Top, a giant mite hangs from the ceiling at the Springs Preserve museum. Left, a sign directs hikers to some of the 2 1/2 miles of trails included at the preserve. Bottom, children are invited to inspect the giant snake in the play area.Photos By Shelly Donahue/View
Top, a giant mite hangs from the ceiling at the Springs Preserve museum. Left, a sign directs hikers to some of the 2 1/2 miles of trails included at the preserve. Bottom, children are invited to inspect the giant snake in the play area.Photos By Shelly Donahue/View
Photos By Shelly Donahue/ViewAbove, a model of a Joshua tree is on display at the $250 million Springs Preserve. The display shows both the above- and below-ground portions of the tree. Left, visitors will enter through a walkway bordered by man-made canyon walls.
Clockwise from top, man-made canyon walls line the entrance to the Springs Preserve. The preserve includes a replica of a Southern Paiute village. A man-made eagle watches over the children?s play area. Steel reeds flock the entrance of the Origen Experience.Photos By Shelly Donahue/View
Clockwise from top, man-made canyon walls line the entrance to the Springs Preserve. The preserve includes a replica of a Southern Paiute village. A man-made eagle watches over the children?s play area. Steel reeds flock the entrance of the Origen Experience.Photos By Shelly Donahue/View
Clockwise from top, man-made canyon walls line the entrance to the Springs Preserve. The preserve includes a replica of a Southern Paiute village. A man-made eagle watches over the children?s play area. Steel reeds flock the entrance of the Origen Experience.Photos By Shelly Donahue/View
Photos By Shelly Donahue/ViewAbove, a model of a Joshua tree is on display at the $250 million Springs Preserve. The display shows both the above- and below-ground portions of the tree. Left, visitors will enter through a walkway bordered by man-made canyon walls.
Top, a giant mite hangs from the ceiling at the Springs Preserve museum. Left, a sign directs hikers to some of the 2 1/2 miles of trails included at the preserve. Bottom, children are invited to inspect the giant snake in the play area.Photos By Shelly Donahue/View
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The $250 million Las Vegas Springs Preserve is scheduled to open today. The entrance is at 333 S. Valley View Blvd., near the U.S. Highway 95 interchange.
Jesse Davis, marketing manager, said the long-awaited cultural site was Las Vegas' answer for residents and tourists seeking a different kind of outing. The site is expected to attract an estimated 600,000 visitors a year.
"I think visitors will likely be surprised at the breath of offerings of the preserve," he said. "It offers an off-the-Strip destination ... for recreation, entertainment, education, food and even shopping experiences."
Singer and three-time Grammy nominee Jewel is slated to mark the official grand opening of the preserve with a concert at 8 p.m. on Saturday.
Jewel has sold over 27 million albums to date and is one of the founders of Project Clean Water, which fits with the preserve's philosophy of eco-awareness.
"We wanted to ensure that our grand opening was a unique and thoughtful experience for all visitors, and thought what better way to do this than to have a multi-talented star performing under the stars," said Francis Béland, Springs Preserve executive director.
The preserve will feature a variety of concerts and performances beginning this fall in the amphitheater.
To purchase tickets, call Ticketmaster at 474-4000 or visit www.ticketmaster.com. Tickets are priced at $45 for general admission.
The preserve encompasses 180 acres of green museums, galleries, botanical gardens and trails. Visitors enter via a ravine walk with 25-foot-tall, man-made cliff walls on either side. The trail opens to the main grounds and the guest service building, where tickets can be purchased. The building also houses a cafe and various shops.
The facility's 1,800-seat outdoor amphitheater, where Jewel will perform, is nearby.
One of the complex's buildings is the Desert Living Center. It houses educational programming, a design lab and a gallery showing visitors what it took to live in a hot, arid climate before the days of air-conditioning. Another display highlights alternative energy sources.
Meanwhile, the Origen Experience encompasses the museums and gallery portion of the preserve. It contains the Big Springs Theatre, which can seat nearly 200 people and has a screen system similar to IMAX systems. Hands-on displays allow visitors to build their own desert landscapes or try airflow tests. Origen also includes a display of wooden pipes -- early settlers' attempts to try and tame the Springs.
Visitors can even experience an instant flash flood, which is simulated in an arroyo-like room with 5,000 gallons of water rushing under their feet.
The Springs Preserve is eco-friendly, with many of the buildings showing architectural components like reused railroad ties for beams, straw insulation and compressed earth walls. There are even Photovoltaic cells at the Desert Living Center with which the preserve generates some of its own power. The U.S. Green Building Council gave the facility its highest award for eco-friendly construction.
The Springs Preserve's outdoor component includes a cinenega area -- a desert wetland -- as a respite for migrating birds. The property includes cottages transplanted from downtown Las Vegas, now undergoing refurbishing.
They were built circa 1910 to house mid- to high-level railroad employees. They will be open to the public in about two years.
The botanical element of the preserve project included the planting of hundreds of trees.
Russ Harrison, horticultural service supervisor, said using local growers is part of the project's policy on sustainability.
"We're walking the walk, and not just talking about it," he said. He said people will be amazed to learn about the variety and diversity of plants that can grow in the Mojave desert.
The preserve is circled by the 2 1/2 miles of trails. Viewing platforms at various spots allow visitors to oversee the preserve without disturbing the ecobalance. Trail ramadas offer shade, while graphics describe points of interest.
Missing from the opening will be the Nevada State Museum and Historical Society. It's in the process of building a new facility at the preserve. Its new home will encompass 79,000 square feet and is expected to open in July 2008.
"I think the real beauty of the preserve was that it was something actually built in honor of Las Vegas," Davis said. "It's something we can all be proud of."
The preserve will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. during the summer and 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. during winter. Trails close at dusk. The Gardens visitor center will remain open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., excluding major holidays.
Admission to the museums is $14.95 for local residents (adult) and $18.95 for nonresidents (adult). Annual passes, as well as discounts for children, students and seniors, are available.
For more information, visit www.springspreserve.org.
EXPLORING THE SPRINGS PRESERVE
The Springs Preserve offers fun and educational elements with a dual purpose -- to educate people about Las Vegas' history and provide a vision for a sustainable ecology for future generations.
The preserve plans to host thousands of Clark County schoolchildren in the coming years once it begins its field trip program. Youngsters likely will think the exhibits are cool, without noticing that they're learning things.
Included in the interactive portion of the Springs:
N Garden Irrigation Exhibit
Located in the Gardens at the Springs Preserve, this exhibit explains the individual parts which make up a typical landscaping irrigation system.
Like an ant farm, a cutaway section of earth is shown behind glass in the gardens area to reveal the parts of an efficient irrigation system. The underground elements are labeled and explained. Different types of irrigation are interpreted (sub-surface and drip) and the pros and cons of each type are discussed. The fence posts in this area are themed and topped with larger-than-life irrigation parts as a decorative element.
N Mano and Metate Exhibit
The People of the Springs Gallery is located in the Origen Experience.
Its intention is to introduce the visitor to the tools used for food preparation by the Ancestral Puebloan people.
The Ancestral Puebloan people used grinding stones like those in the exhibit to break down tough plant material, making it easier to cook and eat. The metate, the larger stone piece, has a slightly curved grinding surface. The smaller mano was held in the hand and used against the metate to grind food. Chewing the resulting food also meant chewing tiny bits of the stones . Actual examples are shown and photos and text describe their use.
N Lying Low -- Gila Monster Exhibit
A giant Gila monster attracts onlookers and invites children to explore and play. Youngsters will find this fictitious creature in the Natural Mohave Gallery, part of the Origen Experience.
The anatomically correct critter is meant to help people understand the survival strategies the Gila monster has and the internal adaptations that make it possible to dwell in the desert.
The separate top and bottom halves are hinged and reveal the internal organs when opened. Labels and text explain the function of the organs and how they allow this lizard to thrive in the hostile environment of the Mohave Desert. For example, the model displays how fat is stored in the tail to help the animal during hibernation, and how and why certain glands produce venom.
N The Windmill Interactive
This hands-on exhibit is in the Sustainability Gallery, located inside the Desert Living Center.
It's intended to encourage visitors to construct and test their own windmill designs.
A workbench invites visitors to experiment with alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar power. The exhibit allows visitors to design and build their own windmills and test them for electrical output in a small wind tunnel. Adjustment of the propellers can make the windmills more efficient.
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