Efforts made to save fort

Preservation fight leads to state park designation in 1990s

The Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort is still standing after 150 years. Almost 100 of those years have been a fight to save it.

The preservation attempts began in 1937 when the Daughters of Utah Pioneers raised $1.20 at a party where each member paid a dime for a chance to receive a present.

A few years later, the Daughters of Utah Pioneers decided a cleaning and a rug would make the unoccupied fort habitable for its monthly meeting, according to Janice Parmenter, the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Clark Company president. This also would be a means of preserving all of the original past left there.

The group was interested in the fort for its historical value. It also was viewed as a home for the group's new camp and a depository for the relics being collected, according to the International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers.

The Daughters of Utah Pioneers began attempting to obtain legal rights to the fort in 1941. A few years later, the group secured a 29-year lease from the Las Vegas Land & Water Co. that included 15 feet of space around the building. Parmenter said this allowed the building to be rehabilitated and used as a museum for historical exhibits.

In 1955 the property was sold to the Las Vegas Elks Club. The Elks planned to remove the fort when they assumed ownership. Daughters of Utah Pioneers and the city of Las Vegas worked to preserve the fort. This was accomplished in 1989 when the city of Las Vegas bought this land and gave Daughters of Utah Pioneers a 10-year lease.

Over the next 50 years the fort was run by volunteers from nonprofit groups such as Daughters of Utah Pioneers and Friends of the Fort.

"The Preservation Associa-tion of Clark County had a lot to do with keeping the site from being developed and getting the property turned over to the State of Nevada Division of State Parks," said Chris Macek, park supervisor of the Mormon Fort.

The fort was incorporated into Nevada State Parks using the Question 5 Park and Wildlife Bond of 1990, which allotted part of its $200 million budget to the fort. A master plan was developed using public suggestions of what people wanted to see happen with the fort.

"People wanted the history, they wanted this left as it was and not changed," said Macek. "They also asked for exhibits to be established to tell the story."

In 1991 a full-time ranger and a full-time maintenance person were hired. This made it possible for the site to be open to the public on a regular basis. A make-shift building and a restroom also were added.

An archeological consultant was brought in to begin excavations. Some artifacts found included buttons, a bottle, plates and a coin, but the major discoveries were in the foundations. This provided the first clear impression of what the fort looked like in 1855.

Continuing with the master plan, four years later a parking lot and fence were put in and infrastructure including pipes and plumbing was added.

The major changes to the fort began in 1999 with the first phase of the master plan. The walls that make up the fort today went up, said Macek, along with the main building on the property, the replica of the creek and real restrooms.

The renovations cost about $1 million and were presented in a dedication ceremony in April 2000.

The final completed phase received more than $1.8 million of the $220 million Question 1 bond which was used to build the new visitor center, which opens Saturday.

According to Macek, there may be plans in the future to re-excavate the ranch house, the building that was built by Octavius D. Gass when he turned the site into a ranch years after the Mormons left.

Macek said the fort is crucial to the history of Las Vegas since some credit the site as the city's birthplace.

"Thirty Mormons came in June 1855. They didn't stay, but they proved that people could live here," he said.