Best viewed at screen resolution of 1024 x 768

One of the last major rail lines built in the United States was the Salt Lake to Los Angeles railroad. Although there had been talk for many years before the turn of the century, it became a reality in 1904-05. Like any great endeavor it brought in many who were looking to make their fortune in the building of the road. One such man was John T. McWilliams.

Hired by Helen J. Stewart in 1902, McWilliams surveyed the Las Vegas Rancho. He discovered that an eighty-acre tract of land was still available and immediately filed on it. With the rail line crossing the southeast corner, McWilliams hoped to have his townsite become the new city on line. He graded streets, survyed lots and began selling parcels by the end of 1904.

The lots were sold "as is" with no further improvement planned by McWilliams. By January 1905 there were over a hundred buildings of varying sorts. The San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad quickly became aware of what he was doing.

The quick growth of the town site contributed to the mining booms in Goldfield, Bullfrog and other northern districts. General stores, hotels, lumberyards, stock pens and even theater sprang up. Fire was an ever-present danger to these structures built of canvas and wood. The huge stockyards filled with horses and mules attracted armies of flies.

The railroad sent out surveyors in early 1905. Located to the southeast of McWilliams' Original Las Vegas Townsite, they began laying out an area that would be known as Clark's Las Vegas Townsite. The land was surveyed and fenced, pending its lot sales scheduled to occur in late April. The railroad's plans to force McWilliams out included promises of road and sewer improvements once the land was sold. They also held the most important component to the growth of any western endeavor. They held the water rights.

Las Vegas would not have existed if it had not been for the springs that welled up within the vallery. This brought life to the desert. The largest of the springs was located well within the railroad's western property and was the source of the Las Vegas Creek that split the two town sites.

Boom towns go up quickly and have exciting lives while they do. The post office moved from the Stewart's ranch to the new town site, bringing with it Postmaster Walter Bracken (shown left). The Stewarts, who had sold their ranch to the railroad, purchased property as did many others caught up in the boom town atmosphere.

An interesting component of many temporary buildings was the use of shade flies. The canvas or wood canopies built on frames (shown left) created shade over the tent cabins.

On Thursday, May 11th, 1905, the Los Angeles Herald advertised that the McWilliams' Original Las Vegas Townsite contained "a half dozen first-class general stores, two good hotels, eight or ten good restaurants, three drug stores, a first-class bank, three weekly and two daily newspapers, blacksmiths, carpenters, painters and all the trade well represented."

The Las Vegas Land and Water Company was created to handle the holdings of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad in Las Vegas. After a number of delays in construction and planning, the land auction was finally held on May 15th, 1905. With extensive advertising by the railroad, the auction had in attendance over 1000 men and produced an amount exceeding $265,000.

Promises made by the Las Vegas Land and Water Company stating that there would be improvements in water, roads and other infrastructures drew many of the McWilliams' Townsite inhabitants into buying land in "Clark's Las Vegas Townsite." Before the end of the first day's auction entire buildings were on the move, literally being dragged to the newly purchased lots. Some establishements were open for business before the end of that day.

In true Las Vegas fashion there was a sense of excitement of what the city was going to become. After a small fire in the summer of 1905, some of the more important businesses were rebuilt using stone and brick, creating a permanency that tents and simple wood structures could not convey.

As for McWilliams' dreams, a fire destroyed most of the businesses left in his townsite in September 1905. Without the investment of an infrastructure to assist "The Original Las Vegas Townsite," it was destined to become a backwater to the growing city of Las Vegas across the tracks.

Las Vegas' early boom would be short-lived. The town would remain a sleepy railhead supplying outlying areas for the next fifteen years. Two events would eventually change the city forever ... but that's another story.