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| Sesquicentennial Commemoration of the Mormon Fort, Las Vegas, Nevada (2005) |
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Published June 20, 2005. Reprinted with permission from the LDS Church News published by the Deseret Morning News.
Old Las Vegas fort attracts 3,000 for celebration
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Nearly 3,000 people gathered at the Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort State Park in Las Vegas, Nev., June 11 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the historic fort and to dedicate a new visitors center on the site. The event was held in conjunction with the yearlong centennial celebration of the City of Las Vegas. Participants enjoyed a flapjack breakfast, a pioneer dutch oven lunch, a program, a special video documentary, free tours and entertainment throughout the day by the Las Vegas Mormon Youth Symphony and Chorus and others. Elected, historical, community and multi-denominational church officials also participated in the program. The Old Mormon Fort was created on June 15, 1855, at the request of President Brigham Young as a way station between Salt Lake City and the Mormon settlement of San Bernardino, Calif., and as a mission to the Native Americans in the Las Vegas Valley. It was the first non-native settlement in the Las Vegas area. Thirty missionaries built and took up residence in the fort, and occupied it for two years.
"How grateful we should be for the courage and determination of those faithful pioneers," said Ace Robison, president of the Logandale Nevada Stake, who spoke at the event. "It is with deepest appreciation that I, on behalf of all Latter-day Saints in Nevada, congratulate and thank the State of Nevada as it has seen fit to honor this piece of history by declaring this place a state park. We are grateful for this beautiful visitors center which we dedicate today. It seeks so diligently to tell the story of those sturdy pioneers who first came here. It is a story that needs to be told." Gary Reese, Las Vegas mayor pro tem, told the audience that as they celebrate both the centennial of Las Vegas and the sesquicentennial of the Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort — the oldest standing building in Nevada today — they should reflect on the courage and faith of the early travelers and of the Mormon missionaries who established the fort. Even in its hardships, the mission was a success, he said. Native Americans were befriended, a variety of crops were successfully planted through irrigation techniques learned at the mission and Las Vegas was placed on U.S. maps as a settlement.
"The Mormon missionaries left a legacy of faith, courage and dedication to a cause more important than silver or gold or worldly fame," he said. "They left a legacy of pioneering in a desert oasis that later drew millions to visit and hundreds of thousands to make their home, to raise their families, to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences and to toil and reap the rewards of honest hard work and dedication in a community that is recognized as 'the City of the 21st Century' throughout the world — Las Vegas." President Robison, chairman of the Las Vegas multi-stake public affairs council, said organizers were extremely pleased with the turnout, which was three times more than they anticipated. "It showed great interest in the great heritage those 30 Mormon missionaries began 150 years ago," he said. "Through the new visitors center, today's citizens can connect with that pioneering spirit that gave them roots, and that lives today as we continue to build Zion in the Las Vegas Valley." "Through the new visitors center, today's citizens can connect with that pioneering spirit that gave them roots, and that lives today."
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