Las Vegas spaghetti bowl
Zion Canyon in the autumn.
The Spanish Trail skirted northward around the edge of the rugged canyon country of the Colorado River basin and then bee-lined straight south from Utah through the Las Vegas Valley on into California. Caravans would stop at these springs to rest and water their horses before the next big push in either direction, which would lead them across extremely inhospitable deserts.
The first American occupation occurred in 1855 when Brigham Young sent a party of Mormon settlers to protect the springs and set up a way station for travelers going between California and the Great Salt Lake Valley (today’s Interstate 15). In 1905 a major railroad connected the town to the outside world and Las Vegas began to grow steadily as a supply point for a vast ranching and mining hinterland.
The remains of the original Mormon fort, now a park.
In 1930 the U.S. Government completed construction of the Hoover Dam just south of Las Vegas on the Colorado River. The cheap and plentiful supply of water and power that it produced enabled the fledgling town to grow into a fairly large metropolis in a relatively short span of time.
Hoover Dam
The most important event in the history of Las Vegas was the arrival of pioneering gangster entrepreneur Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegal in the 1940’s who built the "fabulous" Flamingo Hotel. Siegel was an eastern mobster who had made his way up through the criminal ranks running a murder for hire operation in New York. His bosses dispatched him to Hollywood in the 1930’s to flesh out new business opportunities by shaking down various professional organizations and trade unions in the burgeoning film industry.
At about the same time west coast crime bosses were losing their lucrative offshore gambling ships due to the zealous efforts of California Attorney General Earl Warren, whose aggressive grandstanding in front of the cameras helped launch a political career that catapulted him all the way to the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. For the criminals it simply meant that they had to search for a new place from which to continue this very remunerative activity.
Florida based mobster Meyer Lansky sent Siegel to Las Vegas in the mid-1940's to muscle in on the sports betting wire services that operated legally out of Nevada, as they bought heavily into a company called Trans America Wire. Nevada law also allowed other forms of gambling and Siegel pitched the idea to Lansky of setting up a permanent and lavish casino in Las Vegas that would give the crooks an entry into a legitimate business that was, to them, almost a license to print money. At first they all thought Bugsy was crazy.
Bugsy Siegel
Siegel envisioned a glittering gaudy gambling Mecca arising from the desert sands, a mere four and a half hour drive from Los Angeles, where every corrupt fantasy and indulgence could be conveniently supplied to the public day and night with all of the money generated from this activity going straight into the mob’s coffers. It was a dream come true for organized crime.
Starting out with financial backing from a consortium of crime bosses Siegel opened the Flamingo Hotel & Casino in 1946 and Las Vegas was on its way to becoming exactly what he had envisioned, a world destination for sin, sun and fun. A 24-hour world's fair designed by the Devil. Or as someone else has quipped “Heaven designed by a gangster.”
By the 1950’s & 60’s the famous Las Vegas “Strip” grew to be a world-renowned icon of American decadence and sodden excess with its over the top entertainments and round the clock party atmosphere. That era is now fondly celebrated and nostalgically embraced for its martini chic and jazz inflected smoky lounge sophistication. Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack have come to symbolize for many the elegant charm and boozy demeanor of a particularly evocative period in the city’s history. Other colorful characters from that era that made Las Vegas their home and helped to influence its style include Elvis Presley, Howard Hughes, Liberace, Louis Prima, Wayne Newton and Don Rickles. This period also marked the twilight of mob control as more respectable enterprises took a keen interest in the big profits to be made from all forms of gambling in Sin City.
Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia) are common along this stretch of the trip.
1846 map of the Spanish Trail
The modern day Journada del Muerto crosses Dry Lake Valley.
Approaching Mesquite, Nevada from the south, at exit 120.
The Casablanca Hotel & Casino
Mesquite's phenomenal growth over the past 20 years has been a result of a warm year-round climate, a beautiful desert setting and Nevada's liberal tax and inheritance laws, which have drawn thousands of retirees to settle in the valley. The availability of water from the Virgin River to develop large-scale golf courses and retirement communities will continue to fuel rapid growth into the foreseeable future.
Wolf Creek Golf Course
Just past exit 122 is the Arizona state line. This remote corner of the state is part of what is known as the Arizona Strip, which is all of the territory south of the Utah state line and north of the Colorado River. Mostly inhabited by Paiute Indians, polygamists and cow punchers this section is culturally and geographically more akin to Utah than to Arizona, but the nineteenth-century federal map makers in Washington, DC who measured out straight lines across unknown territory were not inclined to think in terms of natural geographic boundaries and hence this isolated strip of territory was made a part of Arizona.
Welcome to Arizona!
In order for the residents of the few small towns that exist here to reach the Mohave County seat in Kingman, they must drive first through Nevada on a five-hour trip of 192 miles! Talk about your splendid isolation.
Virgin Mountains & northern Mesquite Valley, Arizona
This part of the valley is growing rapidly as more people fan out into the undeveloped portions of the nearby desert to build homes and ranchettes on the other side of the Virgin River.
Flooding in 2005 caused considerable damage in the Mesquite Valley.
This handsome Harley was parked outside the Dam Bar in the tiny hamlet of Beaver Dam, Arizona. This little gem of a rough and tumble community saloon is patronized by colorful friendly locals, as well as a dedicated legion of fans who stop in for a spell whenever they're passing through on nearby Interstate 15. Next door is a gas station/convenience store and across the road is a very small golf course. All in all a very quiet peaceful place.
If you follow the main drag north out of town it will ultimately lead you on into St. George, Utah via the former route (old U.S. 91) which was bypassed in 1972 when Interstate 15 cut a direct path through the Virgin River Gorge. This lightly traveled two-lane highway is very scenic and passes through a dense forest of Joshua trees before crossing over a low pass in the Beaver Dam Mountains and then dropping into the valley of the Santa Clara River leading to St. George. It's about a half-hour longer than taking the interstate through the gorge but is a more relaxed approach to St. George with its views of vast desert valleys and distant snow-capped mountain peaks.
The wild and wonderful Beaver Dam Mountains
Joshua trees in the Virgin River Gorge, ArizonaThe Virgin River Gorge is located at about the mid-way point on the road trip from Las Vegas to Zion National Park, and represents the geographical transition between the Basin & Range and the Colorado Plateau. From the parched desert floor of the Mesquite Valley the road winds and climbs upward into brightly colored horizontal layers of sedimentary rock that tower just above the roadbed. It is literally a mini-Grand Canyon because it contains the equivalent geologic layers that are found in the more famous national park located due east of the gorge. Many travelers are struck by the obvious similarity and some even think it's a part of the Grand Canyon.
In the middle of the gorge, near the Cedar Pockets exit (#27), the road crosses the Grand Wash Fault, which forms the western boundary of the Colorado Plateau, and is dropping the rock layers downward to the west. You can readily see the tilt in these gray limestone beds as you enter the gorge, but will notice that after you cross the fault the layers become more uniformly flat lying and more brightly colored. The gray beds in the lower gorge are much older than the orange, red and tan layers of the upper part, which are related to those found in the Grand Canyon and are known as the Supai Group.
The lower gorge, cutting through the Pakoon Limestone layer.
This spectacular stretch of interstate highway was not completed until the early 1970’s and cost the then unheard of sum of one million dollars a mile to build. Prior to its construction travelers had to skirt the gorge to the west on old U.S. 91 and face a notoriously steep hill that was known to boil up the radiators of so many cars in the heat of summer that they built a service station in the shade of some rocks near the top of the pass.
The rim of the upper gorge is capped by Kaibab Limestone, looking north.
The first person to record a passage through the gorge was the legendary explorer and trapper Jedediah Smith who discovered that the Virgin River flowed into the Colorado and thus blazed the first overland trail to California from the desert interior in 1827. This later became known as the Old Spanish Trail and was used by traders traveling between Santa Fe and the small pueblos of Los Angeles and San Diego. These merchants traded highly prized California raised horses and mules for New Mexico blankets and textiles as well as Indian slaves. The slaves were usually Paiute women and children who were captured by mounted Utes and Navajos who'd try to sell them to Spanish and American caravans making their way through this stretch of country.
Today the trail parallels a scenic stretch of interstate that provides a vital link for commerce and travel connecting coastal California to the interior of the United States. It also hints to the traveler of the beautiful red rock scenery that is still yet to come.
The Virgin River in full flood through the gorge.
The most prominent and historically significant structure in southern Utah is the massive St. George Mormon Temple, which was dedicated in 1877, making it the oldest in continuous use for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The description from the 1940 WPA Guide to Utah is still an accurate depiction:
Mormon Temple (not open to non-Mormons), resting on a slight elevation, is visible for miles around. The squarely built white stucco temple has three tiers of round-arched windows, surmounted by a row of oval windows. It has a well-proportioned cupola with a weather vane, and covers nearly an acre within a ten-acre tract. Spacious green lawns, bordered with a profusion of colorful plants, accent the snowy exterior of the structure and tend to magnify its size. At night, floodlights on the building produce a cameo-like effect.
The book Temple Manifestations (1974) tells how the particular site was chosen by then church president Brigham Young, who owned a winter home in St. George. President Young first encouraged the pioneer settlers to construct a temple and then chose the ground where it was to be built. Local church leaders had wanted to build on a higher more prominent site near the town's rocky bluffs but Young directed them instead to a lower swampier site south of the town center. He reportedly stated that Moroni, a prophet from the Book of Mormon, had actually dedicated the exact same site in ancient times but had been unable to bring his hopes to a full fruition.
Temple under construction
It required months of concerted effort to drain the swamp, by using a homemade machine resembling a well-drilling apparatus, and then the pioneers had to drive tons of volcanic rock deep down into the boggy soil to prepare a suitable foundation. Today this beautiful relic of 19th century Mormon architecture still dominates the St. George skyline with its eclectic mixture of religious, secular and Masonic elements. A soaring white holy temple topped by a weather vane is indeed a uniquely inspiring sight to behold.
The temple grounds are just a few minutes from the freeway via the Bluff Street exit (#6) and everyone is welcome to tour the Visitor Center which is open daily from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm.
Brother Brigham
