Las Vegas, the small town with a big history

We all picture the casinos and nightlife when we hear Las Vegas said out loud. But this image is not always true. Very few people think about a small sleepy town somewhere between Walsenburg and Santa Fe when Las Vegas comes to the conversation. Believe it or not, but this town was established 70 years earlier than its more famous sister town in Nevada. I am taking of Las Vegas, New Mexico. The history of this town starts in 1835 when the group of settlers received a land grant from the Mexican government and laid out the town in the traditional Spanish Colonial style, with a central plaza surrounded by buildings.

 

It  was a big city in the past, but now it is a nice, but sleepy town, just out of Route 66 and not that popular anymore. Not many railway travelers cross this place ourdays and most of the cars passing on the Highway 25 without stopping... No one is interested to explore this place.

West Las Vegas or Old Town was the last Spanish colony established in North America by the Spanish settlers whose roots went back to the early 1600’s and was originally called Nuestra Señora de los Dolores de Las Vegas Grandes (our Lady of Sorrows of the Great Meadows). 

Town became a part of the United States after the Mexican-American War in 1846. In 1877 Las Vegas College, the precursor to Regis University, was founded in Las Vegas by a group of exiled Italian Jesuits. In 1887, Las Vegas College moved to Denver whereupon the name was changed.

The Santa Fe Trail offered jobs and the many town merchants prospered during this time, growing to over 1,000 people by 1860. During the next two decades its population quadrupled as it established itself as a major trade center.

A railroad was constructed to the town in 1880 but even before this happened, Las Vegas was the biggest city between San Francisco and Independence, Missouri. Overnight, a new town - East Las Vegas or New Town was born on the east banks of the Gallinas River, a mile east of the Plaza when the railroad came to the town. Turn-of-the-century Las Vegas featured all the modern amenities, including an electric street railway, the "Duncan Opera House" at the northeast corner of 6th Street and Douglas Avenue, a Carnegie library, the Hotel Castaneda (a major Harvey House), and the New Mexico Normal School (now New Mexico Highlands University). The population was also growing during these years.

The six trains that stopped there daily opened up yet another era of prosperity, bringing with it both legitimate businesses, but also introducing even more new elements into the town’s already distrustful environment. Before long, outlaws, bunko artists, murderers and thieves were becoming so common that the eastern part of the settlement had become utterly lawless. 

Among the notorious characters were such legends of the Old West as: dentist Doc Holliday and his girlfriend Big Nose Kate, Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Mysterious Dave Mather, Hoodoo Brown, and Handsome Harry the Dancehall Rustler. 

Historian Ralph Emerson Twitchell once claimed regarding the Old West, "Without exception there was no town which harbored a more disreputable gang of desperadoes and outlaws than did Las Vegas." That was the most wild and dangerous place in all of the Old West! You know, despite everything we can see in the westerns, life wasn't as dangerous as it is shown in the movies. Most of the settlers didn't carry guns and definitely were not shooting anyone who didn't say politely hello :) But Las Vegas NM was as close to this as it was possible these days.

But time changed and life became quieter and easier. The cars took the place of the railroads and the town turned to the normal provincial place, where nothing bright can happen in years. Cowboys Reunions were held once a year within 1915 until 1931. These reunions were meant to celebrate the ranching life that took place in northern New Mexico in the late 1800s. These reunions consisted of fair-like activities, including pie eating contests, barbecues, and parades. They brought the working cowhand and celebrities of Rodeos together in the town of Las Vegas.

There were a lot of movies made in Las Vegas (mostly in 1980th and later, see the list here:  http://www.imdb.com/list/ls009229053/). Now the tired explorer can enjoy staying in the same room in the old Plaza Hotel (red building on the left) where some famous actors spent their time between riding the horses and shooting Colt Peacemaker ;)  

 

The plaza still look like it looked hundred years old and take a glance if you don't believe me: 

By the way, Theodore Roosevelt stayed twice in the Plaza Hotel and announced his plans for presidency in Las Vegas. So the history was made here after all ;)

We too spent a night in the Plaza Hotel and stayed in the center room on the third floor, just above to the room Michel Obama stayed ;) We enjoyed not only the feeling of traveling across time, but also the almost forgotten feeling of holding a real paper book you can find in your room and everywhere in the hotel (and some books in our room were over 100 years old).

The Main Street also has this layer of history laying on it. As well as a bunch of old buildings well preserved and reminding us about prosperity and history. 

Let's keep off downtown and walk on streets where rare travelers can be found. The houses here are not as nice and fashionable and famous but they are authentic and rustic and... I'd say real. Don't you agree?

Our Lady of Sorrows Church is another good example of Romanesque Revival style. One of the oldest Las Vegas churches but it's also a modern one. You can listen to the mass by just tuning to the FM radio if you are running late or cannot attend if for any reason.

 

The Masonic Temple is a remarkable historic building, one of the oldest in Northern New Mexico and a treasure trove of antiques, artifacts and neat things. Built in 1894, it is the best remaining example of Richardsonian Romanesque buildings in New Mexico. Teddy Roosevelt was a Mason, and enjoyed this lodge, as have most of the business and political leaders of New Mexico.

Le Fidel Hotel just next door to the Masonic Temple brings us to the Prohibition era and, maybe, some of the guests of this hotel (that was built in 1923) enjoyed sipping the liquor from the tea cups. Who knows, maybe you can even have a cup of whiskey in its bar right now :)

This hotel was for sale in 2016 with a starting price of $300,000 (yeah, you cannot buy a decent house in Denver today with this money) but I don't know if it found the new owner though.

Just one block out of this place we found the Rawling building, which has brick side walls and an impressive pressed metal front. There were rooms where many of the Harvey girls who staffed the La Castaneda's dining room across the street lived.

 

La Castaneda itself is just across the street and now under renovation so we can expect to be able to stay in this historical place soon. That was a big jewel in Fred Harvey's chain of hotels and restaurants alongside railroads in the western United States. Allan Affeld, the owner of a few historical places, had bought La Castaneda in 2016 and plans of adding to his empire of hotels of the past. He owns Plaza Hotel (in Las Vegas, NM) and La Posada in Winslow Arizona. La Castaneda will complete this perfect historical triangle and help to protect the history of these places and the soul of the old West...

Pictures were taken in September 2009 and October 2017.