A far cry from the place people visit to double down and take in ”the strip”, the Las Vegas, New Mexico of today is a three-exit blip on the highway roughly an hour east of Santa Fe. But this Vegas’s place on the roadmap of western expansion was established long before the other Vegas was even a glint in a gangster’s eye.
Las Vegas, New Mexico (the Original “Vegas”)
While the Wild West may have been tamed, Las Vegas, New Mexico retains its reputation as an oasis for anyone with a desire to learn about the American West, live in a true southwest boomtown, or looking for the perfect location for their next western epic.
• “Doc Holliday ran a saloon on Center Street where he shot and killed Mike Gordon just about the time that Jesse James and Billy the Kid were meeting across town.”
• “They shot Red Dawn here back in the 1980s.”
• “Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders held their first reunion here in 1899.”
• “Tommy Lee Jones filmed a movie at the Plaza Hotel.”
It’s a testament to the hardscrabble boom and bust history of Las Vegas, New Mexico that these statements come from Marcus Gottschalk, the unofficial town historian and keeper of local history in this small western town set at a key crossroads, where the Plains meet the Rockies.
The Historic Plaza Hotel
Dubbed the “Belle of the Southwest” when it was built in 1882, the Plaza Hotel still shines in Las Vegas, New Mexico’s Old Town Plaza. With it’s classic styling, Old West feel, and rumors of haunted rooms, the hotel and the square draw visitors into another world, and regularly entice A-list Hollywood directors into using the town as a location for their films.
This small but highly informative museum holds the keys to three unique collections:
- Rough Rider Memorial Collection – A collection of artifacts and history of the 1st Volunteer Cavalry Regiment of the Spanish-American War. The collection contains items relating to the 1898 Cuban Campaign of the Spanish-American War, Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Rider reunions.
- The Santa Fe Trail – A chronicle of this major travel and trade route, and its influence on western expansion and development even after the arrival of the railroad, highways and other forms of transportation.
- Las Vegas, NM History – With nearly 900 structures on the national historic register, a rich and tumultuous history, and one of the few Carnegie Library buildings still in use as an actual library, this is the place for history buffs to begin their exploration of this goldmine of Old West and Frontier West history, legend and lore.
Fort Union National Monument
Nearby Fort Union National Monument is another excellent source of information about the Santa Fe Trail, and offers visitors a chance to view the excavated remnants of a key military garrison and supply depot along the trail. Networks of visible wagon wheel ruts still exist and are easily found around the monument grounds.
With its tradition of larger than life residents and its place in the history of western expansion, the original Las Vegas is the place to go for a glimpse of the Wild West and the Frontier West.
Glenn Kaufmann - Having moved every four years up to the age of 12, I've always been something of a restless soul ready to take on the next big thing. I ...
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