The $250 million 180-acre Springs Preserve celebrates Big Springs, the original oasis in the fierce eastern Mojave Desert that supported indigenous people for thousands of years, inspired the Spanish name Las Vegas ("the Meadows"), and attracted settlers to the big valley that surrounded it.
Big Springs served as a primary water source for early explorers, Latter-day Saints who established a short-lived mission nearby in the mid-1850s, ranchers who followed the Mormons to settle the valley, and the Salt Lake-Los Angeles railroad that founded Las Vegas as a service stop for its steam-powered locomotives.
After the city was established in 1905, Big Springs was used as a well field from which a pipeline delivered water to downtown. But with more and more residents and businesses tapping into the ground water, the aquifer that fed the springs was depleted; it basically disappeared in the 1930s and Big Springs was essentially forgotten.
Claude Warren, a local archaeologist, got interested in the area and excavated it in 1972. Thanks, in part, to his discovery of pottery, arrowheads, and milling stones dating back 8,000 years, Big Springs was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. For the past 35 years or so, Friends of Big Springs, particularly Elizabeth Warren, Claude's wife, fought to save the area from vandals, squatters, developers, and the state Department of Transportation, which wanted to take 14 acres of the site to widen US 95.
Today, the Preserve attraction consists of 176,000 square feet of museum space, an 1,800-seat outdoor amphitheater, a desert botanical garden with 30,000 plants, and nearly two miles of hiking trails surrounded by wetlands.
The Origen Experience features a variety of native mammals, reptiles, and invertebrates; the Origen Museum comprises three galleries featuring more than 75 permanent exhibits, an indoor theater, and space for traveling exhibits.
The Desert Living Center is housed in five buildings featuring dozens of interactive exhibits, classroom and meeting space, an art gallery, and an activity center.
There's also an Orientation Plaza at the main entrance, backed by the big amphitheater. A Guest Services building contains a gift shop and café by Wolfgang Puck.
The Springs Preserve is located on Meadows Lane off of Valley View Blvd., near Meadows Mall. To get there from the Strip, take the Tropicana, Flamingo, Spring Mountain, Sahara, or Charleston entrances to Interstate 15 heading north. Follow the signs to US95 N toward Reno. Take exit 78, Valley View Boulevard. Take a left on South Valley View and head south down to 333 S. Valley View. You can’t miss it.
It's open 10 am-6 pm; trails close at dusk. Admission is $18.95 for non-resident adults and $9.95 for Nevada residents, $8.95 for Nevada students and seniors, and $17.05 for non-Nevada students and seniors.
