LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Long before the Las Vegas Strip or Fremont Street, water bubbled from the desert floor, creating lush meadows that gave Las Vegas its name and making life in the Mojave Desert possible.
In Spanish, "Las Vegas" literally translates to "the meadows" or "the fertile plains."
This week, as America celebrates its 250th birthday, Southern Nevadans are also marking a milestone of their own: Las Vegas turned 121 in May.
WATCH | Tricia Kean explains how Las Vegas got its start:
The 180-acre Springs Preserve, often called "the birthplace of Las Vegas," sits on the site of the original Las Vegas Springs. For thousands of years, those springs sustained the Southern Paiutes, the native people of the land.
Springs Preserve Conservation Educator Noah Burchard said the springs were essential to the city's very existence.
"Those springs were just bubbling and bubbling, and the first settlers, they came in and heavily utilized those springs," Burchard said. "You could argue without those springs, Las Vegas wouldn't even be a blip on the map because people were stopping here for the water."
In 1844, explorer John Fremont passed through the area, becoming the first to put the location on the map. The site's position as a halfway point between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles made it strategically important, especially during the railroad boom, when steam engines needed water to keep locomotives running.
Inside the preserve, "Boomtown 1905" offers a replica of what Las Vegas looked like at the time. Among its highlights is the Arizona Club, one of the city's earliest gambling halls.
"You can argue without buildings like this right here, we would have never become Las Vegas," Burchard said.
The railroad depot in Boomtown stands as a reminder of how the railroad's need for water led directly to the founding of the townsite.
Native Las Vegas resident Catherine Ball visited the preserve with her daughter and said the experience resonates with locals.
"It's really nice to be able to come to different spots like Springs Preserve as a Vegas local," Ball said.
Ball said the preserve offers far more than a history lesson.
"They offer so many different things, whether you're looking for the history aspects, things for little ones, it's an amazing place for natural history as well as just kind of daily entertainment," Ball said.
Visitors can ride a replica train, step inside restored railroad cottages and imagine what life was like for the first residents who turned a desert oasis into a growing town.
The grounds of the Springs Preserve hold deep historical significance. Archaeologists from UNLV discovered extensive archaeological evidence at the site, earning it a place on the National Register of Historic Places.
"But even when you're out there, you can also see some of the historic archaeology, the water wells, the well derricks, so that caused them to kind of protect this land," Burchard said.
Some of the wetlands at the Springs Preserve have also been restored. The attraction offers museums, botanical gardens, desert walking trails, live animal exhibits, a splash pad and more.
As America marks 250 years of history, Southern Nevadans have a chance to celebrate something just as meaningful to locals — the place where Las Vegas first came to life.
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