was named Las Vegas, meaning "the meadows" in Spanish.

Captain John C. Fremont led a U.S. military expedition through the valley in 1844. He made a complete circle of the huge, unknown inland desert and was the first to describe it as a Great Basin. He was the first to map the "Old Spanish Trail" route, which linked California and New Mexico. Fremont is credited with putting Las Vegas on the map—literally.