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Where are the original springs discovered by Rafael Rivera and others located?
courtesy of the Springs Preserve
The Las Vegas Springs, a long-ago primary water source, were pumped dry by the 1950s.
Friday, Nov. 26, 2010 | 2 a.m.
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Dear Mr. Sun,
Can you tell me where the original springs discovered by Rafael Rivera and others are located?
— Ralph Barker
Historians don’t know what Rafael Rivera encountered when, as a scout for an 1829-30 expedition from Santa Fe to California, he struck out to the north and became the first European to enter the Las Vegas Valley. Rivera left no account of his time in the valley, which was then dotted with marshes and the meadows for which the city is named.
We know of Rivera thanks to Antonio Armijo, a merchant and leader of the trading expedition looking for a route to California that the Spanish had long sought. Armijo wrote that several men had left the group on Dec. 25 to explore. By the 31st, all but one had returned — “citizen Rafael Rivera.”
Historians’ best guess is that Rivera would have first run across Duck Creek in the south valley. Now a flood-control channel, it runs beneath Pebble Road, just east of Robindale Road, and winds east, eventually into Las Vegas Wash.
Rivera rejoined Armijo’s party on Jan. 7. (He no doubt regaled them with tales of 99-cent shrimp cocktails and poker rooms.) The group followed his lead and explored the valley.
Based on Armijo’s writings, it appears they camped near Jean and then might have visited the springs and meadows near what is now U.S. 95 and Valley View Boulevard, though that’s far from certain.
Those three springs, known as Las Vegas Springs, would shape the region’s development as they slaked the thirst of a growing city a century later.
But it was John C. Fremont, not Rivera or Armijo, who is credited with telling the larger world about the water source in the desert. While mapping the region he stayed, on May 3, 1844, “at a camping ground called Las Vegas.” He describes the springs, saying the water was good but too warm for his taste.
Those springs, which later supplied water to the Las Vegas Town Site, no longer exist. Once bubbling up with such force that it was impossible for a swimmer to sink in one of the springs — Big Spring — by the 1950s they had been pumped dry.
But walking the trails at the Springs Preserve, one can see a reconstruction of what they looked like — in the form of a fancy flood-control basin and reconstructed wetlands — including Spring Mound, site of Well No. 2, which was the primary source for the town’s water supply beginning in 1936.
Questions for Mr. Sun should be sent to page8@lasvegassun.com.
Discussion: 4 comments so far…
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just a minor point, as pebble rd runs east/west and robindale runs east/west, how can something run underneath pebble just east of robindale?
it is a bit like saying something is on Sahara, just west of Desert Inn. Doesn't make any sense.
Very interesting, Rivera? Armijo? Obviously "undocumented immigrants." I'm glad Fremont had them deported.
Mred you are rigth, and I'm proposing change the city's name to "The Sand hills" and even the state must be named "Snowfall land".
It's funny!
I am sorry that "Ask Mr. Sun" has spread farther the misinformation that Rafael Rivera was the first European in the Las Vegas Valley. The Antonio Armijo party, of which he was a member, was the first such party here, but when Armijo came up Duck Creek, Rivera, a scout, was exploring farther down the Colorado River and apparently never entered this valley at all. Mr. Sun or someone from the paper should interview Dr. Elizabeth Warren, the expert on this period in our history, who has worked for years to counter this nonsense, which stemmed from one man's imaginative interpretation of the Armijo diary.
The accompanying photo is obviously not of the springs, but probably of Las Vegas Creek.
Some more of mred's not funny humor. Mred needs to leave the comfort of his recliner and visit with victims of undocumneted immigrants. Mred probably supported Japan and Germany's attempts at bringing down America. Things are really swell and opportunities abound in all of the border towns to Mexico today and mred should go take a tour of them,soon.
How about just calling the whole valley "L.A. East", since we've been so Californicated.
Where are the new questions? This question was put up after the elections back in November.