The Las Vegas Mormon Mission

The Las Vegas Mormon Mission. . , By 1855 wagon roads linked Utah to California. To ease the long trip between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, the LDS church established an outpost at an oasis called, Las Vegas, along the Old Spanish Trail/Mormon Road. , Thirty missionaries arrived at Las Vegas in June 1855. They chose a site on Las Vegas Creek about three miles east on the springs, where the men dug irrigation ditches, planted crops, made adobe bricks, built a defensive fort, and set about making friends with the Paiutes. The Las Vegas settlement was abandoned in 1857, when the church recalled its missionaries. A few men stayed on to smelt lead from Potosi but were ordered back to Utah in 1858. , The short-lived community established many firsts for Southern Nevada: the first non-Indian settlement, first militia, first Sunday school and first Chautauqua, as well as the first hard rock mine in Nevada (at Mt. Potosi). The first American flag in this part of the (then) New Mexico Territory flew over the new camp July 4, 1855. The fort buildings became the headquarters of the Las Vegas Ranch in 1867., (caption:) This lead mine on Mount Potosi was started in 1855 by the Mormon missionaries who built the Old Fort, The lead was needed for bullets but was not of the best quality, as the lead was adulterated with too much silver.