Tucked away in downtown Blue Diamond, Nevada, just outside Las Vegas, is the Nevada Historical Marker 33, which designates a section of the ...
Tucked away in downtown Blue Diamond, Nevada, just outside Las Vegas, is the Nevada Historical Marker 33, which designates a section of the 1,120-mile once-twist pack route known as the Old Spanish Trail .
Long before modern roads crossed the southwest, Spanish merchants and missionaries used a primitive road known as the Old Spanish Road to transport blankets, mules, tools, and weapons through the Rocky Mountains and Mojave to California.
Officially established by Antonio Armijo and his Mexican business group of about 60 men in 1829, and stretching 130 miles through Clark County in southern Nevada, the mule route became the first “highway” for the Nevada trade, linking Santa Fe and Los Angeles.
This is the famous Old Spanish Trail of Spanish missionaries and early 19th century explorer John C. Fremont and guide Kit Carson, as well as merchants, hunters, and miners. The trail was used by mountain man Jedediah Smith, called the “Buff Knight” and is believed to be the first white man to set foot in southern Nevada. Smith’s western explorations accelerated the unblocking of the area’s trade routes.
The trail has been called, “America’s longest, winding, and most arduous pack mule route.” Even before it was identified as “Old Spanish Trail”, the first Spanish explorers followed the route as an avenue following the Indian trails.
During the Spanish colonial era, the Path was used for the transport of slaves, emigration, and the trade of the Indians. The Old Spanish Trail crosses the Las Vegas Valley at its southern end. In 1844, John C. Fremont and his guide Kit Carson explored the extension of the Cajon Pass from California to Parowan, Utah.
Fremont described the Trail as “the toughest and rockiest road we have ever seen in the country, and one that almost destroyed our band of mules and horses … Travelers should never venture on it without their mule shod and without wearing shoes additional. “
In 1846, copies of Fremont’s account were widely published, inspiring great interest in the Southwest. The discovery of gold in California attracted “49’ers,” travelers at the end of the season, fearful of the snowy passes in Sierra Nevada. Most of the cars going west on the Camino Español carried a copy of Fremont’s report.
Once the railroads began uniting America’s vital business centers in the late 1800s, the Trail fell into disuse, leaving relics from the Old Spanish Trail’s past open, dry and withered like bones scattered in the desert heat.
Almost forgotten, the Old Spanish Trail occupies an important place in the history of Las Vegas and the southwestern United States today. It is one of the most distinguished and historically fascinating routes in the United States, but it has been unfortunate over time. Once the trail panorama was breathtaking in places, the view stretched to infinity, today there is little left in the Las Vegas Valley and the Mojave Desert of the historic trail.
The once arid desert buzzes with development, progress has gotten away with it, the small stretches of Trail that remained only a few years ago have vanished. Las Vegas traded its last remnants of the Old Spanish Trail for a new beltway, a development that abolished this part of the Old Spanish Trail right next to maps from the Office of Land Management.
Located near the Spring Mountain Range and Red Rock Canyon National Park, less than 30 minutes southwest of Las Vegas, is the city of Blue Diamond. The mining village is set against a backdrop of open skies and stunning scenery west of Interstate 15, on State Route 160. Not far from Blue Diamond on public land, it is considered the most intact part of the route. . Hopefully this section is preserved forever.
Many interesting relics and artifacts collected along the Trail are on display to the public at the Office of Land Management office on Decatur Boulevard and Vegas Drive, Las Vegas, Nevada.
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