Film documents history

A documentary film entitled "The Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort, First Settlement in Las Vegas" will be available for viewing at the Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort's new visitor center. It outlines the history of the fort and focuses on the Mormon missionary period from 1855 to 1857.

"There are not only photos of some of the people involved, but we have relived some of the characters with live-action reenactments," said Dave Coon, vice president of sales at Anderson Dairy and co-chair of the Las Vegas Centennial Celebration subcommittee for the Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort.

The documentary includes performances with characters in period costume that represent notable historical people, such as William Bringhurst, the president of the Las Vegas mission in 1855; Nathaniel Jones, president of the mining operation; George W. Bean, the mission's clerk and interpreter among the Paiute Indians; and others.

"It was a tremendous story of faith and courage as to why the missionaries came to Las Vegas," said Garry Hayes, member of Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort subcommittee and of Friends of the Fort.

" It's hard for people to appreciate the dedication of early pioneers without telling the story (through) the visitor's center and the documentary," Hayes said.

Filming has been challenging, says Kim Webster, the documentary's writer and member of Anderson Dairy's marketing department.

"The hardest part of this is there are no pictures from 1855 to 1858," Webster said. " (But) it's important to have a documentary to tell the story in a short but concise manner to tell what took place.

"By reading their accounts from diaries and journals, we're re-enacting specific things that took place," Webster said. Such as on "July 4, they had a flag ceremony and had a little party. The (missionaries) did this thing where they fired off an anvil with some fuse and black powder and created some noise because they didn't have a canon."

Another part of the documentary covers the conflict between the leaders of the community that led to the mission being dissolved and the Mormons' return to Utah.

Webster received direction from Stanley Paher's book "Las Vegas: As It Began, As It Grew," Barbara and Myrick Land's "A Short History of Las Vegas," and others from the special collections library at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In addition, Webster had access to first-hand accounts from the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Nevada Chapter, who furnished him with letters and journal entries from the 30 missionaries at the fort.

The completion of the documentary, Webster says, "has been a combination of references and sources."

"The Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort, First Settlement in Las Vegas," which was produced by Doug Momary and his local film company Laguna Productions, is 19 minutes in length and will run indefinitely at the Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort.

The documentary was organized by the Las Vegas Centennial Celebration subcommittee for the Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort that includes co-chair Dave Coon, vice president of sales at Anderson Dairy; co-chair Karen Hayes-King, former Clark County commissioner; Garry Hayes, local attorney and member of Friends of the Fort; Jan Zobrist, member of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Nevada Chapter; Chris Macek, Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort park ranger; Ace Robison, chairman of the Las Vegas Multistake Public Affairs Council and local spokesman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Ashley Hall, Centennial Celebration Committee member and liaison for the subcommittee and director of the Las Vegas Multistake Public Affairs Council for the LDS Church in Southern Nevada; Phyllis Weaver, Weaver Construction and member of Friends of the Fort; Kim Webster, Anderson Dairy marketing department; and Charlie Zobell, managing editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.