Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort

The Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort is the a reconstruction of the 150-foot-square "fort" the Latter-day Saints built on Las Vegas Creek in 1855, thus becoming the first non-Native settlers in what would soon become Las Vegas. The people abandoned the fort a couple years later, and the fort succumbed over the years to subsequent settlers and the elements. But a remnant, a storage shed, remained. 

2005 was the sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of the Old Mormon Fort. In honor of its longevity, the state of Nevada spent $1.9 million building a 4,000-square-foot visitor center, capping a 15-year $4.5 million restoration-and-preservation project for the new state park.

The visitor center has a timeline, artifacts, and exhibits on the original natural landscape, the Paiute Indians, the Mormons, the railroad, Hoover Dam, and the boomtown. A 9-minute video provides an overview of the early settlers. Outside are other reconstructions, artifacts, and a garden. 

The Fort is located at 500 E. Washington Ave. in the northwest corner of the Cashman Field parking lot, about a mile north of downtown on Las Vegas Blvd. North.