Las Vegas, Baby … New Mexico?

Monday, July 22, Day 91

Our Storrie Lake Campground was only a few miles from Las Vegas, New Mexico. 

The Plaza Hotel is a landmark in the town.  

There is an old town and a new town for Las Vegas, separated by the Gallinas River.  It was established in 1835 with a Mexican Land Grant.  The old town was laid out in the Spanish Colonial style with a central plaza and buildings all around.  The area could be closed off for fortification.

In 1846, Stephen W. Kearney made a speech here declaring New Mexico for the United States.

The railroad came in the 1880's, and Las Vegas quickly became one of the largest cities in the Southwest.  It had an opera house, a Carnegie library, a Harvey Hotel, and many fine mansions, mostly based on the commerce created by the railroad.

The downtown area has been the scene of many movies, most notably  "No Country for Old Men," "Red Dawn," "Easy Rider" and "Inhale".  Most of the old buildings survived because nobody had the money to tear them down after the railroad bypassed the town in the 1950's.  There are over 900 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, one of the highest per capita numbers in the US.

The Gallinas River was also a reason for Las Vegas to exist.

The  Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad in the 1880's also brought , "murderers, robbers, thieves, gamblers, gunmen, swindlers, vagrants, tramps (and prostitutes - my addition).  Many notorious characters of the Old West came here, including Doc Holliday and his girlfriend Big Nose Kate, Jessie James, Billie the Kid, Jessie James, Wyatt Earp, Mysterious Dave Mather, Hoodoo Brown and Handsome Harry the Dancehall Hustler.  I'll leave it to you to find out more about those you've never heard of.

The Castenada Hotel, the original Harvey House, was purchased in 2012, with plans to renovate it, and hopes that it will become the catalyst for  growth.

There is a big plan to make the town into a new tourist destination.  They have a lot to work with, and I wish them luck!